The House You're Building

19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”  Joshua 4:19-24 ESV There are stage in the life of faith.   When a believer goes from death to life, accepting Christ’s sacrifice for their sin is called justification.   The progressive walk with Jesus, where we are being made more like...

[24] For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. [25] Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, [26] for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. [27] And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, [28] so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:24–28, ESV Social media is a big part of our lives.  It is hard to not share things we are excited about like a trip, engagement, or other milestones with your social circle, as well as sharing the small joys in life like a beautifu...

  I don’t know if you’ve been involved in a building project.  Like me, if you work in a field far removed from construction, many of the steps involved can be foreign to you.  Several years ago we built a house.  It was a “spec house,” meaning we met with a company who offered several floor plans and we got to pick out some of the details within-which color carpet, what stain the cabinetry would have, which door handles matched our coordinated design scheme.  I was truly overwhelmed with all the decisions and details, even though compared to those building custom homes our choices were minimal.  At a certain point, I just wanted someone to make those design decisions for me!    I’m so grateful when it comes to worship, God has laid out a plan for us.  For how would we begin got decide how to worship a God so holy and majestic as our God, so different and other? From the beginning God makes it clear that He puts ...

This week I’m introducing a new series that we will be in for quite some time.  Last spring and summer I completed an epic study on Exodus and it has probably been my favorite study of all time! I’m so excited to write about it some of what I’ve gleaned and share it with you.  This post is to share some information about Exodus as a whole so the sections you read each week have more context.  In a broad sense, Exodus is God’s people leaving Egypt after 430 years of slavery.  To best understand it, you have to look at the larger storyline of books surrounding it.  Exodus is the 2 nd  book of the bible and included in the Pentateuch, five books of history that read like a series.  Genesis, which comes before, is the story of individuals, where Exodus covers the story of a nation.  The next three books, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, expand on Exodus by covering more covenant instructions, the journey toward the pr...

        Orient  John 18:1-27 In the next two chapters, we will read of the arrest, trial, death, and burial of Jesus.  Today’s reading contains unique content only found in John and will cover the arrest and interview before Annas and Caiaphas. Peter’s famous denial of Christ is also described.       Introduction Anyone else getting a constant stream of meal prep advertisements?  I get the appeal; your meals are planned for you and ingredients delivered to your door.  Plus, you get to keep the recipes to make again once you stop the service.  I have never used one because I love to cook at have too many recipes in the que to try as well as getting back to old favorites.  No matter what I make, I always need to have olive oil on hand; it is a staple in all my dishes.  The process of making oil involves many ways of destroying the olive, grinding, processing, and pressing to ...