Thomas VanderPloeg

What do our thoughts and opinions about current events reveal about the way we see and use power? The story of Gideon gives insight from long ago that is still helpful for us today.

Could it be that this moment of exile for all of us is a time to correct our direction and correct our purpose to once again align with the direction and purpose of God’s covenant plan of redemption—a plan of redemption launched into this world through Christ and handed off to his disciples and down to us in the church still today?

when something causes all the right things in my life to bend in the wrong direction, my response should be to pause and consider all the wrong things in the world that I should be bending back in the right direction

As people loved enough by God to receive the Holy Spirit, we are enabled by God to love one another as he loves us

Christian hope is more than a band aid to get us to an eternal afterlife, it is a hope that shows up in our lives with purpose and direction for who we are and what we do

Is faith something we believe in our hearts, something we think in our heads, or something we do with our hands? James tells us in his letter to the churches that faith is all of these working together at the same time.

Any test of Christian faith ought to bring two features into clear focus: truth and trust; how does the testing of our faith help us see truth more clearly and help us trust God more completely?

Perseverance is not always easy or fun; but we are reminded today that abiding in times of perseverance produces character and hope in us

God originally established the sabbath as a pattern of rest and restoration for his creation; yet we struggle to see today why it is good for our world to rest

So much of our world right now is focused on getting through the storm to the other side; Peter shows us what steps of faith look like today in the middle of the storm