Every day. This was right before Jesus was going to die. He had already come in triumphantly to Jerusalem (Luke 18) and he was waiting to be crucified, because he knew what was coming. But it didn’t happen right away. Instead, Jesus taught in the temple — every day. These were his last few days leading up to his severe physical and spiritual pain in carrying our wounds and sins. And Jesus knew that.

Read more in this blog as we read it, study it, and live it!

They were scared out of their minds. Kings were coming after them and they were hiding out in Jerusalem. But God reassured them, telling them to be careful and quiet, not to fear or let their heart be faint. And then he gave the beautiful prophecy: Immanuel. He would be with us.

Read more in this blog as we read it, study it, and live it!

Hearing the word: There’s hearing something and then there’s hearing something with the intention of doing something about it….

Hold it fast: We want to clutch God’s Word to us and, even though life gets hard, we want to treat it with the utmost respect and love, because it’s from our King. They are the only words we have from Him.

An honest + good heart: No one is good except God alone (Mark 10:18). So how could we have an honest and good heart?

Sharing the Word of God is the dearest and most generous gifts we can give another person. It’s not another treasure of the world that moth and rust can destroy (Matthew 6:19). Instead, the Word of God is what will last forever, even if the world around us and we ourselves fade away (Isaiah 40:8). The Word of God is our lifeline to know what God wants from us now, what promises he has fulfilled, and the promises he will continue to fulfill in eternity. It holds the secrets that all of us long to know and the way that we can be close with the one who sees us and loves us unconditionally — something no one else on earth can do, even if they try.

Paul shared the gift of God’s Word with so many (it was his life’s mission, as it should be ours, whatever we do!), but we get to see some behind-the-scenes when he talks to those at Thessalonica. (1 Thessalonians 2:1-8)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. “ Hebrews 11:1

A lot of people see faith as something of a wish — they see it as a choice in whatever you we want to believe in, each one having their own kind. The strong belief we have in something changes the way we live. It gives us hope; it’s a conviction. But if we believe in the wrong thing, the hope and conviction are useless. It ends up being an empty promise that we’ve held on to our whole lives, just to find out it was a lie. But if we believe in what is true, that hope becomes reality, and that conviction stands.

We notice what people wear. We may even say it’s subconsciously one of the first things we notice about someone. If they’re well-dressed, we think they care about themselves and others. If they haven’t taken much thought in their appearance, we think them lazy or unmotivated. And while we know that physical clothing doesn’t really amount to much in the end, we know that how we are clothed before God and into eternity is what matters.

Above all else, when we stand before God, we want to be clothed with Christ…

It’s the kind of love we’ve sought ever since we were old enough to understand fairy tales. We wanted to be treasured as a someone who is deeply worthy. It’s the kind of love we look for in our future or present husbands. But fairy tales can’t come close to this kind of love and even husbands, though if they are Christ-followers will strive to imitate this love, can never be expected to fully measure up to this love. Because the love that Christ has for us is so indescribable that it changed the fate of world and the potential destiny of our lives.

This is a love who gave himself up.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” - Luke 12:35-36

If there’s one verse I could share with fellow Christian women who are teaching or wanting to teach teen girls, it would be this verse, Luke 12:35. In it is our motivation and our battle-cry against anything that would tear us and these young ones away from God.

It’s the story of a master who is away and his servants are waiting for him. It’s the story of God and us.

Psalm 23:3 “ He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

Our souls are incomplete without God. We were painstakingly fashioned by him, bearing his image and his own workmanship. He didn’t create us with the intention to leave him. We are meant to be sustained by the everlasting God.

We like to think we’ve got it all together.

And sometimes, we can fool even ourselves. Until we realize that nothing we do can ever last unless God is with us.

It was the harsh reality that came on the people who were building the tower of Babel. What they couldn’t even fathom (what did multiple languages even mean?), God used in a moment. All their plans came to a sudden standstill, because God was not for them.

For those of us who are Christians, this is our mantra: we want to seek God first, then add the rest. But if we’re supposed to be seeking the kingdom of God, what exactly is it?

Looking at it literally, a kingdom is the anywhere where the king is in charge.

We know of the made-up kingdoms in stories woven together by human authors that make our imagination soar and the kingdoms of the past that seem impressive yet all that now remain are some ruins.

But the kingdom of God?

Well, if it’s where God, the King, is in charge then it’s the only kingdom we’d want to seek…

As God’s own, we want to be everseeking — not of anything, but of God! It can be so easy to stop seeking sometimes. Either it seems like it’s too much work or we just become apathetic to it. Even David, the humble shepherd turned mighty king, seemed to have felt the same way. Of all the things he could’ve asked of God and of all the things he could’ve sought after, it just came down to one thing. It wasn’t vanity of vanities, like what his son struggled with (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2), no ivory throne nor fleet of ships (1 Kings 10:18, 22). Rather, David asked for something that would last much longer: he wanted to be with God.

He doesn’t just say that, though. He describes it like he’s painting a masterpiece of a picture, intricately giving us detail of how we can seek God, even today.

When we first started Evergreen (by starting LIGHT group for teen girls), one of the most basic questions was, “What part of the Bible are we going to study first?”

There are so many good books of the Bible to choose from — it’s almost impossible to just start with one! But the reason we picked Ephesians is simple: it’s full of the truth in love.

It gives the big picture of what God did for us along with the details of how we can truly live for him, all within the context of how much God loved us and gave himself up for us.

If I was Peter, I think I would’ve crumpled into a million pieces. He had just spent all that time with Jesus. He witnessed countless miracles and heard Jesus’s gentle wisdom day after day. He had just said he was ready (Luke 22:33)! And yet, after all that, in the moment of truth and when it was the worst time for Jesus, Peter denied that he even knew him.

And that’s when the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

“And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:59-62

When we first started Evergreen (by starting LIGHT group for teen girls), one of the most basic questions was, “What part of the Bible are we going to study first?”

There are so many good books of the Bible to choose from — it’s almost impossible to just start with one! But the reason we picked Ephesians is simple: it’s full of the truth in love.

It gives the big picture of what God did for us along with the details of how we can truly live for him, all within the context of how much God loved us and gave himself up for us.

Our lives are different. It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t trust in God, but for us, it’s a whole other story. We’re no longer vulnerable and weighed down by sin, wandering and wondering where to go. We have had that heavy burden of constant sin lifted from our shoulders. And even when life gets difficult, we aren’t fearful of eternity. We are instructed by the one who sees our path and directs us in the way we should go. It’s an incredible life. And it’s ours — the life of one who follows God. This is what Psalm 32 is saying. So let’s break it down.

You don’t honor someone you don’t value. Honoring and valuing go together. When we value someone, people know. It’s obvious based on how we talk about them, how we treat them, or even how we think about them. Honoring them shows others that we think they are worthy. And more than anyone else, who deserves this more than Jesus? We can’t even wrap our minds around how worthy he is. But are we honoring him in a way that’s obvious to others, that if someone asks us, it’s natural to talk about how much we love him? That’s what 1 Peter 3:15 is saying. So let’s break it down.

This Passover was different. The first Passover used the blood of an innocent lamb, but this one would have the blood of the innocent Lamb. When Jesus ate with his disciples, it was in preparation for the sacrifice that would far outlive all others. Because this sacrifice would be God himself…

It’s a place that we don’t want to be, but inevitably where all of us find ourselves: far from God. Just like most things, though, sadly, it’s nothing new to God. Since the beginning of time, God has had to see his people distance themselves from him. But he did everything, even before we sinned, to bring us back to him (Ephesians 1:4). And we want to be near God, too, especially if we know the goodness of what that’s like! But even if we know God has done everything and our part is small, it seems so hard to know where to start to take that step closer to him. The reason may not be the same for most of us, but there are a few common ones: we just don’t trust him, we feel guilt and shame, or we feel indifferent. Thankfully for us, we aren’t the first to struggle with any of these and we are able to see what to do from others' journeys, from Naomi to David to the church in Laodicea. So how did they get far from God, but more importantly, what was the answer for them to grow closer to God?

It's another one of those questions that we know the answer to technically.... But if it's just you and God in a moment of quiet, and He asks you this question, what would you honestly say?

There are several ways we could answer. Most of us would agree that the Bible means Truth, and that by it we have given ourselves to Christ. But then when we say all the right things (things we really do mean), how do we then treat God's Word in our daily lives to reflect what we just said?

It’s something that we are continually working on, but this is our goal: to trust, to hold dear, and to need it to live.