Nathaniel Wall

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

We may never bow to a frog god, but our idols are just more polished. Comfort, success, approval, and self can all take God's place. Walking through the ten plagues in Exodus 7-10, we see that Jesus is greater than every idol. His glory is not the enemy of our joy. It is where our joy is made full.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

Pharaoh looked like a good, moral person by his culture's standards. He worshipped faithfully by the Nile every morning. But in Exodus 7, God says his heart is heavy, guilty, hardened against the Lord. Jesus makes a similar point in Matthew 7. God didn't create us primarily to do good things. He created us for a relationship with him, and a heavy heart is one that hasn't given itself over to that.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

In Exodus 6, God responds to a discouraged Moses not with explanations but with promises rooted in his own character. Seven times God says "I will," and twice he anchors every one of those promises with "I am the Lord." His promises are good because he is good. When circumstances make it hard to hold on, his character is the place we can always rely on.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

Moses had every excuse ready. Wrong background. Wrong words. Wrong resume. And God acknowledged none of them as disqualifying. Exodus 4 makes clear that God is not looking for capable people who will take the credit. He is looking for people willing to step out of the corner of the cage. Weakness is never an excuse for disobedience. But it can be the very place where God's strength becomes impossible to miss.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

Moses spent 40 years hiding in the desert, convinced his best days were behind him. Then God showed up in an ordinary moment and changed everything. Exodus 3 is not really about Moses at all. It's about the God who calls inadequate people and then supplies everything they need. The question for us is whether we'll stop trusting our excuses and start trusting Him.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

God rescued Moses before he ever used him. That pattern runs straight through Exodus 2. Moses was helpless in a basket, unable to save himself, and God intervened. The same is true for us. Before God works through your life, he works in it. Your own redemption story in Christ is not incidental to your calling. It is the foundation of it.

From the series: Exodus: The God Who Delivers

Exodus is often summarized as a story of escape. The ten plagues, the Red Sea, the run to freedom. But that gets you only to chapter 15 of a 40-chapter book. The heart of the story is not just what God's people were leaving, but who they were walking toward. God freed them for his presence, not just from Pharaoh's grip. The same is true for us.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Psalm 133 opens with a simple declaration: how good it is when God's people dwell in unity. But unity is more than showing up in the same room. It's a shared identity in Christ, a shared commitment to one another, and a shared mission to a world that desperately needs the gospel. When those three things come together, something remarkable happens. Come see what that looks like.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Psalm 147 opens and closes with the same call: praise the Lord. But the psalmist isn't commanding praise because God is needy or easily angered. He's pointing to something more surprising. The benefit of praise runs in the opposite direction we might expect. God doesn't need it. We do. Praise reorients us toward the God who is both sovereign over the stars and personal enough to bind up broken hearts.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Time and money tell the truth about worship better than words do. Psalm 138 pushes us past surface-level praise to ask what we actually bow down to. David points to God's steadfast love and faithfulness as the fuel that makes wholehearted worship possible. When we understand who God is, not just what he gives, adoration follows naturally. The character of God is what draws the heart in.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Most of us handle personal failure one of two ways. We dismiss it entirely, or we try to perform our way out of it. Neither works. Psalm 130 cuts through both of those dead ends and lands somewhere better. The psalmist looks directly at his own sin, then looks directly at God's forgiveness, and finds the boldness to keep going. That same path is open to us.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Psalm 107 was the psalm the Pilgrims turned to when persecution drove them from Europe and across an ocean. It has anchored people in some of the hardest seasons in history because it does something rare: it speaks to every season, not just one. Whether you feel lost, trapped, broken by your own choices, or simply worn out by a busy life, this psalm calls you back to the same foundation. God has not forgotten you.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Most of us use the word "blessed" without thinking much about it. Psalm 67 pushes back on the easy version of that word. Real blessing is the presence of God shining on your life. And when that sinks in, it changes everything about how you live, how you worship, and how you treat the people around you.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Written a thousand years before the crucifixion, Psalm 22 describes pierced hands and feet, bones out of joint, soldiers casting lots for clothing. None of that is coincidence. It is God making clear that the cross was never an accident. Jesus went there deliberately, thinking of others up to his final breath, so that nothing you carry would be beyond his reach.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

Life is fragile, and most of us handle that reality in one of two ways. We let our emotions run the show, or we stuff everything down and put on a religious face. David tried both in Psalm 39, and neither worked. What he found instead was a God worth bringing everything to, including the anger and the confusion. That same God is worth finding today.

From the series: Summer in the Psalms: Vol. 5

David wrote Psalm 15 to describe the person who dwells on God's holy hill, someone of integrity, honest speech, and genuine care for others. But read it carefully and you'll realize none of us live it perfectly or consistently. That gap isn't cause for despair. It's an invitation to run back to the God who pursued us first and whose grace keeps renewing the relationship.

From the series: Acts: The Church on the Move

Life rarely goes according to plan, and neither did Paul's. Shipwrecked, stranded, and then snake-bitten the moment things seemed to be looking up, the Apostle Paul had every reason to despair. Yet in Acts 28, we discover three timeless truths for moving forward after the storm: God's promises outlast the chaos, His purposes are often found in life's detours, and He uses His people to carry us through.

From the series: Acts: The Church on the Move

"Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how." Acts 27 demonstrates this truth through Paul's shipwreck experience. Facing certain death, Paul didn't just survive, he led others through the crisis with supernatural calm. The difference? He knew he belonged to God. Challenges will either reveal the emptiness of self-reliance or deepen our trust in Christ's sufficiency.

From the series: Acts: The Church on the Move

"A storm reveals the strength of a tree's roots." Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27 becomes a masterclass in spiritual resilience. While experienced sailors panic, this prisoner-apostle brings calm to chaos. Why? Because he understood that whether we cause our storms or they're beyond our control, God's faithfulness remains constant. The answer to every storm isn't better circumstances, it's always Jesus.

From the series: Acts: The Church on the Move

Are you utterly convinced of something but potentially wrong? Paul was the most religious person of his day, yet he was 'sincerely wrong' until Jesus confronted him. True discipleship begins with humility, recognizing we didn't create truth and our feelings can mislead us. Where is God 'goading' you toward Him? Don't ignore His pull — He may be calling you to a life of true discipleship.