The Well - Messages

Orphans, widows and strangers are three groups of people the bible insists we should care for. For many, foreigners or immigrants meet the Biblical standard for “stranger”. So for us, as followers of Jesus, the question has to be, “how are we to care for them?” And how should we engage the cultural discussion going on about immigrants and immigration?

Red or Blue; Republican or Democrat or Socialist or Libertarian; Black Lives Matter, White Lives Matter, All Lives Matter; Me Too Movement; Coastals and Middles; even Yankees and Southerners - it is US and THEM.

The way the world identifies is to distinguish, to find those things that make us different and distinct and use them as markers. This has always created divisions, segregation, and distrust. But it isn’t supposed to be like that for us. We who have taken on Christ gave up everything else. How can we lead and love a world divided towards oneness? Only through Jesus. He is the only Tie that can bind up this broken world.

There are countless mothers out there that exasperate themselves at times to tend to their family’s needs, desires, and safety. They sacrifice themselves at a ridiculous level just to see their children smile, hear them laugh and sing, and give them a chance to feel the same joy and happiness that they bring her.

She is to be honored.

This is what we see in the life and even in the dying nature of Christ. The man who was God – loving, honoring and tending to his mother, even in his hour of greatest need. This year, let’s commit ourselves again to the love and care for the one who love and care for us so well.

It’s all gone! Over the last couple years this is a scene that has played itself out over and over again on the national and international news. Riots, floods, landslides, fires even tsunamis have been to blame, but those aren’t the only kinds of disasters we face. Divorce, job loss, financial setback are just some of the obstacles we will all face in our lives that make us feel like nothing will ever be the same. Maybe they won’t, ever be the same. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t still going to fulfill everything He intended. So how are we supposed to be when we have to Start Over?

There is NO HOPE in sight! Have you ever been there? It is said, that when our hope is continuously put off, it actually makes our heart’s sick. I believe that, I have experienced it. Have you? Chances are you have. You may even be there now, or perhaps you have a friend who is. What can you do? How can you speak to a friend or loved one who may be there. How are we supposed to be towards God, when all hope seems lost?

Life can be overwhelming! Anyone who says otherwise just hasn’t experienced it YET! But they will. And when life feels out of control we make some assumptions about God. Either he has no ability to help, or he has no interest in helping me. I am convinced neither are true. What’s worse, entertaining these ideas, destroys any hope we have of a meaningful relationship with our creator. So how should we think when all of life feels, Underwater?

Life can be overwhelming! Anyone who says otherwise just hasn’t experienced it YET! But they will. And when life feels out of control we make some assumptions about God. Either he has no ability to help, or he has no interest in helping me. I am convinced neither are true. What’s worse, entertaining these ideas, destroys any hope we have of a meaningful relationship with our creator. So how should we think when all of life feels, Underwater?

A Fresh Start, that’s why Jesus came, took on humanity, lived perfectly, died on the Cross and was raised back to life. Was so that you and I could have a Fresh Start. There is a difference between a Fresh Start and a “Do-Over”. A Do-Over, leaves me locked in a moment. One moment that I try over and over to finally get right. A fresh start means that everything that happened before now, doesn’t matter anymore. That the millions of things that led up to this moment, this set of circumstances, this unsolvable riddle, no longer have any sway or pull on me.