Return to the Lord

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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In All Things, Give Thanks

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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Forgiveness – the road to a new future

But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. (Genesis 50:19-20) This week we explore the story of ...
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Believing God makes all the difference

Abraham believed the Lord; and the Lord[ reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6) Christians generally teach that we are saved, not by works, but by faith. We believe God when God says to us, “I love you,” and knowing that makes it true for us. Not believing it ...
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God’s Partners

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8)  We often forget why we are here. We are here because God has made us with the intent for us to be God’s partners. You and I exist, at ...
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Give to God What is God’s

Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him. (Mark 12:17) This is my first blog post after returning from an eight-week sabbatical. As the congregation spent time looking at ...
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