What About Jesus? 5 Questions from Our Youth Group
Did Jesus really exist? I'm not sure. Did Jesus really come back to life? Or is it like a metaphor? Is Jesus the only way to God? What does it mean to have Jesus in your heart? What does a relationship with Jesus look like and feel like in my everyday life? These great classic questions from the youth in our church go back to the heart of what we believe. Off the top of my head, the only other question that ranks with these is,
The Restoration of All Things
A special Easter Sunday message from Dr. John I. Snyder, preached Easter Sunday 2022 in Bavaria, Germany. "He tells us, 'It's this way!' And he says, 'Pursue it. It's waiting for you, and for anyone who wants it more than anything else.'" https://www.buzzsprout.com/636826/10485429-what-easter-really-means.mp3
Holy Week: The Everyday Life of Sin
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? -Romans 8:32 Conspiracy, lies, false witness, denial, slander, scheming, power-grab, injustice, enviousness, greed, rejection of truth, hypocrisy, self-righteousness—sin and daily life are played out vividly in the events of Holy Week. Read Matthew, chapters 26 to 28, either by yourself, together as a family, or with your friends to focus on the events of
Holy Week: Day 8 – Easter Sunday: The Day Death Died
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will
Holy Week – Day 7: New Life
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20 How are we supposed to view our present life of faith? This passage tells us to look at our present lives as servants of the Lord Jesus. Just as Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, and then raised to new life,
Holy Week – Day 6: Good Friday – What’s Good About It?
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. -Isaiah 53:5–6 Our human minds can’t even begin to grasp the enormity of the price Jesus paid for us on the cross. If we did,
Holy Week – Day 5: Maundy Thursday: This Is Love
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. -1 John 4:10–12 The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin “mandatum,” meaning commandment. This is in reference to the new
Holy Week – Day 4: Aged to Perfection
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! -2 Corinthians 5:17 What is one of the main themes that keeps recurring in the faiths and literature of the world? What is that longing in the human heart that never goes away regardless of the time or place? It’s the desire that the old, the worn out, and the temporary pass away and the new, the fresh, and the lasting appear! This is what
Holy Week – Day 3: Children of God
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. –Ephesians 1:7 The apostle Paul reiterates here the essence of the Gospel message: It is only through the sacrificial death of Jesus (“his blood”) on our behalf that we can say we’re forgiven of every sin. The word he uses here for this transaction is “redemption.” This comes from the realm of the slave trade, where slaves were redeemed or purchased by someone
Holy Week – Day 2: The Doorway Into Life
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:2 If Jesus did for us what we couldn’t possibly do for ourselves, what keeps us from fixing our eyes on him and keeping them fixed where they belong? As believers through the centuries have discovered, the problems arise when we take
