A Place in His Presence with Cody Andras: Encountering God in our Actual Lives

We've finally come to the first chapter of Hebrews that we are likely already familiar with. We're so accustomed to reading Hebrews 11 and viewing it as an account of the incredible faithfulness of the ones who've gone before us. But what if instead, we viewed it as an account of those who can testify to the faithfulness of their God--of our God?

Whatever our circumstances, we can have confident faith not in our ability to have fai...

Active belief requires putting our faith into practice. It requires taking what might seem like theory and applying it to the way that we live out our days on this earth.

In Hebrews 10, the author encourages us: Since Christ has made a way for us to come into the presence of God, then we ought to respond accordingly--we ought to actually draw near to God! And then, as though knowing that might sound obscure, he gives us a few speci...

In Lesson 8, we talk about the significance of remembering. We are encouraged to remember what God has done for us -- to recall His past faithfulness and remind ourselves that He can be trusted. We are also reminded that the Old Covenant, with its sacrifices and offerings, provided a reminder of sin year after year. Under the New Covenant, when Christ extends His perfect forgiveness, He no longer remembers our sins. Instead, we cel...

All of the good news of the gospel can start to sound a lot like theory, especially when we start talking about covenants and promises that were made to people who lived thousands of years ago. Even when we are able to summon the faith and hope to believe that the God who has kept that covenant for thousands of years, we may not know what to do with it when our tire is flat on a Wednesday.

That was the reality of my week. I was dee...

In Hebrews 7, we find Jesus introduced as the perfect mediator--the perfect go-between for God and man. Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and revealed Himself to be the perfect priest.

Under the Old Covenant Law, a priest was needed to go before God on behalf of mankind and to come before mankind on behalf of God. When Jesus, our Great High Priest, came, He became the final, perfect go-between for God and...

In Hebrews 6, we come across one of the most controversial and confusing passages of Scripture, and we are forced to ask ourselves, what does it mean to "fall away" from God? My hope in this lesson is that we will be challenged and encouraged to "press on" to maturity, to not grow weary in seeking Christ, to persevere in our pursuit of Him--not because we are earning salvation but because we are assured that Christ has provided it.

When we encounter the holiness and glory of God, the last thing we'd expect is an encouragement to draw near with confidence to Him. We would expect His holiness to make us step back, aware of the impurities of our own hearts. We might think His glory would exclude us completely from His presence, causing us to cower rather than to step toward our God.

But that migh...

In Episode 4 of this season's podcast, we will consider the idea that guilt is a gift, and that it is what we choose to do with our guilt that determines the trajectory of our lives with Christ. We will discuss what it means that God has provided the salvation that He promised. Our walks with Jesus will never be without setbacks. We will always be in need of a Savior. A walk toward Jesus isn't one that never f...

So often, we judge God's faithfulness off of whether He does what we want, then way we want, when we want. We look to our circumstances to decide if God is good and if He is faithful. But what does it really meant that God is faithful? To be faithful means to follow through on the things one has promised to do, so in this lesson, we'll consider some of God's promises and the ways that He has kept and is keepin...

This week, we dive into Hebrews 1, considering what it means that Jesus is better than the angels. We will also explore the idea that God has spoken through the ages and continues to speak to us today through His Son and His Spirit. Join us as we consider what it means to hear from God and to trust in both the sufficiency and the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in relation to everything else in our ...

This season on the podcast, we'll be opening up the book of Hebrews together and find within its pages an invitation to draw near to Jesus. This week serves as both an introduction to Hebrews as well as an introduction to my approach to Bible study. I'm teaching this study at Bayou City Fellowship on Mondays and Tuesdays, and every Thursday (more frequently than the past seasons!), the audio version of the tea...

People sometimes ask me if there’s a woman in the gospels that I most resonate with. There is. I don’t know if I resonate with her or just long to be like her. But it’s Mary Magdalene. She knew something about longing and letting go. We don’t see much of this Mary’s personal life. We know she was from Magdala, but apart from that, we really aren’t told much.

But this is what I’ve observed: Mary Magdalene sought one thing every time...

If you've ever heard me teach before, you won't be surprised by today's topic. We're going to talk about hope that holds. I'm concerned that the word "hope" has become so flimsy. Hebrews 6:19 tells us that "hope is an anchor for the soul," holding steady in a world gone wild. But what we often refer to as hope is nothing more than a latex balloon--equally as likely to float away as it is to burst when it comes...

In the last episode, we talked about how we respond to the Lord when He hasn't done what we expected Him to do. In episode 6, we're talking about finding God faithful when our life isn't what we expected. Specifically, what do we do when we can't understand what God is doing. What is the difference between understanding God and truly trusting Him? Is it possible that we are demanding answers from God where He is instead offering us...

In Episode 5, we will talk about the primary importance of spending time seeking Jesus. We will look into the lives of Mary and Martha and see how they prioritized the presence of their Savior. Sometimes there are reasons that we're avoiding Jesus' company, but what we see in the heart of Jesus toward His daughters is that He loves it when we come before Him. We will see how Mary sought to sit at the feet of Jesus when He was in th...

In both of our stories today, we see women that Christ encountered who did not outwardly display any great faith in approaching Him. In fact, it’s unclear whether they sought Jesus at all, but it doesn’t matter because Jesus sought them!

Sometimes, we need to know that Jesus can find us even when we aren’t all that intent on finding Him, even when we aren’t sure He’s looking for us

We think it is our season that is making us feel alone or isolated. We think it’s our singleness that makes us feel isolate. We think being a new mom makes us feel isolated. We think being a widow makes us feel isolated. Sometimes even newly married people feel isolated because their friend groups shifts as their circumstances change. We think that it is circumstances that make us feel as through no one can rel...

The thing about recognizing Jesus’ presence and faithfulness in our lives is that it is much easier to recognize when He does what we expect Him to do:

When the prayer is answered.

When the healing comes.

When the dead are raised.

The reality is that not all of our moments or seaso...