Empowered to Be Witnesses

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Today I want to share one verse from the Bible with you. Acts 1:8

 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

That verse is really instructive for us in terms of the witnessing of our Lord's Church. It's really concentric circles. Jerusalem, and then you go another circle to Judea and Samaria. And then

Gray Hair is a Crown of Glory

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

I have a funny story that I want to share with you. A couple of weeks ago, as we were rehearsing the combined Children's Choir and Adult Choir anthem, a little girl sitting next to me said to me, “You have something in your hair.” I was wondering what she was seeing. Again, she said, “I don’t know what it is, but you have something in your hair. It’s shiny.” Then it dawned on me that she was talking about the tinsel that

Living in the Last Days

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

This coming Sunday is a great Sunday in the life of the church. It's Pentecost Sunday.  We're going to remember and celebrate that outpouring of the Holy Spirit we read of in Acts the second chapter. 

On Sunday we're going to study Acts 2:1-11. But right now I’d like us to look at a section right after that, when Peter rises to preach. He declares in verse 17

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

Then he goes on to giv

The Ascension of Our Lord

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

Today is a very important day in the life of the church. Today is the day that we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus Christ… the Ascension of the crucified, resurrected Christ, when he entered into the throne room to sit at the right hand of the Father.

In Hebrews 9:24 we read…

 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence o

Mothers

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

This Sunday we will be celebrating Mother's Day. I want us to take a moment to, first of all, thank the Lord not only for the women who gave us birth, but also thank the Lord for all of the women who have been influential in our lives. We give thanks for the women who passed on the faith to us… the women who have taught us, and cared for us… grandmothers, teachers, sisters, friend’s moms… all of the women in our lives who hav

A Work in Progress

Good morning and the most blessed Thursday to you.

Our church offices are currently under construction, getting painted, along with a few upgrades. And I, of course, can't let a good analogy go to waste. So in our time of devotion today, I want us to reflect on how all of us are under construction.  We are all a work in progress… a hot mess. Any of us can look at our own lives and say, “I’m a hot mess. I’m a work in progress.” 

But the danger in knowing we’re a work in prog

The Precious Gift of Baptism

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

Baptism is such a wonderful gift of God for us, isn't it? it's such a precious, precious gift that God gives. And one of the questions that can be asked with regard to baptism is, why do we baptize babies? Well, from an historical perspective, from New Testament Christianity to this very day, it is an unbroken line of the church baptizing babies.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptiz

The Living ,Active Word

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I’m always amazed that I can read the same Scripture over and over again, and every time something new jumps out at me.  I’ve never sat down to read the Bible where something new doesn’t catch my attention, or a new layer of God's goodness and God's grace jumps out. It's just incredible… this living, active Word, that always has something for us to learn and discover. It's incredible!

I was reading in the book of Deuteronomy y

Living in the Joy of Easter

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

What a joyous celebration we had on Easter Sunday morning, proclaiming that Christ is indeed risen… that he is alive… that our sins are forgiven and the tomb is empty. I want to continue with that very good news, that wonderful new.

Hebrews 9:26-28

….he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 

So Jesus came once as man; entering into humanity… entering into flesh to offer h

Choice People Empowered to Witness

Good morning and a blessed Maundy Thursday morning to you. 

We are, of course, in the midst of a wonderful time of worship in the life of the Church… Holy Week. We began that last Sunday with Palm Sunday. We remembered Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He went into Jerusalem to die; to die for the sin of the world. We will remember tonight, as we gather for worship at 7:00 p.m. when Jesus instituted Holy Communion for the first time at the Passover celebration. Tomorro

According to His Mercy

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

Recently, I was reading Psalm 103 with a congregant, and there were a few verses that really jumped out at me. I thought those verses are just perfect for this time of the year, this season of Lent, especially as we are heading into Holy Week beginning this Sunday with Palm Sunday. 

Psalm 103:10-12

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

    nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 

For as the heavens are high abov

What is Your Request of Jesus?

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

For our time of devotion together today, I want us to take a look at two stories from the tenth chapter of Mark. 

Mark 10:35-40.  

35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in yo

Doers of the Word

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

James is such an intriguing figure in scripture. James was a brother of the Lord.  We see that James was not initially a believer. In fact the Bible tells us in the 7th chapter of John that not even Jesus' brothers didn't believe in him. We also see in Mark the 3rd chapter that James would have been part of the family that would have gone out to restrain Jesus, when the people were saying that he had gone mad. Jesus didn't

Priority Number One

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Priorities. All of us have to prioritize, don't we? Priorities are those things which come before. Everything flows out of our priorities. I want us to consider this question this morning. What is the number one priority for us? 

In the Gospel of Luke the 10th chapter we see a story involving Mary and Martha. 

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her hom

A Contrite Heart

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

Last night we had our Ash Wednesday service which marks the beginning of the Lenten season. For the next several weeks we are going to be in a season where we reflect upon the mercy of God, the state of our sinful nature that were born with, and that by God's mercy he forgives us and calls us to be his own.

One of the Scripture reading that we had last night is from the prophet Joel, the second chapter.

12 

“Yet even now,” d