This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. (Genesis 2:4) This week we start a new cycle of readings for the coming year and we return to the beginning of the Bible and the book of ...

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) The core declaration of the Reformation is that we are saved by grace through faith. It is by faith that we receive the life-giving gifts that God gives to us in Christ. These gifts ...

“…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14) While to quote above starts mid-thought, it points to a new way of living and being transformed by what Christ ...

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15 The heart of the Christian message rests on the willingness of the same God who authors ...

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10) While most Christians are quite aware that Jesus suffered, it is easy to gloss over in the midst of our ...

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2a) The Bible is clear that God speaks and is involved in our world in a variety of ways. From the very ...

Set me as a seal upon your heart,    as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death,    passion fierce as the grave. (Song of Solomon 8:6) Love is the one thing that is not physical and still universally needed by all people. In fact, the more advanced ...

And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you , just as you have done to each of these who are my family, you have also done it to me.” (Matthew 25:41) From the very beginning, one of God’s commitments to the human family as that each one of us would bear ...

Last week was my (Marlene’s) turn to preach. As many of you heard, the lesson was chosen by council, Galatians 5: 13 – 26 to help shed scriptural understanding on our fourth guiding principle: ‘Gladly serving as the hands and voice of Christ.” The text focused on our freedom in ...

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  (Galatians 5:13) As this article is being written we are only a week away from Independence Day and celebrating the freedoms that ...