Hope For Today Videos

God cares about our suffering and promises to be with us in it and over and over again we’ve experienced His healing help.  However, change and healing don’t often come instantly and so another way God helps us is to invite us to keep in perspective whatever way we are suffering today.

Who of us understands why we think and feel and react the way we do?  Life seems to be going along relatively well and then something “out-of-the-blue” happens and our emotions are tipped over the edge or our thoughts go into negative overdrive. We think, say, or do things that are ugly and so far from what we long to do.  Ask us to explain why we did it and we often can’t even tell you. The Bible tells us to: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. How do we do that?

We often wonder what the right course of action is and can become confused and anxious. God has very simple instructions for us to refocus us and steady us: Trust in the Lord and do good.

The best invitation we will ever receive is the one to follow the way of Jesus and to allow His grace and character to be more and more reflected in all we do and say. God invites us to leave all manner of ugliness behind – which is a good thing to do in itself – I mean, who wants the ugly dirty bits?  But, then on top of that God describes so many promises of blessing that will result. 

How deeply are we longing to be in close fellowship with God?  How willing are we to put aside things that we like to have, activities that we like to do, people we like to be with, for something that is greater?  To what degree are we willing to inconvenience ourselves on behalf of helping others? These are fair questions at any point, on any day, but they are so appropriate in our times when everyone seems to want and fight for what works for them and sometimes fail to see the impact of our wishes on others.

Sadness is one of the most common human emotions and can be difficult to deal with.  The feeling itself brings a burden and often the memory of the event that caused the sadness presses down on our hearts.  It's interesting that the Bible talks about both a bad and a good sadness. How are we to know the difference and how are we to deal with each of them?

On this first Sunday of Lent we focus on prayer – which in fact is one of the 3 spiritual disciplines we are encouraged to consider during these 40 days of seeking to draw closer to Jesus.

Who of us hasn't felt pressured recently – maybe even today?  There are so many demands on our time and attention, so many uncertainties in our world, and so much we don't know about to make us safe and successful. While it's important to not passively let life just happen, it's also important to find a secure place each day where we can deal with whatever we need to face today and then wisely let the rest go.

All around the globe there is unrest, conflicts, demonstrations.  And there are often abuses of authority and on the other side challenges to authority by anyone who doesn’t like the decisions made. It’s easy to feel vulnerable and uncertain with news coming at us day after day. Thankfully we have a solid and secure place to stand.  We can be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Ash Wednesday - What's it all about?

Yeast was a little metaphor that was used to represent sin and wrong in Jesus’ time.  Jesus is warning his friends that just a little unbelief, just a little complaining, just a little believing the watered-down ideas about who He is that others have to say, can infiltrate and mess up everything.

What do you use to add "zing" to your life and bring that same "zing" to people around you? Well, we are all very different people and God, in His creativity has lots of different ways for us to bring out the flavour of His kingdom where we live and interact with others.