Series
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
The Book of Esther
The Book of Esther
Sermons
Rev. Jerry Hamstra
Introduction to Acts
Introduction to Acts

Doubt

Genesis 15

Read: Genesis 15

“And one of the promises that is most difficult to believe is that how God could ever forgive us for our sins and accept us as his people. Once the grace of God shows us even a little bit of how incredibly evil our sins really are, the thing that will seem to be most impossible of all is how God could ever do anything else but banish us from his presence forever. That God is willing to forgive us and embrace us as his beloved people is perhaps the most impossible thing of all once we understand even a little bit of what our sin must look like to God.
And then the covenant oath becomes very precious. And then our baptism becomes very precious because our baptism is the sign and seal of the covenant for those who have fled to Jesus for refuge.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

The Dark Night of the Soul

“This passage shows us that life can be very hard for the people of God. Sometimes it is easy and pleasant. But sometimes it is very hard. It can be hard for various reasons. But there will be times in our lives when we may have trouble believing a lot of what God says to us in his word about working everything together for good and being a just and a loving and a compassionate God. So that is one thing that this passage shows us. This is the word of God and the word of God is showing us that sometimes the people of God have a very hard time reconciling what the Bible says about God and what their experience of life or their observation of life seems to be saying about God. We can sometimes experience the dark night of the soul where we question God and his ways with us or with the world in general and see life as pointless and not worth living.”
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra