"Comfort in the Chaos"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

In light of the recent tragedies—flooding here in Texas and now in New Mexico, along with devastating fires in New Mexico and California—I wanted to share an excerpt from a sermon that was sent to me recently. The sermon, titled “The Paths of Trust,” was written by the preacher Frederick Buechner.

Let me read a portion of it for you. I pray it brings encouragement and reminds you that we have a God we can trust—a God in wh

"Our True Citizenship"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I want to share some Scripture with you as we begin our time of devotion this morning.

First, from Psalm 73:25–26:

"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

And from Psalm 74:16–17, speaking to the Lord:

"Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the su

"The Golden Rule, Jesus’ Way"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday to you.

Would you please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter six? Today, we turn our attention to the Golden Rule—a teaching of Jesus that speaks directly to how we are called to treat one another.

In Luke 6:31, Jesus says,"Do to others as you would have them do to you."

This is an echo of Leviticus 19:18, and what’s interesting is that nearly every major religion and philosophical system has some form of the Golden

"The Love of God"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday to you.

Would you please open your Bibles with me to 1 John, chapter 4? This portion of God’s Word is incredibly instructive regarding the nature of God’s love. From it, I’d like to share three key points with you today.

Let’s begin at 1 John 4:7:

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."

Here is our first point:Go

"Christ in Me"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I was recently walking through my neighborhood and noticed a home for sale. As I passed by, I saw a small additional sign attached to the main "For Sale" sign that read, “I'm beautiful on the inside.” Naturally, my mind immediately shifted to a theological reflection. I thought, No person in their right mind could truly claim that—at least not in and of themselves.

As Christians, we know that on the inside, we are born sinn

"Ascended, Yet Present"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

Today marks a very important day in the life of the Church. Forty days after Easter—after Jesus Christ was resurrected from the grave, having won the victory over our sin and having had His sacrifice accepted—He appeared to His disciples. He appeared to people for forty days. And on that fortieth day, on that final day, He ascended into heaven and took His place at the right hand of the Father.

The Ascension can be a rathe

"God's Grace in Times of Distress"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

This side of heaven, No one gets through life without experiencing distress. It comes in many forms—fear, anxiety, grief, and outside pressures that bring stress into our lives. None of us escape unpleasant circumstances, and none of us enjoy them.

But distress is part of life—for the Christian, the non-Christian, for everyone. As Christians, however, we are called to respond to it in a very specific way.

A couple of weeks

"The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles please, for our time in God's word to 1 Corinthians, the 15th chapter. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15th. Each and every Sunday you'll notice in these weeks after Easter that the large Christ candle is right next to the altar. That Christ candle is a flame and that reminds us of the 40 days after the resurrection of our Lord until His ascension.

And so each and every Sunday in this 40 day period, m

"The Greatness of God"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

The weather has been wild lately—so much rain, thunder, and lightning. It reminded me of a moment a couple of weeks ago when I was awakened around four in the morning by the sound of thunder. It was so powerful that it shook the entire house. In that moment, my first thought was, Wow, God, You are amazing.

It’s incredible to think how much greater and more vast God is than we could ever imagine. He exists beyond every galaxy

God's Faithfulness

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

We just wrapped up our fourth midweek Lenten service, beautifully led by the children. It was such a meaningful time for the congregation—not only because it’s the season of Lent, but also because it’s so special to have the children lead us in worship. It truly was a gift.

Each week during these midweek services, we closed with a responsive prayer that tied into the fruit of the Spirit we had focused on. For example, if t

"How Should We Pray?"

Should we repeat prayers or not? 

Jesus said this as part of his great sermon on the mount. Ver. 7, chapter 6 of Matthew. When you are praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

In pagan religions they would believe that they could cajole their gods to act if they just kept saying a lot of words, a lot of words in their prayers to their gods and they thought that, well that would cajole their

"Super Focused on God's Word"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. It was an interesting conversation I shared with someone recently about being in God's Word. And not only being in God's Word in a daily living sort of manner, but every week coming to the house of the Lord, hearing the Word proclaimed and preached. And we were talking about how interesting it is that we come to engage with God in His Word through various devotions and previous saints. And as we were hearing His Word procla

"Partial Obedience is Disobedience"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. I was studying a devotional the other day and a quotation really caught my attention. So I'm going to share it with you. But I hope you're ready to be convicted because this is one of those really convicting one liners. This is from a devotional from Paul David Tripp and he writes, "The problem with partial obedience is that it is disobedience masquerading as obedience."

When you really think about that, it can cut deep. And

"Saved from Sin"

The late theologian R. C. Sproul tells a story when he was walking along and a man came up to him and said, "Are you saved?"  Well, Sproul says that he was taken back a little bit by the question, and he turned to the man and responded and said, "From what? Save from what?"  Well, the man that had asked the question was flustered and he started to stammer and he didn't have a response to Sproul's question.

How can one answer that question... from what? And how can you answ

"Repentance: The Gift of Lent"

Last evening we entered into the season of Lent, with the very meaningful worship service of Ash Wednesday. The sign of the cross was placed upon our foreheads with ash. That ash reminds us of our frailty, our mortality. It reminds us of our sin. But being in the sign of the cross, it reminds us of the redemption that is ours through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the season of Lent, in a special way, the church focuses on repentance. The Biblical understanding of