Word of Life Church » Podcasts

Gideon: An Unknown Man

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:00:37 +0000

In this final message in the series “The Ancient & Mysterious Stories of God”, Pastor Derek Vreeland tells the story of Gideon. After Joshua died, a generation grew up that did not know the LORD. The people of Israel had just begun to settle down in the land God promised to Abraham, when they started worshiping pagan gods. In his mercy, God sent judges or “warlords” to defeat Israel’s enemies and lead the people back to the worship of the one true living God. Gideon was one of these warlords. He was able to defeat the Midianites after God had stripped his army down to just 300 men. In this story, we see how God is able to rescue by stripping a man down to virtually nothing. In this regard, Gideon’s story foreshadows the coming of Jesus who “made himself nothing”, by laying aside his power and authority as God. After Jesus humbled himself even to the point of death, God exalts him, making Jesus the savior of the entire world.

Is There Something More To Life?

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:00:51 +0000

This message from Student Ministries Director Jacob Taylor explores the question: “Is there more to life?” We have all asked this question at some point, especially in those times when life seems to grow mundane. There is always more than what seems to be but we must choose to see it; to see the God who dwells in the empty space of our lives.

Rahab: A Sinful Woman

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:00:43 +0000

God works through our messes and mistakes, working with us as we are and not as we should be. Pastor Derek Vreeland continues the series The Ancient & Mysterious Stories of God by telling the story of Rahab, who is an unlikely heroine as she is both a pagan and a prostitute. She was not a rich or powerful woman; she was a harlot. As Joshua sends two spies into Jericho to check out the land, they find lodging in Rahab’s house. Instead of turning the spies over to the authorities, she hides them. Her act of kindness based in faith provides protection for her and her family when Joshua and his army invade the city. Rahab becomes a member of God’s covenant community and finds herself in the linage of Jesus Christ.

So, Tell Me Your Story

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:00:54 +0000

People are not made up of a series of facts, but in a collection of their stories. As followers of Jesus, we need imaginations shaped by story so we can rightly read and enter into God story. In this message, Pastor Derek Vreeland describes how both the gospel and the Scriptures are stories. The gospel is not a set of ideas or principles, but the announcement that the God of Israel has become King of the world in and through Jesus Christ. As we begin to cultivate our own stories and tell them right, we learn the best way to tell the gospel story is by telling our own stories.

Of God and Gallows

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:00:53 +0000

In this message of the series “The Ancient & Mysterious Stories of God”, Pastor Brian Zahnd tells the story of Esther, Mordecai, and Haman. The book of Esther is unique in the Bible as it never once mentions God. Furthermore, there are no supernatural miracles in the book of Esther. But of course God is present in Esther and there are miracles; God is present in disguise and the miracles are miracles of timing. When you can’t see God, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t there. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t miracles occurring. The story of Ester can leave you with the impression that God’s people are always saved from the gallows. But we know that isn’t always true. What about the times when the miracle does not come? This is the question Pastor Brian wrestles with in “Of God and Gallows”.

The Locked Room

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:00:29 +0000

Fear is the emotion mostly behind anger, strife, war, and violence. Most angry people are actually afraid. They may not even realize it, but behind their anger is deep fear. They perceive the world as changing and they feel threatened, and they react in anger. Once you let fear in the room, it crowds out everything else and locks the doors. Fear causes you to live in a locked room where everyone thinks just like you do. Because you refuse to allow new ideas or other kinds of people into the locked room, you relate to the outside world with hostility and as caricatures, and not as real people. Those who are afraid become obsessed with security. An obsession with security is a fear-based ideology that leads to sudden destruction. Jesus doesn’t call us to peace by having security, he calls us to peace by having trust. The more you have the peace of Christ, the less you relate to others as enemies. The person filled with the peace of Christ has little fear and few enemies, and does not see the world as a hostile place that we must hide from in a locked room. The promise of Jesus isn’t security, the promise is peace!

Faith Life Weekend 2012: I Am From The Future

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:00:23 +0000

The first job of the church is not to be relevant or even successful, but rather, to be faithful. Our greatest act of prophecy is to be faithful to the Lordship of Jesus here and now. To be prophetic we need to live (as much as possible) according to the age to come. We need to ask ourselves the question: What does the redeemed world where Jesus reigns look like, and what will be restored and what will be abolished? If we can answer these questions, we gain a course of action and a template of how to live now. We must keep asking what will be restored and what will be abolished, and hen we must do all we can to be that way now. It is in this way that we are from the future. But if we say we believe the age to come will be very different, and yet live the same as the surrounding culture, we are not prophetic.

Faith Life Weekend 2012: East of Eden

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:00:14 +0000

We live in a world gone wrong. And it has been going wrong for a long time. It’s gone off course because humanity thought it could know good and evil without God, because human civilization has been built around the wrong axis. Jesus came to give the world a new axis. Instead of an axis of power and violence, Jesus gives an axis of love and forgiveness. This is the saving beauty of Jesus Christ and the cross. This is the story the Bible tells of Cain and Abel, a portrait of humity moving away from God and headed for trouble. This is the story of East of Eden.

Faith Life Weekend 2012: Axis of Love

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:00:42 +0000

The organizing principle of human civilization is an axis of power enforced by violence. The Bible shows us this as it tells the story of Cain murdering his brother Abel, then fleeing to the East and founding the first human civilization. But through the cross, Jesus re-founds the world and human civilization. Jesus does this at the cross by giving humanity a new organizing principle. Instead of power enforced by violence, Jesus establishes the world around love expressed in forgiveness. This is the radical accomplishment of the cross. Jesus gives the world a new axis, an axis of love and forgiveness.

Faith Life Weekend 2012: A Cathedral of Astonishment

Pastor Brian Zahnd — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:38 +0000

In our modern Christianity, we have lost our astonishment with the gospel story. We’ve made the gospel practical, sensible, and reduced it to things like “The Four Spiritual Laws”. We have no use for astonishment because we have no use for astonishment. But astonishment is the most appropriate initial response to the gospel story. To respond to the gospel story with utilitarian questions is completely inappropriate. Our first response should be astonishment and stunned silence. Without this initial response, you meet Christianity in a wrong way. Our faith, our theology, and our Christian witness all needs to work to create a cathedral of astonishment. We have a Christianity that is relatively popular, but damaged. In our attempt to make Christianity practical, we have stripped it and left it shallow and trite. And in the long run, when you sacrifice beauty for the sake of practicality, you end up making it completely impractical. If we build churches by making the gospel “practical” and worship “exciting” we may end up with something popular, but is it Christianity?