We value freedom in America. We also know freedom is not free; it comes with a high price. Many have made huge sacrifices to protect and preserve the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. But freedom, an “American” ideal, was God’s idea. In John 8, we get a beautiful picture of the kind of freedom God had in mind… the real freedom that comes only in and through Jesus Christ. 31 ….Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will kno

Life is full of hard questions. Where do you turn for answers? Jesus faced some really intense skepticism and persecution, even from His own family. But He answered those objections again and again. In the process, He also answered four hard questions for us. 1) Which/Whose plan should I follow? (John 7:3-13) We make lots of difficult decisions throughout our lives… decisions about college, career, relationships, child-rearing, investments, retirement, just to name a few

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics? I’ve watched a little and sadly was watching when U.S. skier and defending gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin slipped and missed a gate in the women’s giant slalom event. “The agony of defeat.” The Olympics are filled with drama - huge highs and lows; none bigger than the U.S. hockey team’s win against the powerful team from the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 games. That was considered by many, including Sports Illustrated, as the greatest s

If you were ill enough to go to the doctor and the doctor prescribed a medicine with limited side effects that would make you well, would you take it? Of course you would because you want to get well! In John 5, Jesus asks a man who had been disabled for 38 years a life-changing question, “Do you want to get well” (John 5:6). The man had been laying on a mat by a pool of water near the temple in Jerusalem called the Pool of Bethesda because he believed that the water in th