Painful thoughts are not unusual for a Christian to have. The emptiness of unanswered prayer, pain that you can’t describe or that you’re afraid to share, loneliness. That feeling like you’re going to have to quit the Journey, that you can’t make it to the finish line. How do you keep going then? How do you find endurance to finish the journey when you feel alone or worn out or are running hurt?

For the next three weeks we’re going to be thinking about how and why to embark on a spiritual Journey with Jesus, how to enjoy the Journey, and how to develop endurance for the Journey. In Luke 15, Jesus told three parables to drive home the point that “lost people matter to God."

The purpose of the Bible is to record how God is working out His redemptive plan through human history. God graciously called Abram into a covenant relationship to show that salvation is about God’s blessing rather than man’s effort. During times of confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, we can have confidence that God is at work.

There is a “law” of unexpected consequences. You’ve probably experienced it. You face a problem and endure it for a while. Eventually it comes to a point where you have to make a plan to get out of the problem. You rely on your experience and wisdom. Maybe get some advice. Maybe you even prayed. You execute your plan. But along the way, there are unexpected consequences to your plan. Abraham also experienced the law of unexpected consequences when he found himself “off track” in Egypt. Today we’ll learn some important lessons to help us get back on track.

Abraham’s nephew Lot was a lot of trouble! But that didn’t keep Abraham from loving him. Abraham was learning that God was calling him into a covenant relationship to imitate God’s character of love to the world around him.

In the test over Abraham’s son Isaac, God is asking, “Which is more important to you – Me or the blessings I have promised?” In the end, Abraham was commended as God’s friend because “his faith and his actions were working together.” (James 2:22) True faith will always show itself by your obedient actions.

For the next several weeks we’re going to concentrate on where our church is going and some things that are vitally important if we are going to get there. We need to keep the faith, live obediently, and maintain unity if we are going to stay true to our calling and enjoy God’s blessings.

Society has many views , speculations, and doubts on what the after-life will be like. God’s word gives us some images of things in heaven that we can be sure of. The most frequent illustration of heaven is that of a large, festive banquet. At the beginning of eternity, there is a large feast called the “wedding supper of the Lamb.” (Re 19:9) The invitations have been mailed, the guests are making their RSVPs, and the table is being set.

Culture has many views and speculations on what the after-life will be like. What does the Bible teach about heaven and hell? In the first part of this series, we will look at what the Bible teaches about hell.

Imagine that once upon a time, there were men –and only men – living on the planet Mars. Two planets over, on Venus, there were only women. One day, the men looked through their telescopes and spotted the women on Venus and it awakened feelings they had never known. As time went on, the Martians and Venusians decided to settle on Earth and everything worked great – for a while. Then trouble crept in - tension in their relationships, mainly because of selective amnesia. The men and women forgot that they came from two different planets and were wired differently. Today, we learn how to survive the invasion from Mars!