Jesus On Trial

Posted on March 31, 2022 by pottsvillearp

Southerners are lousy at isolation. Untrained in this discipline by a lack of inclement winter weather, we tear through our stock of quarantine supplies by noon on day one. We love to prep for disaster, but have little patience to live within the parameters of our preparations. We cancel everything in order to stay home, then stand all day with our noses pressed to the glass, itching to get out to see “what’s going on.” Like school children after the first two weeks of summer vacation, we become quickly bored.

As long as our internet does not go out and take with it our Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, we may actually make it. Surrounded by bread, milk and our snack trove, we survive our brief isolation by binge-watching. For my wife and I, our nightly habit is British crime drama. We especially like the adaptations of Ann Cleeves’ crime novels. Her stories are complex. The obvious culprits are never the perpetrators. Only slowly does the truth come into focus as the “DCI” sifts through seemingly endless strands of contradictory evidence. Cleeves’ stories give an appreciation for the complexity of criminal investigation, warning of the dangers of precipitous judgment. To get to the truth, we cannot take a cursory look.

Perhaps we love fictional crime drama because it satisfies our need to see justice done, without complicating it with the complexities of our own sin. In sixty minutes, confusion gives way to clarity and good triumphs over evil no matter what means it uses to get there. But our lives are not so tidy. In our real story, we are the fugitives who face a justice none of us can bear. Yet the scales of God’s justice do not weigh the arguments for and against our guilt, but rather God’s justice and His mercy.

It is remarkable how much legal imagery the Bible uses to picture our condition. The Old Testament anticipates a redeemer who will set prisoners free. In the New Testament, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are pictured as advocates, God the Father is often likened to a judge, redemption depends upon a declaration of judicial righteousness and our condemnation is set aside in Christ.

History’s greatest courtroom drama is recorded in the Bible in Luke 22 and 23. Following an irregular grand jury indictment, Jesus is brought before the criminal court on charges trumped up religious rivals. In Pontius Pilate’s courtroom we see the greatest miscarriage of justice in human history. Everyone is guilty – the judge, the prosecutors, the jury – everyone that is except the one on trial. He alone is innocent. Evidence is ignored and the judge is captive public opinion and his own corrupt history. Despite his declarations of Jesus’ innocence, Pontius Pilate condemns him to death and compounds injustice by releasing a man who is truly guilty of all the charges leveled against Jesus.

As spectators, we recoil at this apparent travesty of justice. But we must look more deeply. No cursory examination of Jesus’ trial reveals the extent of the guilty. It is easy to spot the guilt of the Sanhedrin, of the crowds, of Judas, of Pilate, and of Barabbas. But the investigation must go deeper. For we are not just spectators of this drama. Jesus is not a hapless victim of human injustice, but a willing sacrifice to divine justice – justice that is rightly ours to bear. It is not just Barabbas’ cross that Jesus bore, but ours. God is just – His justice cannot ignore our crimes or allow them to go unpunished – but in His mercy He is the justifier of those who have faith in Christ. Because of this we can have peace with God and with one another. This my friend is good news.

Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine Luke 22 and 23 and consider the greatest courtroom drama in history as it unfolds Christ’s innocence and condemnation for our guilt and pardon.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.

03/20/2022 | “Taking the Call” | Exodus 3:1-10

Posted on March 26, 2022 by pottsvillearp

God called Moses from a burning bush. It is the call he always wanted. But why now? Why him? Is this call a divine spam-risk? A scam? A crank call? Moses tries to hang up, but God’s call can’t be declined. This was true for Moses – and for you.

Every Christian has a vocation. Every follower of Christ is gifted and called to serve the Lord, the Body of Christ, and the world. What is your calling? Have you heard? Have you heeded? Or did you hang up, thinking God’s call was a spam-risk, a scam, or a crank-call? Listen as we examine Exodus 3:1-10 and consider how the call of Moses is unique, but also an important pattern for God’s call in every Christian’s life.

Resistance is Futile!

Posted on March 25, 2022 by pottsvillearp

“Resistance is futile!” This infamous malediction from Star Trek’s Borg collective has lodged firmly in the bosom of post-modern pop culture. Appearing in everything from alternative music to political non-fiction, the Borg’s ominous mantra epitomizes as sense of hopeless resignation – usually resignation to the will of some irresistible power. History is filled with ‘lost causes’ and futile resistance. The tyranny of the statement, “resistance is futile” inspires generations of radicals and revolutionaries willing to venture everything on their lost cause.

Our society, birthed as it was in revolution, harbors a spirit of resistance. Surely resisting every form tyranny is a virtue. With slogans such as “Don’t tread on me” and “Come and take it!” our brief national history is one of fierce independence. Like Pa Ingalls’ we demand a life which is ‘Free and Independent.’ Resistance is woven into the fabric of our culture and consciousness. Absolute freedom and self-determination are cardinal virtues. Or are they?

Is resistance always virtuous or does it easily become an outlet for our total depravity? Long before the Borg announced “resistance is futile” the Bible declared the same truth regarding God’s will. Job and his friends debated the futility of resisting God’s judgements. Isaiah wrote of God’s sovereign power over creation. The Psalmists declare God’s inscrutable wisdom. And in Romans 9, men facing God’s decrees rightly declare, “who can resist His will?”

The scope of God’s sovereignty is absolute and pervasive. It is irresistible. The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes God’s the scope of God’s sovereignty well when it asks.

What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 7

Even before the beginning of all things the Lord decreed and ordained every last detail that would come to pass. He did not consult anyone nor does he change. He depends upon nothing he has made, nor is contingent upon anything that is. There is no resistance to his will. Resisting God is futile! And more than that, when we understand God’s goodness and grace, why would we want to? Yet, the ugly reality of our sin is that we do resist. We have rebelled against God’s grace? Every sin is a rejection of God’s Lordship. Our spirit of resistance is not merely an American ideal, but deeply ingrained in our fallen nature. Who can resist his will? Resistance is futile – but it does not stop us from trying.

But we are in good company. Many faithful men in the Bible struggled with obedience. God’s patience toward them should encourage us to stop kicking against the goads. God’s call to Moses in Exodus 3 is remarkable. Late in life, Moses receives the call he always wanted. Out of a burning bush at the foot of a desolate mountain, God spoke and called Moses to deliver his people. Moses had waited a lifetime for this opportunity. But now in is waning years, was it too late?

Moses’ response to God is somewhat unexpected. The man who forty years ago rose quickly and decisively to right every wrong and to seek justice for every injustice, now wavers. He attempts repeatedly to excuse himself from God’s call. Four times Moses makes excuses and offers objection after objection. Finally, he simply asks God to find someone else. But resistance is futile. God’s call is a command not an offer – a promise, not a proposition.

Have you resisted God’s calling? The calling to come to Christ or to serve Him? How is that working out? Peace will never come by resisting the Lord’s good and gracious calling. Resistance is futile. Moses had to learn this. And so do we. God was patient and kind to Moses, even in his struggle to obey. And he is patient and kind with us. Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine Exodus 3:11-4:17 and consider the futility and the foolishness of resisting God.

Taking the Call

Posted on March 17, 2022 by pottsvillearp

No caller is more persistent Rachel from ‘Vehicle Services.’ She has been trying to reach you. She wants to speak to your vehicle’s owner with critical information about the warranty. And no anti-spam strategy dulls her enthusiasm or tenacity.

If you ignore her, she barrages you with even more calls. If you attempt to speak to Paul, her associate, to explain that you have no warranty and need no warranty, she continues to call. If you register her number with donotcall.gov, she uses another of her 10,000 listings. She is unstoppable. And despite her bold claims, even Attorney General, Leslie Rutledge cannot impede the indefatigable Rachel or her friend Veronica who calls about your student loans.

Most calls these days are from spammers and scammers, suspicious characters who are up to no good. So, we don’t answer numbers not in our contact lists. Our phones routinely report incoming calls as ‘Spam-Risk’ or ‘Telemarketer.’ Even familiar numbers are often spoofed by anonymizing software to give numbers in the Caribbean a local area code and exchange. I have even gotten spam calls from my own number! This intrusion of suspicious callers makes us suspicious of any calling. And of every calling.

In a recent interview with NPR, Adam Smith, editor of the Nobel Prize’s official notification website, NobelPrize.org, laughed that often Nobel Laureates are suspicious when he calls. And they often hang up on him, thinking he is a crank caller. Especially since he calls them late at night or in the wee hours of the morning to preempt the flood of calls that inevitably follow once the announcement becomes public.

How many calls have we ignored or hung up because we suspected a crank caller or spam-risk? We all want to pursue our calling — to fulfill the great purpose for which we exist. But every calling begins with a caller. And while some callers cannot be trusted, there are calls we need to take. Are you able to distinguish the spam-risk from the life-changing call?

Moses felt as sense of calling. But he ran ahead of the God’s call. He did things his own way in his own time. As a result, Israelites rejected him and Egyptians sought to kill him. He fled to Midian and settled into mid-life in the obscurity of life as a shepherd. Hardly the mighty hero, he grew into old age with the sheep, while Egyptian oppression continued unchecked. But God was at work. He was not through with Moses. At just the right time, God calls him into action. Out of a burning bush at the foot of a desolate mountain at the far reaches of Moses’ pasturage, God spoke and called Moses to deliver his people.

Moses receives the call he always wanted. But why now? Why him? Why not someone else? Perhaps this is a divine spam-risk? A scam? A crank call? Moses fears the caller and repeatedly attempts to hang up on the calling. But for all Rachel’s persistence as a caller, God is more so — tenacious and effective. His gifts and his calling are irrevocable. His calling cannot be dodged or declined. And the calling of Moses has important things to teach each of us about our own calling.

Every Christian has a vocation. Every follower of Christ is gifted and called to serve the Lord, the Body of Christ, and the world. What is your calling? Have you heard? Have you heeded? Or did you hang up, thinking God’s call was a spam-risk, a scam, or a crank-call? Join us as we examine Exodus 3:1-10 and consider how the call of Moses is unique, but also an important pattern for God’s call in every Christian’s life.

Learning to Cry

Posted on March 11, 2022 by pottsvillearp

Crying? There’s no crying in math! Or so I thought. Echoing Tom Hanks’ iconic line from A League of Their Own, my children often hear me declare ‘there’s no crying in math – it’s simply facts and figures, not emotion.’ And yet, for all my feeling that there should not be any crying in math, it does indeed exist. It is not the crying of pain, or pleading, or even sadness – it is the crying of overwhelming disorientation as operators and operands leap from the page and swirl in a tornadic vortex, mixed and disordered beyond repair. There is crying in mathematics. Its angst is not merely the angst of computational failure. And many tears have been shed over math in our home.

Crying is peculiar if you think about it. While the production of tears, or lacrimation, has a cleansing effect removing debris from the eye, the physiological and psychological dimensions of crying go much further. We cry when we are afraid, sad, happy, angry, relieved, or surprised. And these emotional tears differ in their chemical composition from other tears. They have higher concentrations of protein-based hormones, including prolactin, and also the neurotransmitter leucine enkephalin – a painkiller produced when one experiences stress. Emotional tears are also more viscous, remaining on a person’s face longer thus more visible to others.

Crying communicates what words cannot. Before children speak, they cry to communicate. And even after we speak, crying communicates what words cannot. Humans are the only creatures that cry. Our tears transmit a depth and nuance of human emotion that even the infinite subtleties of our mother tongue cannot express. We feel this in Paul’s discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27

Groanings too deep for words. That is where prayer often takes us. John Owen, in his treatise on prayer, emphasized written prayer. He rightly observed that vocabulary governs thoughtful expression in prayer. But there are depths of joy, sorrow, and uncertainty that outpace our conscious expression – groanings too deep for words.

“Deep calls to deep” the Psalmist laments. And deep answers deep! This is the truth of crying out to God. His ear is tuned to his children’s cry. He hears, he sees, he remembers, and he knows. No sorrow, trial, joy, crisis, or struggle slips past his loving gaze. The Hebrew people had been slaves of countless Pharaohs through centuries of Egyptian history. They cried out. And God heard. They learned not only to cry over their condition, but to ‘cry out’ and to ‘cry out to God.’ Exodus 2:23-25 shows this dynamic in a remarkable way. Four different expressions of crying are answered by four specific responses from God.

The Hebrews learned to cry. Perhaps this seems absurd. After all crying is not learned. We have known how to cry from day one. Most of us were born crying. No one taught us to cry at weddings or funerals, to cry when pain grips us, or to cry when a loved one returns home. Some cultures cry more, some less. Women cry more than men. Yet we all cry. What we must learn is ‘to whom to cry.’ Until we cry out to the Lord, our crying, though cathartic, is like shouting into the darkness. But when we cry to the Lord, he sees, he hears, he remembers, and he draws near. Only he will answer our cry. Only he can make the difference. Join us this week as we examine Exodus 2:23-25 and consider what it teaches us about learning to cry out to God.

Wait for It

Posted on March 4, 2022 by pottsvillearp

Click bait! Our feeds are flooded with click bait — shameless attempts to lure us to a sketchy website with the promise of frivolity. Often baited with interminably uninteresting videos captioned with ‘Wait for it.’ Well, I never make it to ‘it.’ My patience expires at the minute mark. I refuse to endure two minutes of a duck floating on a pond in hopes that an ‘it’ will appear bringing joy and satisfaction. Wait for it? I think not.

No one likes to wait. Waiting for a test result, a customer service agent, or the next season of your latest streaming binge is agonizing. Waiting has always been hard, but the modern world has attempted to train it out of us. Everything must be immediate. Fast food, same day delivery, on-demand entertainment. Waiting is not on the schedule. Our devices offer us a retreat during our waiting from the virtue of patience or the value of conversation with an actual person.

Modern life waits for no man and no modern man waits for life. The vacuum demands filling. The idle moment screams, ‘don’t just stand there, do something.’ But God often says, ‘don’t just do something, stand there.’ That is solid advice. ‘Wait!’ is often God’s plan for us. Twenty-five times the Psalms counsel us to ‘wait upon the Lord.’ And eleven times Isaiah catalogues the benefit of waiting upon the Lord. And the rest of the Bible takes up the theme. From Genesis to Revelation, waiting is on the docket.

But what does waiting look like? And what do we do while we wait? David Giarrizzo, in his article, Nine Ways We Wait Upon the Lord observes,

When we think of waiting, we often think of passivity. Waiting is practically synonymous with doing nothing. When the Bible speaks of waiting, it’s an entirely different thing than what we do after we take a number at the motor vehicle department. Biblical waiting is not a passive activity, but is demonstrated by active dependence upon and obedience to God. Thus, waiting upon God is a spiritual discipline that we should seek to practice in our lives.
David Giarrizzo

Learning the spiritual discipline of waiting is critical. But failing to do so is catastrophic. In Samuel 13, Saul’s stunning failure to wait for Samuel to offer sacrifices before a battle costs Saul his kingdom.

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
1 Samuel 13:13-14

Refusal to wait upon the Lord brings grief. Saul learned this. And Moses had to learn this too. Moses’ birth was remarkable. God saved him to be Israel’s deliverer. But at the outset, he fails to wait on God’s calling and instruction. And in one foolish act, forty years of hopes for Israel’s deliverance go up in smoke. In Exodus 2 we read.

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.
Exodus 2:11-15

Moses ran ahead of God’s timing and planning. He had not learned to wait upon the Lord and it cost him. And it cost the people of Israel forty more years of suffering and death. Yet God was not done with Moses. The gracious truth of Moses’ life is that our failures are not a failure of God’s plan or His plan for us. Join us as we examine Exodus 2:11-22 and consider the spiritual discipline of waiting on the Lord.

11/27/2022 | “Who Is This” | Matthew 1:1-17, 21

Posted on March 3, 2022 by pottsvillearp

As the New Testament opens, God places Jesus in a dysfunctional family. A family into which we have been adopted. A family story that shows God’s faithfulness and grace to those who do not have it together. And in his story, we find hope for our own story. Join us as we examine Matthew 1:1-17 and consider the question so many asked about Jesus – “Who is this?”

Going Undercover

Posted on February 23, 2022 by pottsvillearp

“Go outside and play!” That was an important part of my parent’s parenting strategy. It was not a cop-out – but legitimate instruction. When they needed privacy for parental conference, or we were too much underfoot for my mother, or when we moped around decrying, “I’m bored,” the Rx was “go outside and play.” The only ‘screens’ in those days covered our doors and windows. So outside was the place of adventure, imagination and industry.

And go outside we did. Building forts in the woods, riding our bikes for miles and miles, gathering the neighborhood gang for baseball, acrobatics on the Boyd’s trampoline, and our favorite game – Spycraft. Don’t look for it at Game Stop. Spycraft was a game of our own invention. It was a simple game. A hapless neighbor working outside, washing their car, or completing some home improvement project became our target. We began at the point in our cul-de-sac farthest from our quarry. And we would work ourselves as close as possible without being observed by anyone. And in a neighborhood in which watching the neighbors was the unwritten covenant, this was no small challenge.

Hedges, trees, cars, other yard décor in our neighbors’ yards were carefully navigated. Features which had their own unique dangers. The game could go for hours. It took time, careful movement, stealthy concealment and an indefatigable desire to draw close to our object. We were surprisingly effective, or so we thought.

Have you ever thought that others are working carefully, tirelessly, intentionally to draw nearer to you? Though their actions are undetectable as we go about our own lives unaware, they are watching, listening, loving us from a distance? This has been the theme of many great love stories and is a beautiful part of The Great Love Story, the Bible. While our God is a God who reveals himself through His Word, by His Spirit and most fully in His Son, much of his love and care for us goes undetected.

Jesus noted in John 5, “my Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” The psalmist notes in Psalm 121 that, “He who watches over you will neither slumber, nor sleep.” And this reminds us that even as we sleep, the Lord is awake, preparing grace for us in the coming hours and days. This is the sweet doctrine of Providence. Our Westminster Shorter Catechism expresses it succinctly and well.

Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?
A. God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.
Westminster Shorter Catechism

Nothing is out of his control. No circumstance, no crisis, no sorrow, no past, present or future action. He is the God who governs all his creatures and their actions – to graciously redeem, restore, and bless his beloved people. Through providence he works “in all things… for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Do you believe this? Can you rest in the truth that even when you don’t see him drawing near, seeing, hearing, and knowing you and your life, that He is always at work, even to this very day?

Amram and Jochebed, Moses’ parents, believed in the providence of God. They lived in trying times, oppressed by slavery and death. Marriage and family seem ill advised. Yet they trusted in God’s providence rather than fate, or circumstance. Though their grasp of God was in spiritual infancy, God granted them sufficient faith that his promises could not fail. Even when God seems unseen he is seen in his providence. The poet William Cowper would later express the ethos of their faith in his hymn, God Moves In A Mysterious Way.

God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform;
he plants his footsteps in the sea,
and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
of never-failing skill
he treasures up his bright designs,
and works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding ev’ry hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.
William Cowper

Exodus 2 unfolds the remarkable providences of God that fulfill his promises to Jacob’s offspring. Yet he is still undercover. Sometimes God goes undercover in our lives. But he is never absent. The providences that bring about the birth of a deliverer for Hebrew slaves anticipates a greater deliverer whose birth, death and rising again deliver us from sin’s slavery and death. Join us this week as we examine Exodus 2:1-10 and consider the undercover God and the challenges we face to live by a faith that has ‘confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Under Pressure

Posted on February 17, 2022 by pottsvillearp

Few things test a friendship like a self-move. A self-move exposes the flotsam and jetsam of your life and quickly sifts friends from mere acquaintances. I have self-moved. And I have shared in the fellowship of sufferings of friends who unwisely chose the way of pain. I am no stranger to the perils and pitfalls of moving day. Friendships are tested. Marriages are tested. Logistics are tested – and harshly judged. And most importantly, packing skills are tested.

Packing a truck makes clear who has mastered Tetris and who has not. And if that truck is a pickup, you face the daunting prospect of rigging the tarps. Your scant repertoire of three or four boy scout knots is no match for the gale force of the Interstate. Unless you are an engineer with experience testing concept designs in a wind tunnel or perhaps a farmer, you probably have no idea what is required to secure a load with tarps.

The relentless 75 mph wind produces far more pressure than we imagine as we sit behind protected glass cruising the highways and byways. Odds are you will arrive at your destination with rigging in tatters, flapping in the breeze like Himalayan prayer flags. Intense pressure makes quick work of any false claims to competence. And what is true of our tarps is even more true of our convictions.

Who you are under pressure is who you are. Stress reveals fault lines. Weakness buckles. And the strength bears the load. Pressure reveals who we really are, what is really inside. Pressure blasts away facades, social conventions, and political correctness. In the crisis, who you are, what you are, is clearly revealed. We all think we will stand up under pressure. We are sure we will hold fast our convictions. But will we?

Proverbs 24:10 warns, “if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” And Proverbs 20:6 observes, “many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” The Apostle Paul also warns us, “therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor 10:12) Do we fear God more than man? Will we resist pressure to compromise our faith? Will we meet persecution like those in Revelation who “conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives unto death?” (Rev 12:11)

How will we handle pressure when it comes? Who we are under pressure is who we really are. We see this first in Exodus, not in the lives of Moses or Joshua, but in the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. We read simply that they feared God more than Pharaoh. They put themselves, the midwives who worked for them, and their families at extraordinary risk because of their convictions. We often focus our scrutiny of these women on their truthfulness, but their courage is prodigious.

The midwives were not national leaders. Nor did they not seek leadership roles in their community. But their quiet, principled resistance thwarted the cruelty of the tyrant. The very policy that Pharaoh thought would exterminate the Israelites was overturned by God to raise up and equip the deliverer through whom he would set his people free.

The midwives’ names are remembered, while pharaohs passed into obscurity. And these godly and faithful women assume far greater historic importance than those all-powerful tyrants who ruled Egypt. Their faithfulness had a great part to play in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan. And so does ours. Under great pressure, they lived by faith. What about you? Join us this week as we examine Exodus 1:15-22 and consider what it looks like to live by faith under pressure.

02/06/2022 | “Promises Kept” | Exodus 1:1-7

Posted on February 17, 2022 by pottsvillearp

Children’s stories are never just for children. Though simple, they are not simplistic. The same is true for the Old Testament. Tempted to read it as moral example or historical background, we often miss its meaning. For example, Exodus is not just a heroic story of Moses, a narrative of liberation, or a bridge from patriarchy to monarchy. But it reveals much more. Join us as we begin this story of promises kept. And a story of grace for our own lives as well.