Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Because of our human limitations and spiritual weakness, the Lord is going to have to do the Lion share of the work if we are going to regularly tap into Him as our Source of life. That is not to say that we have no part to play in staying connected to the Lord but it can be helpful for us to realize that the Lord is doing most of the heavy lifting for us so that we may give Him credit for.

Sooner or later in our relationship with Christ, a time will come when God seems distant. Perhaps you won’t be able to feel His presence as you once had. Maybe you heard something from Him very clearly, but that word hasn’t come together as you had anticipated it would. Maybe you stepped out in faith to honor the Lord, but now He seems silent. This can be a very disorienting experience for us as Christ's followers, and we need to realize how the Lord is often at work in these silent times.

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Mary’s submission to what the angel promised is astounding. It was the complete disruption of all her life and all her plans up to that point. Not only that, it would dominate every aspect of her life moving forward, especially over the next 9 months.

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

We recently looked at Jesus as our Good Shepherd. He cares for each of us intimately and individually. He leads us to the places He desires us to go and we follow Him. We come to know His voice, listen for Him to speak and then obey what He says. We are incredibly blessed to be Shepherded by our God in this way.

Jesus was often followed by large crowds during His earthly ministry but they never swayed Him away from saying the hard thing. In fact, when the crowds got larger, Jesus tended to proclaim the harder truths to weed out those who were following Him for the wrong reason or who wrong expectations of Him. This seems to be one of those instances.

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Pruning is an essential part of regular fruit bearing. For starters, when the optimal time in the growth season comes, the gardener prunes the vine so that it will respond properly to nutrients and produce fruit when the time comes. This involves cutting away the parts of the branch that are dead or that sap the nutrients that should be prioritized for fruit growth.

Our good shepherd cares for us in ways that we can’t possibly understand. We will never know the enemies and attacks that He shields us from every moment of everyday.

Jesus equates His care for His people with how a good shepherd cares for his flock. From there, He starts a discussion of how sheep are protected by a sheep pen and the shepherd’s role in that.

-Manna was a physical provision but a spiritual lesson. -The means of provision was designed to test their obedience. -It was a faith solution to their lack of trust in God. -The Lord provided as much as they needed. -The Lord provided it as long as they needed.

The call of Jesus on our lives is to take the message of reconciliation and become ministers of reconciliation. We cannot leave that work to others and hope it gets accomplished. We must be willing to serve those whom no one else will. We must be willing to get uncomfortable to see the Kingdom pushed forward. We must be willing to learn how to share the Gospel clearly and then have courage to share it faithfully. People are far from Jesus. He wants us to become His hands and feet in the world to reach them. Will we step up to the challenge?

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Christ has challenged his closest followers that the way of Kingdom leadership is the way of servanthood. Christ himself modeled this for them throughout His ministry but especially in the next few hours. He will lay down His life for those who did not deserve it and serve them despite their betrayal, unfaithfulness and rejection.

Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church