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A hard truth of life is that moments will come that disrupt and break our lives in ways we never thought possible.  Some have called them _earthquake events_; hardships or trials that shake us to our very core.  When we go through times like that, we all tend to ask a couple of questions: _Why is this happening,_ and _Where is God?_  Often it can feel like God and his purposes, even his goodness, are hidden from us.  Those times, because of grief and loss, have the power to malform our view both of ourselves and of God.  And they can also leave us feeling hopeless and dejected.  The good news we'll see in this beginning chapter of Ruth, is that even when God seems hidden, even during the most undesirable times in our lives, God's kindness is near to us and he is working for something good that we could never imagine.

Our last question represents a trending skepticism in our cultural moment.  Whereas a generation ago the major pushback to Christian faith would ask, _how can this faith be intellectually plausible_, current skeptics are asking, _how does this faith make people kinder, more just, better?_  Christians and Christianity, it's said, just bring problems and excuse bad behavior.  _Even if it were true_, why would we want it to be?  The answer to this question is found in the person of Jesus and the claim that he is full of grace and truth.  When we look at Jesus -- what _He_ said, what _He_ did -- we see that Christianity is not only true AND good, it is beautiful.

Few things work to undermine Christian faith like throwing the reliability of the Bible into question.  Whether we hear an attack on the Bible's trustworthiness or read a passage that just seems unbelievable or unpalatable, we can often find ourselves asking, "How can I believe that what the Bible says is reliable and true?"  The question of the Bible's credibility can be a significant hurdle for those considering Christian faith, and it can be a strong source of insecuity for those of us who follow Jesus.  The good news with this question isn't only that we can have great confidence in the Bible's truthfulness and reliability, but also that we can confidently know its primary purpose: not to hold us down and limit us, but to free us and lead us into abundant life. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

The most difficult question put to our Christian faith is likely this one: if God is good and powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?  This question goes straight to the pain of our experience.  It cuts our heart.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do children die? Why do hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis senselessly kill hundreds of thousands of people?  And why doesn't God stop it?!  As hard as the question is, and as much as it demands gentleness, God does have answers for us.  They begin in God's own heart, his character.  God does care, and God is powerful; we see this most clearly in his own suffering with us. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In our cultural moment, it is commonly agreed that the only acceptable, respectable approach to life, to faith, to truth is absolute openness or relativism.  As long as no one is getting hurt, then there is nothing wrong with what we say or do -- there's no error or greater truth.  This same sentiment applies to faith or religion.  We live in an era of pluralism. No belief system or religion is viewed as better or more true than any other; they are just a matter of upbringing and preference.  Into all this, the gospel of Jesus, Jesus himself, says something explosive: Jesus is the only way to God.  There are not many more jarring or uncooth statments today than that.  The question is not only how can this be true, but how can this make sense in a moment like ours, and what are we supposed to do about it? This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Every story has an ending. In our cultural moment, a prominent discussion topic is the end of our human story, our civilizational story. What's the ending that we live in light of? How will everything turn out? What difference does it make? As we close the gospel story with this fifth chapter, we see an ending that makes a massive difference in how we live our lives today. C.S. Lewis famously said that those who focus on the next world do the most good for this one. The end of the gospel story in many ways takes us back to where we began. In the end, God will restore us to the abundant life with him, his way, we were made for. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

There's an old saying, now a bit cliche, that says, "Jesus loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way." Even though we might rightly nit-pick at a word or two, or maybe the whole idea, the thrust of it gets at something key to our faith.  What happens when the gospel of Jesus Christ takes root in our lives?  What does God say is meant to happen?  The answer might be summed up in one word: renewal.  As we continue the gospel narrative, through Paul's letter of Colossians, we'll see that Redemption, the heart of the gospel, leads to an inevitable change: renewal.  It leads to a whole-hearted change of life; being remade in Christ.  Jesus's heart is for us to become whole-hearted disciples experiencing and spreading joy and renewal in him. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

What difference does knowing where we come from make in our lives?  We might think about this regarding a home town, or our family, or our university.  But what about the more abstract reality of our humanity?  The gospel of Jesus and our hope in him doesn't come to us "out of the blue"; it doesn't come empty of context.  To understand Jesus and all that he has come to do in our lives demands knowing where we come from; why we're here.  And that takes us to the very beginning.  The beginning of our story. The beginning of everything.  And what God tells us is that we are here because of his desire to create and share a good world with us, so we could enjoy it with him, his way. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

It seems obvious to say that our lives are much more like a marathon than a sprint, but it doesn't always seem obvious or easy to live that way.  A marathon is long, winding, and dotted with ups and downs.  Not only is life like that, but our faith journey is too.  We experience triumphs.  We experience trials.  We experience "blah".   Perhaps the greatest similarity between our faith journey and a marathon is the struggle to finish, to persevere to the end.  Yet finishing is the only option to reach the prize.  As we wrap up this series in Hebrews 11, we'll look at the secret for endurance: Joy.  And the secret to the secret is where we set our eyes: not on our circumstances, but on the promise of the end. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Courage and resilience are traits that go hand in hand.  Courage could be described as an attitude, motivation, or will to press into dangerous and uncertain situations and decisions.  And resilience is the strength to endure, rebuild and persevere through what comes after.  Both courage and resilience are demanded of us in all of life, and especially in our life of faith.  Following Jesus might cost us relationships, being misunderstood, or promotions at work, just to name a few.  Where do we find the resources to follow Him with courage and resilience?  This week, from the life of Moses, we'll see that courage comes through living by faith in God's Power, Promise, Presence, and Purchase. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.