Our time is short, our opportunities limited, but we rarely feel the weight of this. At Providence, we want to be aware of the opportunity we have with our kids. We want to partner with parents to make sure we all make the most of the time we have to invest in our kids. This week Jessica Willings teaches us about the value of a single gumball.
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What will 2020 be for you? Will it be another year to mark off a calendar? Day after day, week after week, just crossing off days? Or it will be a year that will forever mark you for the rest of your life? With a full calendar ahead of us, we have the opportunity to make this year one that will change us, but that only happens if we go “All In.” What does that look like? At Providence, that begins with relationships and ends with discipleship. As we start the year, Read Runyan and Jordan Lemons lay out what it looks like to go “All In” at Providence.
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Sometimes the Bible calls us to look to our past to find our hope. We behold stories from the Old Testament, babies in mangers, a savior on a cross, and an empty tomb. There are also places where the Bible calls us to behold the future and the things that are still to come. In the final words of the Bible, John tells us that we should have hope for the new creation that is to come because there, God makes ALL things new. Finally Jesus closes with the words intended to sustain us in suffering and motivate us to action- “Behold, I am coming soon.”
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51 years ago on Christmas Eve, the world was fixed on their television screens as, for the first time in history, men had left the earth’s grasp and had reached the moon. In the mission that would lay the groundwork for Neal Armstrong and Apollo 11, Apollo 8 was orbiting the moon. As those men circled the moon, something they knew so well from studies, books, and pictures, for the first time they truly beheld the moon and it left them breathless and speechless. What they discovered is that their beholding and the moon was very, very different than knowing about the moon. The question for us as we celebrate the incarnation is much the same- do we know and behold God or do we just know about him?
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It is sometimes surprising that something as theologically profound as the incarnation can be so prominent in our culture. It is less surprising to see when our culture gets it wrong. Far from the make-believe, sappy sentiment that makes up most of what counts for “Christmas spirit,” the truth of Christmas is a story unlike any other. From the angelic announcement that proclaims “Behold, He is here! He has come down!” to the parallel angelic announcement that proclaims, “Behold, He is not here! He is risen!”, the best part of this story is that it’s all true.
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The Bible is full of moments that can be lost on us as readers. Majestic moments can be read over and missed all too easily. The Christmas Story shouldn’t be one of those moments. In part, because the Old Testament builds and points to the birth of the Messiah as the heart of the story of scripture. It invites us to “behold” moments along the way that are meant to captivate us and draw us in. From OT prophecies to Christmas miracles to future promises- it’s all meant to leave us in awe. If we can grasp the magnitude of these moments, we’ll begin to see what Christianity is all about- even more than behaving, it’s beholding.
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Throughout the book of Exodus, we can see the repeated, relentless declaration of a God that would have no rivals. From His declaration of “I am” to the unveiling of a veiled part of His glory to Moses, God makes Himself known. What we see is a God that comes to dwell among His people and a God that demands unquestioned allegiance from them. He will be supreme in the lives of His people and in the battle for supremacy among His enemies.
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Often times scripture presents us with truths that seem to be a complete paradox. One of those is the truth of God’s grace set against the continued demand for obedience. How do those two things work together? Is the Christian life marked by God’s grace or our obedience? The reality is that both are essential, and while one may be a prerequisite for the other, both are markers for the Christian life. Remove one or the other and you no longer have Christianity. The account of the people of Israel in the book of Exodus gives us a good picture as to why both are so essential when we follow God.
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It is one thing to make a bold request before God. It’s another to have that request answered, and then to continue to make even bolder requests. That doesn’t stop Moses from asking though. His request is that God would “show him His glory.” God grants the request and leaves Moses to go back to the people of Israel with a face shining so bright he has to wear a veil. This story seems removed from us today, but Paul would make it clear that Moses’s shining face has much to teach us about the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, and the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
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What’s the difference between someone that acts and someone that misses their opportunity? Is it bravery? Is it boldness? Is it ambition? In this sermon, Pete Higgs of Renvoatus shows us that sometimes the real difference is nothing more than our desperation.
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Moses and the people of Israel finally got to hear what they’d been waiting on. It was time to move on and claim what God had promised, but with one caveat- God wasn’t coming with them. It’s hard to imagine having everything you’ve ever wanted right in front of you and then walking away, but that’s exactly what Moses was prepared to do. He knew the land didn’t make them distinct people; only God could do that. How does that play out for us? How often do we take the stuff, but forget God in the process? Are we any different than the world? Are we “distinct”?
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Worship is a universal language. We ALL worship, but what drives our worship? For some, our minds drive our emotions in worship. For others, our emotions help us engage our minds. Sometimes though (maybe often) our worship doesn’t follow what seems to make the most sense. Our minds tell us God is good and worthy, but our hearts run to other idols. Why does that happen and what do we do when it does?
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A little over 500 years ago, the world was shaken by the Protestant Reformation. The driving factors for the Reformation were varied culturally and theologically, however central to the thought of the reformers was the abuses and inconsistencies of the priesthood in the Catholic Church. What is it about the role of the priests that the reformers took issue with? How does that relate to the Old Testament priests? We look at the doctrine of the priesthood, Jesus’s role, and our own role as priests.
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Detailed instructions about the tabernacle can be boring to read and hard to understand. But the tabernacle represented a gracious work by God- to create a place where He could be in the midst of His people. The tabernacle was to travel everywhere with Israel and create this place for God’s presence. But even with the creation of the tabernacle, separation still marked God and his people. Until the New Testament, when some of the very elements of the tabernacle were torn in two, and now the separation has been replaced by something extraordinary. Not only is God among us, He is found within us.
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The Bible is not a collection of loosely related stories and heroic acts by Godly people. Instead, it is telling many stories that weave together to tell one large story. The biggest theme in the Bible that ties it all together is the idea of covenant. Time and time again we see the picture of God coming to man and establishing a covenant. Why does this matter to us? What do the covenants teach us about how God acts and who He is? Why do we see this idea repeated so many times in so many ways?
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