Finding My Story in God's Story (Page 5)

For over 30 years, Heartlight has shared articles to help people live for Jesus in everyday life. While we are no longer publishing new articles, this enduring collection features relevant pieces throughout the year to encourage faith, offer biblical perspective, and speak to real-world joys and struggles.

One Like Moses!

James Nored and Phil Ware move from Abraham and Moses to Jesus in God's great story of redemption.

Moses brought down God's Law from his mountain. Jesus demonstrated God's love on his mountain.

God's Character Shapes His People

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of the importance of the 10 Commandments and the two divine principles of God and Jesus and call us to live them in our daily lives.

God alone had earned the right to speak truth into their lives, compassion into their hearts, and righteousness into their behaviors.

Who Is Really God?

James Nored and Phil Ware look at Moses' showdown with Pharaoh to remind us that this was really a showdown to show who was truly God and our need to choose to follow him.

Moses wanted Pharaoh and the Egyptians to see that only Israel's God was truly God. Anything in addition to God was less.

The Power Behind Our Story

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of the central importance of the resurrection of Jesus and what it means for all us in our lives today

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! And, nothing should ever be the same.

In Over Our Head

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us that God's great stories of deliverance, like the Exodus with Moses leading God's people to victory over Egypt and Pharaoh, are reminders of Jesus' greater deliverance and God's faithfulness.

God has you in a position to see his great work and make your life an enduring testimony of faithfulness in the face of struggle and victory in the face of defeat.

When Life is Unfair!

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of the importance of God's past stories of deliverance to help us know how to live in our times of unfairness and hold onto to hope in the middle of oppression.

God’s great story of redemption reminds us of three truths that we must take with us as we live in a world that always seems to tilt away from fairness.

C.S. Lewis and the Struggle to Find Faith

James Nored and Phil Ware challenge us to look at C.S. Lewis and his journey of faith along with a broken-hearted father and see how we might be able to find faith in our own lives.

The final destination of our journey to faith often depends upon the orientation of our hearts.

More than the Outskirts of His Ways

Phil Ware and James Nored share in word and video an idea about how we can truly understand God's greatness, glory, and grace even though we cannot understand everything about him.

If there is a God and he's out there, why doesn't he just get it over with and show himself to us? Why this need for faith?

Jesus Came to Be One of Us!

James and Phil continue their series on The Story of Redemption by focusing on the birth of Jesus and what it means for us.

We desperately need to push past the glitz of the season and remember the gritty grace of the manger and the glory of God incarnate in a helpless baby who came to be one of us!

Renown or Ransom?

Jame Nored and Phil Ware remind us of Jesus' example of being a servant and giving his life as a ransom to buy our freedom.

How could Jesus' 12 apostles be so clueless? O, yeah. I'm that clueless about half the time!

The Good Life: Following the Way of Jesus

Phil Ware and James Nored, through word and video, remind us of our need to return to the Jesus-styled kind of life.

Jesus went up on the mountain and taught his followers to live the good life — to live as Jesus did!

Wonderfully Unsettling Grace

James Nored and Phil Ware explore the wonderfully unsettling nature of God's grace and His desire to make it accessible to everyone.

God perched His grace on a tree of torture in the middle of humanity's worst abuses so that grace would be available to everyone... even you!

One Defining Note!

Phil Ware and James Nored remind us that the core of our faith is Jesus, that Christ is our defining note around whom all of us must tune our lives and recognize the grace of being called and transformed to be like him.

Do we realize the grace of getting to tune our lives to Jesus?

In the Footsteps of Jesus

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of an important reason to be baptized: Jesus was and said it was the right thing to do.

Jesus said this was the right thing for him to do!

Bat Turn at the Jordan

Phil Ware and James Nored look at what the ministry of John the Baptizer meant for people in his day and call on us to share in this move toward the kingdom of God today.

before we can be ready to be fully used by the Lord in the work of the kingdom of God, we must have our bat turn moment.

One of Us!

James and Phil continue their series on The Story of Redemption by focusing on the birth of Jesus and what it means for us.

Jesus didn't come to earth to be protected from life's harshest realities, but entered into mortality to share it all with us — the good, the bad, the ugly, and the painful!

This is Our Story, Too!

Phil Ware and James Nored continue to share God's story of redemption and focus this week on Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham and David and the genealogy of Jesus that displays God's grace.

We want our lives to be part of Jesus' story of redemption, and then we want to share that redemption with others!

Our Journey with God

Phil Ware and James Nored remind us that we can journey with God like Abraham, knowing that he goes with us until he brings us fully home.

How do I know God is really with me on my journey to find a home with him?

Honesty with God on Our Journey of Faith

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us that Abraham's journey of faith wasn't easy, his life was not perfect, and his questions for God were real.

Thankfully the Bible is honest about the flaws of our heroes so we can know that we can be a person of faith useful to God, too!

Promises! Promises?

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us that God keeps his promises and Jesus is the ultimate proof that God's promises can be trusted!

Is God good enough and big enough to make all of his great promises come true?

My Response to God's Call

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us of the call of the Lord to leave and follow no matter the cost.

Will I follow on the journey, or will I choose to let where I am, where I'm comfortable, and what I have hold me in bondage?

Rebellious Confusion

James Nored and Phil Ware share in thought and video several important truths about the Tower of Babel story and the human resistance to the will of God.

The story of the Tower of Babel is a reminder of the confusion that ultimately results from refusing to obey God's will.

The Struggle to Find Faith

James Nored and Phil Ware look at C.S. Lewis and his struggle to find faith and our own challenges in believing.

I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!

Noah, Violence, and Grace

James Nored and Phil Ware remind us that violence is not God's plan, but humanity's corrupt and wicked propensity to injure and mar those created in the image of God.

The story of Noah fascinates children, but the message of Noah also reminds us of the Creator's heart being broken by humanity's penchant for violence.

God Still Cares

James Nored and Phil Ware continue their messages on God's plan of redemption and how God longs to restore us to himself.

When we have sinned, fallen short of God's plans for us, and have disappointed our heavenly Father, we assume he puts us into his “club for the unwanteds.”