We shift, with Hebrews, from faith to holiness. Coming to recognize that Christ is the perfecter of our life and faith, we discuss our call to respond to the sanctifying work of Christ by allowing ourselves to be made holy.
Paul tells us that despite being the epitome of an honorable person, a good Jew, he “counts it all as loss” because of Christ. What does it mean to count it all as loss? We find that only in giving up our accomplishments do they have any value at all.
Paul brings our focus to “pleasing God.” Sin is still an issue for Christians, but God always gives us a path out of it.
Paul calls upon the Philippian church to imitate him, to live like he lives. We look at what it means to live as disciples who mimic, not students who fill our head with information.
“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” We hear and dwell upon this good news
Here we have our final stop in 1 Corinthians for the year, once again focusing on the issue of resurrection. We see that God is not done with this place or these bodies, and we should not have our eyes on escape, but instead place our hope in resurrection.
Paul brings our attention to the resurrection of the dead, and we are reminded that our hope is not to “go to heaven” when we die, but to experience bodily resurrection, like Christ.
We take a look at the long and wild journey of Absalom, who was close to successfully overthrowing the reign of David in a coup. We focus in on the idea of justice – what is true justice in the kingdom of God?
Samantha Elliott visits us from a sister church to reflect on the forgiveness and redemption of David after David’s terrible sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.