"Preparing the Way"

We are approaching the fourth Sunday in this glorious season of Advent, as we anticipate entering into the Christmas season. This Sunday, the fourth candle will be aflame. And during the season of Advent, one of the characters from Holy Scripture, it is so often and rightly so, associated with Advent, is John the Baptist.

Remember, as we've been studying in this series, Mary and Elizabeth, that Elizabeth and Zechariah were the parents of the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Chr

"God's Presence in Us"

Have you ever met someone where you feel like they just kind of stand just a little bit too close to you and then you kind of take a step back just a little bit, just to give it a little bit more distance? And then you notice that they take a step toward you. They can be very nice. Of course, perhaps they just have a different kind of spatial orientation. But it can be a little awkward, can't it? Because we like our distance, right? We like our distance.

When we hear in Hol

"Preparing for Christmas"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. As you know, we are in the Advent season, the season where we look forward to Christmas. We look forward to preparing for Christ. The first two weeks in Advent are really focused on the coming Christ, the second coming of Christ. And it's that time of preparing for Christ to make his appearance.

And we get so bogged down, thinking and wondering and making sure we're ready for Christmas.  But if we're being honest with ourselv

"Give Thanks"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday. 

In this devotion, a week before Thanksgiving Day, I would like to share with you a beautiful poem written by Reverend Gerhard E. Frost. He was a Lutheran pastor and seminary professor, and this is a wonderful poem written by him. It's called "Let Us Give thanks."

"Let us give thanks this moment for the sturdy fact of God's continuing love, for mercies which go before us and follow after us, for those free gifts which cost God so muc

"The First Two Questions"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bible please to Genesis, the third chapter. Genesis chapter three for our time in God's Word. Here's a question. What are the first two questions recorded in Holy Scripture?

To answer that, we go to Genesis. The picture is the Garden of Eden. God had placed our first parents, Adam and Eve there. God had clearly communicated to them his will.

They could eat of any tree of the garden save one. The tree

"Praise the Lord"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. Let's read from Psalm 150. "Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his surpassing greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise him with lot and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with clanging cymbals. Praise him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that breathes

"Time, Talent, and Treasure"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

When we turn to the Lord in prayer, we can have the confidence that God doesn't only hears our prayers, but he also answers our prayers. And one of the great prayers that all of us pray for, is that more and more people will know of the Lord Jesus Christ; that more and more people will know of God's great love for us. Jesus taking our sin on the cross.  Death overcome. The tomb is empty. God forgiving us of our sins. God

"Blessed, Peace, and Kingdom"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. Today, in our time of devotion, together, we are going to take three seemingly random things and bring them together to see how God works in the bigger picture and through, through his Spirit. 

So the first word that we're going to think about is "blessed." The second word is "peace."  And the third word is "kingdom."

Okay. So recently,  I was meditating and thinking about how blessed I am. And it's not because I'm a milliona

"The Real Christ"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. 

I heard a really interesting story of a conversation between a pastor and a banker. The banker was explaining to his pastor that he had been trained as a high level bankers in Washington, DC for a week on counterfeit money. This pastor was very intrigued.

The pastor asked him how he was trained. He said, "Do you go into a room for a week in Washington, DC, and just look at various counterfeit monies? That must be so interesti

"Sin's Effects on Creation: Natural Disasters"

Good morning. Would you open your Bibles, please, to Romans, the 8th chapter. Romans, the 8th chapter for our time in God's word today, as I record this, it's actually Wednesday morning, the eve of when that big storm is going to hit Florida. We have some members that are currently there now, so we will be keeping them, of course, in our prayers and in fact, the entire state and all those affected here by the recent storm. And now this one.

Coming at a time such as this, it

"Prayer"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. In our time of devotion together this morning we are going to spend our time in prayer. We will read from God's Word. But there has been so much happening in these past few weeks and you have been experiencing so much in your lives that I think it's a good time for us to come together and pray with one another and pray for one another.

It's always a good time for prayer. But as I was preparing for this time together with you,

"Success"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles, please, with me to the Gospel of John, the 21st chapter.  

Success. We hear that term a lot, don't we? And the world can define success in terms of accumulations or achievements, power or influence. Like a child sitting in the back seat of a car on a trip. We can continue to ask, am I a success? Yet?

Have I arrived?  Am I a success? It's interesting when you look at the Bible. The Bible tells

"Stress"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. Today I'd like to address the topic of "stress".  We all have stressors in our lives. It's called daily living. But as a Christian people, we don't have to be consumed by the stress in our life, because we have the Lord who loves us and walks with us and guides us. As God's children, every single day, we can cling to him, cling to the promise that he brings to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Cling to the promise that he de

"Rally Around God's Word"

Good morning and the blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles please, to 2 Timothy the third chapter for our time in God's Word today? This coming Sunday is such an important day in the life of the congregation..."Rally Sunday"  in which we rally anew around the Word of God. Sunday school for age three through adult.

It's a wonderful, wonderful day. And so as we prepare for rally day this coming Sunday, I thought of 2 Timothy, the third chapter. There

"Small Groups"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. In our time of devotion together, I want to highlight an aspect of ministry or a ministry that is very near and dear to my heart. I want to talk about small groups, and it's not so much the studies, though I will say I think we have amazing studies every year, and this year is certainly no exception. But I want to highlight the aspect of small groups that is very meaningful, in my opinion. And it's that relationship and conn