Category: Pastor’s Blog

When you’re drowning helplessly and hopelessly, you’ll frantically grasp at anything and everything in desperation to pull yourself out of the water or at least hold yourself above the surface!  Such is our typical approach to the problems of life: we start to feel desperate, frantic, and hopeless, and we want them to stop.  NOW. … Continue reading Looking for the “Quick Fix”

How could I have done that?  We all have those things from our past, however recent, that leave us feeling ashamed and terrible.  Perhaps we can’t seem to put them behind us, and we may even begin to define ourselves by those things.  Should the guilt of our regrets eat us up?  Is this what we… Continue reading Burdened by Guilt

What is more precious than gold but cannot be bought, earned, or saved? Time is a very valuable commodity!  We hope to make the most of our time, as Ephesians 5:15-16 says: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. … Continue reading Bowed to the Wrong god: The Idol of Productivity

March 5 is Ash Wednesday this year, and you may see some people with ashes in the shape of a cross on their foreheads.  This day and its practice kick off a season called “Lent,” during which many people will abstain from meat on Fridays, as well as something routine or habitual during their day,… Continue reading Should We Observe Lent?

Another Monday, another workweek.  Some of us love our jobs, while others of us just try to survive the day and pay the bills.  Either way, as we head into work, we each face a set of unique difficulties and struggles.  We may yearn for one day when we retire, relax, and do what we… Continue reading What is God Doing in My Work Week?

We’ve all been there.  The magnitude of a seemingly insurmountable task leaves us paralyzed at best and in wretched despair at worst.  How can we push ourselves through unbearable effort to strive toward the unattainable?  We may be staring hopelessly at the course toward financial recovery, the journey toward overcoming addiction, the long road of… Continue reading Too Daunting: How Can I Do This?

Regrettably, the subject of giving is almost an instinctive taboo in church.  Its struggle starts where too many churches have taken wrong approaches, with extremes toward the prosperity gospel with claims that God will bless your giving with an abundance of wealth, or toward a legalistic approach that condemns lesser contributions, or perhaps toward a… Continue reading Giving IS the Gospel

Many of us who are married enjoy fond memories of first meeting our spouse, spending time together, growing to know each other more, and being knocked off our feet with the overwhelming sensation of a particularly new feeling: one of enjoyment, of happiness, of intrigue, of longing, and of excitement.  At some point, we were… Continue reading Do You Love Your Church?

We received news yesterday of the loss of a beloved church member and dear sister in Christ.  Many of us are well acquainted with the heartache of death and the ongoing struggle with grief.  Yet, the pain is real, like an emotional punch in the gut that leaves us gasping for air. Death is a… Continue reading Grieving Forward

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. -James… Continue reading These Ancient Words Speak Life Today