Have you ever heard of the “Unsinkable Molly Brown?” She was a real person! She was a Denver socialite who was aboard the Titanic when it sunk….and she survived! Even though over 1,500 people lost their lives she survived! But what was most remarkable is how she survived. In accounts written later, it was told how she had heroically and selflessly aided in the evacuation of the ship, even taking an oar once she was safely in a lifeboat, to help row to safety. Yet, once the ship went down, it was reported that she urged the crew of her lifeboat to return to the capsize sight in order to try to save others even though the crew of the lifeboat was afraid to do so. She was, in many remarkable ways, “unsinkable,” even when many others around her were not!
Unshakable Faith. This is our focus in the next few weeks. As we bask in the glow of the certainty of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ –He is risen! He is risen indeed! – how do we live in this reality in the challenging times of our lives (when the “boat” is sinking and many others are “going down!”) with “Unshakable Faith?” And what does it look like to live in this “Unshakable Faith?”
Where are you especially challenged right now in your life of faith? Where is the “boat” sinking around you? Where are others sinking around you? Where do you long to live in “Unshakable Faith?” Where do you need to be lifted up, empowered, to live in “Unshakable Faith?” And where do you need to know what this looks like? This is our focus in the next few weeks. We pray it is a blessing to you….and to all.
Sunday, April 3rd Facing Trouble - Catastrophic Trouble – with Faith
Catastrophic trouble. How would you define it? How about something like, “the crumbling away in our lives of the pillars that we thought would never crumble?” As a nation perhaps the Great Depression of the 1930’s is a good example. Individually, maybe the unexpected loss of a job. Or perhaps a relationship that disintegrates before our very eyes which we can do nothing to prevent. What would this look like in your life? What does it look like right now? Today, the question is, how can we face these things with “Unshakable Faith?” And what does it look like?
Sunday, April 10th Facing Failure With Faith
It is hard to try again when you have failed –or even feel like you have failed, no matter what others say, isn’t it? When children –or even adults – flunk a test or maybe a number of tests, it is so hard for them to have the confidence to continue, isn’t it? On the other hand, when we experience success, it is so much easier to confidently take the next step, true? Today, we talk about “Unshakable Faith” in the midst of absolute failure. Where is this for you right now in your life? Where do you feel like a failure? Or, Where have you failed? Where do you need the power – the confidence – to take the next step?...to try again?...to go forward? Where do you need to know what this looks like?
Sunday, April 17th Facing Doubt With Faith
We all have doubts –right? While we would like to vilify Pontius Pilate when he asks Jesus, “what is truth?” if we are honest, we can, at times, identify with his doubts, can we not? The problem with doubts is that they tend to paralyze us with respect to doing the right thing. Just ask any basketball player who, after shooting and making a particular shot perhaps hundreds of times, for some reason loses their confidence – doubting their ability to make it – and so passes the ball instead of taking a wide open shot. Where do you have doubts? Where do you need to be empowered to face them with “Unshakable Faith?” Where do you need to know what this looks like?
Sunday, April 24th Facing Grief With Faith
There are many types of and reasons for grief, but they all involve loss. How have you experienced grief? What - or who – have you lost? Where in your life are you grieving today? And how has this threatened your faith? Today, in His unshakable love for you, God would come to you right in this place to empower you to live in “Unshakable Faith” in the things that you will never lose! Today, He will show you what this looks like! Today is for you!
Sunday, May 1st Facing Illness –and Death – with Faith
This is where the rubber hits the road. None of us are getting out of here alive. Death touches each of us. And illness is not far behind, ravaging and destroying lives that once had such promise. It is THE human condition.
The temptation is to see only death and defeat and hopelessness. How has this temptation touched you? But there is a greater reality. It is the foundation and reason for an “Unshakable Faith” even in the face of illness and death. And in it is the power to live like it! Today, we see what this can look like in our lives!