How do I hope for God to judge all the world's evil, wickedness, and sin-twisted corruption when I, myself, am implicated in that very judgement?

As we prepare for Advent, we turn to the prophet Isaiah, who announces the counterintuitive truth that God's promises of peace arrive through and in the midst of His judgment. The city that once sheltered justice, Jerusalem, has abandoned the widow and the fatherless, it has given itself over to other, lesser things. Yet, Isaiah proclaims God's promises to remove its corruption and restore its faithfulness. Hope begins with recognition: Not ours, but God's as He confronts that which we have become, and what we have given ourselves over to.

Isaiah reminds us that hope is subversive: weapons become tools for cultivation; God walks among us; power become a helpless infant, light reaches into darkness; a small, fragile shoot sprouts from a tree stump long thought dead and gone.

Judgment, though, perhaps, frightens us? But maybe rightly so. Evil cannot endure if creation is to become and remain good, and we cannot place ourselves outside that reckoning. Yet in Jesus, the Messiah foretold in Isaiah, we can come to expect more than mere destruction: through what feels like struggle, violence, pain, and even death, God restores peace and brings us back into relationship with Him. The end of judgement is, ultimately, reconciliation.

Questions for reflection:
• Do we expect God to judge sin, including our own? What makes that frightening?
• Where do we confuse the end of evil with the end of hope?
• How might hope in restoration through judgment reshape our prayers and relationships this week?
• What would change in our prayers and relationships if we desired that restoration for the people we find hardest to love, as well as for ourselves?

Scripture References: Isaiah 1:21–31; 2:1–5; 7:10–14; 9:2–7; 11:1–10.

From our pre-Advent series, Building Expectation · November 1, 2026

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How do we look honestly at ourselves--recognizing both the content and intent of each affection, attention, and action--with unflinching courage and compassion, without turning confession, contrition, and prayer into just another bit of performative, introspective, religious theatre?

Especially, when we consider the fact that we are called saints before we have finished becoming saints--certainly long before most of us feel like saints anyways. As we have said, the name "saint" is both a gift and a task: God sets us apart in Christ, precisely BEFORE and WHILE we learn to live into that identity together, with all that we are—spirit, soul, and body. Our ordinary habits matter because they form us through who/how/where/why/what we attend and respond to during each moment, every hour, all the days of... YOUR life.

This week we practiced the Examen. We recall who we are in Jesus, settle into the Father's love, notice God's presence and our response, bring our resistance out into the light, and entrust tomorrow to the grace and embrace of Jesus known and felt today. The distinction between consciousness and conscience matters: we attend both to where we received God's nearness and to where we ignored it. We ask the Spirit to help us see clearly, confess honestly, and take a concrete step toward restoration. Christ loved us, even died for us, while we were still sinners; so now we can face what needs fixing and hold what needs healing without fear or shame.

Questions for Reflection

• Where did you notice God's nearness this week, and how did you respond?
• What habit helped you relate to God as Father and to others as brothers and sisters?
• Where did you resist the Spirit's leading, and what step toward restoration might you take tomorrow?

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:2–4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Psalm 139:7–18, 23–24; Luke 6:39–42; 1 Corinthians 2:1–16; Romans 5:6, 8.

From the series Simple Saints

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Tired of consumer Christianity? So are we.
Come rest in Jesus. → Sundays at 10:10AM
642 Brookhurst Dr, Dallas, TX 75218.
Christ City Church is a faith family following Jesus together in east Dallas.
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What does listening to God have to do with the body you live in, the work you do, and the people you find difficult to hear?

Our name, saints, is both a gift and a task: we are, thus, set apart in Christ and called to become who we have been named, together. By Simple Saints, we refer to simplicity as the harmony of our whole selves: spirit, soul, and body receiving and sharing in the life God gives.

Yes, the body, too, belongs to that hope. Though it grows tired and passes toward death, it will be resurrected; it is where the Spirit saves and forms us even now. Romans 12 calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, with minds being renewed to discern what is good. The habits of an ordinary day matter: how we work, care for what has been entrusted to us, and attend to one another.

In 1 Kings 19, Elijah moves from the triumph of Carmel into fear, exhaustion, and the conviction that he is alone. God meets him with food and sleep, then with a still, small voice and a calling to return. Elijah discovers that God has been at work beyond what he could see, including among people he did not know were faithful.

We enter this passage through Lectio Divina, a practice handed down through our faith family across generations. We listen to Scripture, meditate on what we hear, respond in prayer, and rest with Jesus. Before we speak, we listen. As we learn that habit with God, we can begin to practice it with our spouses, neighbors, and even our enemies. Our whole selves participate: bodies at rest, minds attentive, hearts and wills open to God.

Questions for Reflection:

• Where do you treat your body or your ordinary responsibilities as though they have little to do with life in God?
• What changes when you offer them as worship?
• Where do you recognize yourself in Elijah’s story: afraid, exhausted, convinced you are alone, or being invited to return? What do you notice about how God meets him?

• As you listen to 1 Kings 19:1–18, what word, detail, or person draws your attention?
• Ask God how it connects with your life today, respond in prayer, and leave time to rest with Jesus.

Scripture References: Romans 12:1–2; 1 Kings 19:1–18 (with the context of 1 Kings 18); 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; 2 Corinthians 7:1.

Voice referenced: St. Irenaeus of Lyon,

Simple Saints

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Tired of consumer Christianity? So are we.
Come rest in Jesus. → Sundays at 10:10AM
642 Brookhurst Dr, Dallas, TX 75218.
Christ City Church is a faith family following Jesus together in east Dallas.
Learn more at www.christcity.life

Follow us on...
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