"Held Together by Grace"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. 

Every single week when I when I get ready for services, part of what I do is put on my cross. This cross was given to me by a dear professor when I graduated from Seminary. He and his wife gave this to me. And it’s so special and meaningful to me.

And some point it broke.  One of the links broke. And so every week when I get it out, it is incomplete. I've considered so many times that I should just get a new link and fix it

"The Joy of Worshipping Together"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Christ is risen! He has risen indeed! Hallelujah! 

It’s so wonderful so to have that word once again upon our lips, as we are in the Easter season.  What a glorious celebration we had this past Sunday as we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ… the victory that he claimed over our sin, over death, and over the devil himself. It’s such a wonderful celebration, and so wonderful to share in that with you. I f

"Three Components of Faith"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Today of course is a rich day in the life of the congregation… Maundy Thursday. In fact, this entire week of Holy Week… Maundy Thursday service tonight at 7 p.m.  And then Good Friday at 700 p.m. And then this coming Sunday the crown of Sundays, Easter Sunday 8:45 and 11:00. It truly is a wonderful time in the life of the church.  For as we walk through this week together, as we literally follow in the footsteps biblicall

"Pride"

Good morning and most blessed Thursday to you.

Earlier in the week I had a song running through my head, and it wouldn't leave. It’s a great song. It's by the band U2, off of the Rattle and hum album. The song title is “Pride: In the Name of Love”.  In the chorus, over and over those words are sung… “In the name of love; In the name of love.” It's a great song. 

That title was really running through my mind… “Pride: In The Name of Love.” And so often pride is that sticky p

"Is Jesus Omniscient?"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

The question I want to pose today is: Is Jesus

omniscient?  With what one examines, what Scripture tells us with regard to the attributes of God, there are several attributes of God. 

God is omnipotent. He's all powerful. God is omnipresent. He is present everywhere. The Bible tells us that he is eternal. On and on the list goes. And on that list of the attributes of God, it tells us that God is omniscient; that he knows i

"Clinging to the Cross"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

Today I want to share with you the best news that we could ever have. Last night in our in midweek service, we talked about clinging to the cross.  There is no better news than the cross of Christ.

The cross of Christ is where our sins were forgiven, where we were reconciled, and atonement was made, where we are once again at one with God, blameless before him. We can enter the throne room, approaching the throne without sha

"Lord, Have Mercy"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you would you. 

We gathered last evening for Ash Wednesday worship. That's such a meaningful time of worship, as we enter into this rich season. As part of the service the choir sang a beautiful, beautiful anthem, “Kyrie Ellison”, translated: “Lord have mercy.” We hear that cry for mercy throughout Scripture. 

In Luke 18 there's two individuals. And on one of the individuals lips is that cry of Kyrie Ellison… Lord, have mercy. 

L

"Forgiveness in Christ"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

I have to tell you about when I was having a time of devotion a couple of days ago. Earlier in the week I was tired, but I sat down and I began to pray. I had my eyes closed and a thought ran in my head. I thought…. I just want to keep my eyes closed. It felt so good to have them closed. Just not having to look at anything around me, not having to be distracted, just keeping my eyes closed. I was tired. And at that same

"How Does God Use Guilt?"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

A question I'd like to pose for you today. How does God use guilt?  

The backdrop of Psalm 32 is the biblical story of David and Bathsheba. They had committed adultery. David trying to cover it up, has Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, killed on the battlefront. 

In Psalm 32 David writes: 

3While I kept silence, my body wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

“While I kept silence”…what he's referring to is the sins that he

"Joy"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

I'd like to share with you from this poem. 

“Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”

I imagine that we're all pretty familiar with that tale. Casey didn't get the hit. Casey didn't get the home run.  Casey just struck

"Who Am I?"

Good morning a most blessed Thursday to you.

In our time of devotion together today we are going to examine a very basic existential question of “Who Am I? Who are you? What are we doing here?” 

If you think about it, when we are born we are concerned with one person, and one person only. And that person is me.  We can live our lives concerned about one person and one person only. And that person is me. That leads us to an end time of our time here on Earth, and we are conc

"Called to Fellowship"

Good morning a most blessed Thursday to you, and a most blessed and happy New Year. 

It is 2024. And ahead of us lies an entire year, 12 months of growing, learning and sharing the love of God, and serving the Lord by serving our neighbors. We have such an opportunity to intentionally grow in our relationship with the Lord, and intentionally grow in the faith that he has so graciously given to us. 

There's always advice that we can find or seek out on how to grow in faith.

"Hope for the New Year"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I cannot believe this is our last time of devotion in 2023 together. Of course we'll have worship again this coming Sunday, but our Thursday mornings are so special, aren't they? It’s such a blessing to be able to take that time during the week to share God's Word, to see where he is leading us, and to hear how he is guiding us through his Word. I pray that we will continue to be shaped together by his Word. I can’t wait to

"The Light of Christ"

Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

As we come now to the last few days of the season of Advent, we look forward to entering into the Christmas season. This coming Lord's day, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord, ­­­­­­­­Christmas Eve two beautiful services have been planned at 3:00 and 5:00, both of them will be candlelight services. It'll be a wonderful, wonderful time of worship. And as we start to look ahead now to the Christmas season, as it draws so

"Messiness"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. 

The moment it happened I knew exactly what our time of devotion together was going to be about this week. On Monday Love One Another Preschool had our Christmas program. We had the ­­­­three and the four-year-old's sharing the Christmas story the birth of Christ for their parents, grandparents and friends of their families. 

Over the past couple of weeks we spent time rehearsing with the kids. They knew exactly where they w