From the Pastor As we end 2019, onequestion we find ourselves asking others is, "How was your year?"Now some of us might reply: "It was a tough year.""I lost my dad.""I lost my job.""My health took a turn for theworse""It's been hard living with all of the changes in my life."To be honest, we might be feeling, "It was a really difficult year."And yet, the Bible says that ...

From the Pastor Today, is Christmas Eve.I sure hope you will join us tonight for one of our three services at 5:00 pm, 7:30 pm or 11:00 pm.The reality is that people are going to come into the buildings tonight to "play with fire."In our hugest numbers of the year, we come together having donned our most festive clothing, with our hearts filled with cheer and joy, surroun...

From the Pastor There is a magic of music.Howelsedo you explain the spell that music casts over us?In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul mentions music in the same breath that he talks about wine, "intoxicating" music, - "intoxicating" wine. For example, we can listen to a snippet of a song, and suddenly be transported back 25 years to our high school prom, a backyard summer ba...

From the Pastor There are certain mysteries in life that make us stop and wonder, "Why?"Why is it that you can tell someone there are four hundred billion stars in the sky and they will believe you, but if the same person sees a "Wet Paint" sign on a park bench, and they just have to touch it?Why do banks charge you an "Insufficient Funds" fee when they already know you...

From the Pastor Ever notice the pattern in the way we recite the Apostles' Creed"We start out like a house afire: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord."And we continue: "I believe in the Holy Ghost . . . the forgiveness of sins ...."But by the end, the bottom just falls out and it's like...

From the Pastor In his book,"What's So Amazing About Grace,"author Philip Yancey tells of a weekend in which he was invited to participate in an encounter group led by the noted author and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck.The group was made up of 10 Jews, 10 Christians, and 10 Muslims.Scott Peck was hoping the weekend might lead to some sort of breakthrough to c...

From the Pastor In his book,"The Rest of God:Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath," author and Pastor Mark Buchanan begins with the obvious question:"How does one define Sabbath?"Answers usually gravitate toward our calendar.Is it the first or seventh day of the week?Is it Saturday or Sunday.I know my day of rest is not Sunday.Given the complexities of...

From the Pastor There was a little girl at a carnival who was carrying a huge swirl of cotton candy.Someone asked her, "Do you really think you can eat all of that?"With little pink smudges on her nose, cheeks and lips, she answered, "Oh yes, I'm much bigger on the inside than I am on the outside."Little David was ready togo toe-to-toe with big Goliath in battle one day...

From the Pastor In one of C.S. Lewis' classicNarniaTales, the fate of the kingdom of Narnia rests on the tiny shoulders of an English school girl named Jill.The wicked queen of the underworld has captured Prince Rillian, the rightful heir to the throne, and put him under the spell of her deadly green powder.This wicked queen not only possesses an arsenal of magic spells, ...

From the Pastor John Ortberg tells of a woman who looked out her window and saw her German shepherd shaking the life out of a neighbor's rabbit.Her family did not get along well with these neighbors, so she knew this was going to be a disaster.She grabbed a broom and pummeled the dog until it dropped the dead rabbit from its mouth.Seeing the dead rabbit, she panicked.She ...