Thomas VanderPloeg

Times of waiting are natural and—in fact—biblical. God uses our times of waiting to help us focus more on God’s certainty in the midst of our uncertainties.

Jesus chose to become a servant for a reason; our response to follow Jesus as servants in this world is connected with that exact same reason.

One of the things I want to note about John’s gospel this week is the unique perspective this gospel provides into the life of Jesus. The three other gospels in the Bible—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are all known as the synoptic gospels. Synoptic is a greek term that simply means “same view.” In other words,…

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before the Passover shows us a collision of identities and expectations; Jesus is welcomed as a king but acts as a servant.

Sometimes God uses our individual acts of service to be much more when joined together with what God is already doing.

The servant nature of Jesus shows us not only a demonstration of God’s hospitality, it shows us the direction of God’s hospitality.

Jesus comes not only to serve his people and bring salvation, but also because his heart longs for a desired outcome to take place in the hearts and lives of his people.

Jesus shows us that he is willing to sacrifice everything in order to serve the world he loves; service takes commitment.

Jesus begins his ministry of service from a place of emptiness; the call to serve is not dependent on what we have, but on what we give up.

For most of the book of Job, God remains silent. When God does finally speak up towards the end of the book, Job is left with just one response to give.