Sharing Our Hope

Our Refuge

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  (Ps 46:1)

If God is for us who can be against us?  (Rom 8:31)

"If God cannot save you, he is not God.  If he will not save you, he must break his covenant."  (Richard Baxter - 1615-1691)

How are you strong?

Even though we are all the same in many ways, I am amazed at how different we are.  The way one person sees and responds to a situation can be completely different than another person.  Some are overtly social while others are content with less interaction.  Some are detail-oriented while others are not. 

I would like to encourage you to think of the unique way you are designed and gifted as strength that God has intentionally given to you.  In Christ, our differences (our strengths) are designed to create maximum impact for the Kingdom and we should each feel great joy in seeing God work through our strengths.

It is very important that we know how we're gifted and then focus on how we can embrace and give this to God.  Each person's unique design will impact how they worship, how they engage their local church, and how they reach out to those who need Jesus.

Don't despair over the gifts you don't have, use the ones you do have - this is how God made you.

Mary's life

Have you ever wondered what Mary's life must have been like?  I doubt that we can even come close to understanding - an angel disclosing that she had found favor in God's eyes, being shamed because she was pregnant "outside" of marriage, raising the God/man as a child, sharing in the pain of his horrible, unjust suffering and death.  I imagine nothing in her life was ordinary.  Living by faith means God is in control.

No life can be ordinary when God is in control.  Maybe we have more in common with Mary than we know.  Is your life ordinary?

John Piper's struggles with evangelism

During the 2009 Pastors Conference John Piper shared his struggles with evangelism.

Let's keep the main point the main point

While everyone should be able to defend the truth of Scripture (apologetics), this is not the gospel.  Mark Dever puts it this way:

By far the greatest danger in apologetics is being distracted from the main message.  Evangelism in not defending the virgin birth or defending the historicity of the resurrection.  Apologetics is defending the faith, answering the questions others have about Christianity.  It is responding to the agenda that others set.  Evangelism, however, is following Christ's agenda, the news about him.  Evangelism is the positive act of telling the good news about Jesus Christ and the way of salvation through him. (Mark Dever, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, p78)

As we build relationships and care for those around us, let's make sure we are moving toward their greatest need - the gospel.  Let's keep the main point the main point.