Pastor’s Blog

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:5-6 On the first sunrise of the week, Mary and Mary Magdalene were coming to visit Christ’s tomb. No doubt they were still numb from the events of the last few days. Their overwhelming grief at Jesus’ death hadn’t faded (Matthew 27:61). For them, the cross was not only a cosmological catastrophe, it was a personal one, too. So they came as…

Scripture reading: Matthew 27:35-44, Mark 15:24-32, Luke 23:33-43, John 19:18-27 “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Johnny Cash’s well-known song plays in my head when I read the Gospel accounts of that Friday morning when Jesus was nailed to the cross. “Sometimes it causes me to tremble.” Indeed, and so it should. The crucifixion of Jesus was a terrible thing.…

Scripture reading: Matthew 26:47-56, Mark 14:43-52, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:2-12 Have you ever had a close friend betray you? Imagine the scene for a moment. It was a dark night and very late. When Judas led the soldiers, chief priests, and Pharisees into the garden, they likely carried lamps or torches along with their weapons. Everyone was tired. Most of the disciples…

Scripture Reading: John 17 Few things reveal more than a person’s final will and testament. It speaks volumes. For us, few things are as illuminating as what Jesus prayed the night before his death. John 17 is an undeserved gift. It’s a glimpse into an intimate conversation between Son and Father, which is why it’s so astounding to find ourselves in verse 24, right smack…

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:32-34 Why did Jesus come to Jerusalem after he raised Lazarus from the dead? The apostle John records that after that miraculous event, the authorities in Jerusalem were determined to put Jesus to death. It is not difficult to perceive their motives. Jesus’ fame had already reached the entire country. His power to heal, to exorcise demons…

Scripture reading: Matthew 21:1-11 When an ordinary looking man approached the city of Jerusalem, no observer could have told by his appearance that he was unusual or important. There wasn’t any striking military parade clearing the way before him, there were no gold laurels of victory crowning his head, and he had no retinue of royal courtiers demonstrating his wealth…

I was converted in my mid-twenties, sometime late 2002. I know many people know the day and the hour of their conversion as a Christian. I think that is so cool, but that wasn’t quite the way it happened with me. God’s grace was ultimately irresistible, but I resisted to the point of exhaustion. I think fatigue played a prominent role in why I was converted. Actually, the…

“Mom, this meal is AMAZING!!! We should have this every day!” shouted my somewhat excitable 4-year-old at the dinner table. The volume immediately informed us, and possibly the rest of the neighborhood, how much he was enjoying supper. Even though his exuberance quickly faded, it served as a glimpse at the delight God intended for us to experience as we feast on him and…

This Sunday, we continue our Advent series by studying the humanity of Christ. Of course, humanity, by itself is not particularly unusual. We see human beings every day, we live as humans, and we’ve never not been human. To be human is, in one sense, the most normal thing in the world. Yet, being human is not “normal” for God. Consider just a few attributes of God — he is…

Around 30 AD in Galilee, a Middle Eastern province under the dominion of the Roman Empire, there was a religious teacher named Jesus of Nazareth. What was most readily obvious about him was that he was a man. He walked, spoke, ate, drank, slept, woke, grew cold and hot, felt the sun and the rain, dealt with angry people and attended normal cultural activities. He was a…