Word of Life Church Podcast

Hope has been the theme of the people of God since the beginning.

Hope is essential to carry on. In those times that everything seems lost we hold to hope. We hope that what has been lost can be found, what has been broken can be mended, and what has been destroyed can be rebuilt. Does what we hope in matter? And what happens if our hope becomes misguided? Will God's faithfulness to save, heal, and redeem still reach us in our misguided hope?

There are monsters in this world, but the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not one of them. Yes, there are monsters. We have an imagination for monsters because we know of their existence. Venomous and vicious beasts were a daily peril for our earliest ancestors. Volcanoes and tsunamis can swallow whole cities. Hurricanes and tornados roar from the heavens, leaving hell in their wake. Epidemics of disease are lethal predators taking their pitiless toll. Worst of all, there are monstrosities of men — conquerors and warlords, tyrants and despots — galloping across history like ringwraiths bringing conquest, war, famine, and death. We can imagine monsters because we have met them. But the living God is not one of them. Not the God who Jesus called Abba.

In forty years of following Jesus these are my four most significant discoveries:
1. Jesus Is the Light of the World
2. The Christian Life is a Journey
3. The Kingdom of God is Everything
4. God Is Like Jesus

Paul writes to the deeply flawed church at Corinth and calls them saints—which is theologically correct, but also, if you know about those Corinthian Christians, a bit hilarious. We are called saints in Christ. Which is a lovely thing to call sinners trying to follow Jesus. We are saints—holy ones. But we’re also sinners…and we live in that tension. Those of us following Jesus are pilgrims trying to make progress toward sainthood. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Saints are sinners who kept going.” We are sinner-saints pressing on to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus.

In Mark chapter ten we find two stories back to back that exemplify how we should and should not pray. In the first story James and John approach Jesus saying, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." This self-agenda based prayer is met with rebuff from Jesus. In the second story the blind beggar Bartimaues simply prayers, "Lord, have mercy on me." Jesus responds to this humble, open-ended plea for mercy with, "What do you want me to do for you?" It wasn't the two disciples who knew how to pray, but the blind beggar.