The goal for this talk is: Clarity in understanding what the Bible teaches about being filled with the Spirit, and how to be filled ourselves.

God sometimes uses the language of a mother to describe how he relates to us. There are beautiful scriptures where he tells us how he sees us, hears our cry and deeply cares for us, using mother imagery.

This psalm is beautifully constructed, and designed to stir our hearts to praise God by painting a picture of how he cares for us so deeply. What encouragement!

We already knew that God is a God of power yet compassion, purity yet forgiveness, high above all but utterly faithful as a friend. But Jesus revealed something new, something shocking, something almost unbelievable, at the very core of the supreme being.

What does it mean to bless someone? Does it actually do anything? How can a human bless God? We need a firm Biblical foundation for answering these questions.

The truth behind baptism is deeply empowering and encouraging, and can explain some of the tensions we experience as we try to live the Christian life.

Through stories of how God relates to humans we learn of a different kind of love that is at the core of who God is. Chesed is utterly faithful, loyal to the very end, a love that will never let you go. When you understand it, there is no word that is more beautiful.

The resurrection of Jesus was not simply coming back to life, but the start of a new kind of humanity. It gives us access to a new kind of life within us—empowered for victory.

All the Bible is God’s Word, and is beneficial, but different parts have different purposes. Some parts are more suitable for study than devotional reading and we can get discouraged if we make this mistake. Here is a way of deciding where to read.

Let us read the last three chapters, and feel what it was like for Jesus, the one who paid our ransom, and be filled with love and adoration for him.