Finding Strength in Community
Mark 14:3-11 Nelson Mandela learned what Jesus knew: Struggles are harder when we go alone. Jesus is now getting close to the end. He has to decide how to live out what are likely his last few days. He knows that most of the people in power are angry. He ...
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“Staying Alert – Not being afraid in changing times”
Based on Mark 13:1-8, 24-37 When Mark wrote his gospel, the world was a shifting mess. The Apostle Paul had recently been executed. Peter was likely in jail awaiting execution. The Roman emperor Nero hated Christians and was also likely to have been mentally ill. It was a scary time. ...
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Love at the Center
When challenged by the leaders of his time about what was the most important commandment, Jesus replied, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind ...
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The Cross of Jesus Leads to Service for Us
Mark 10:32-52 This week we resume our blogging after a hiatus that started when we had to adjust for the Covid pandemic. As we have worked to decide what’s helpful since the pandemic status ended, we’ve done a lot of work assessing the community, the congregation and our ministry. Church ...
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Return to the Lord… God will come to you
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing…Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; (Joel 2:12, 28) Following Jesus is an odd thing. On the one hand, God ...
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Give thanks IN all things
It is a difficult concept to grasp – the idea of being thankful in all things. Ask any group of people what they are thankful FOR and the lists are even predictable. There isn’t a lot of variance. People tend to be thankful for family, friends, good health, food and ...
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Hope in a Crisis
“No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) It is easy in a judgmental ...
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God is Calling You!
Isaiah said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5) The terror in Isaiah’s voice comes from finding himself in the very center of ...
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A NImble God
Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders[a] of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” (2 Samuel 7:7) We are in a ...
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When our lives align with God’s dream
Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory”. (1 Samuel 2:1) Hannah had longed for a son for a long time before she gave birth to Samuel, who would become a great ...
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God won’t give up
And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. (Exodus 32:14) It must be frustrating being God sometimes. Human beings have been created in God’s image and charged and entrusted with the work of caring for the world God made and loves. But we ...
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God’s Reminder to Trust
Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory. You shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ...
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