God has wired our human brains to respond to external threats.  And so anxiety and fear are natural human emotions that we all experience. We have all been through a lot in this COVID-19 season.  There are legitimate threats that we need to take into consideration to keep ourselves and others safe.  But we don’t have to frozen in our footsteps.  We do what we can, let go of the rest and know that whatever happens to us that our lives ar

In this COVID-19 season, we’ve suffered a great deal of loss and anger is a natural part of grief.  God created us with this emotion and yet tells us not to sin as we are angry. What does that mean? How can we deal with our anger constructively, so we don’t harm ourselves, others, or our relationship with God? That’s what we are exploring this week!   You can listen to last week's entire service (50 minutes) or watch the sermon (20 min

Imagine being imprisoned, locked up in chains simply because you believe in Jesus Christ.  What could possibly cause you to sing and be joyful? True Hope!  That's what would!  Hope that God could free you from those chains in an instant and even if God didn’t that those chains could not hold our spirits down from rejoicing in the Lord always, through all circumstances.  

Jesus is a true shepherd unlike many religious leaders of his day who didn’t care one iota for the people under them.  Jesus demonstrated his love for his sheep by laying his life down for them.  In the same way, as followers of Christ we are called to self-sacrifice…thinking of others needs as important as our own.  We need to keep this in mind as we continue our fight for racial justice in our country AND as we care for the many good

Sadly we have too many examples today of people and groups usurping power by excessive force or governmental abuse. Jesus encourages us that to have true power, we must humble ourselves and take on the nature of a servant even if that means sacrificing on behalf of our enemy.  As we pray, we unleash the flood gates of heaven for Our All Powerful God to move in such a way to bring peace, liberty, equality, and justice for all people. That’s True Power!

What the world offers us in riches is completely different than what Jesus gives. The world tells us the economy is what’s most important. Jesus says it’s relationships. What the world gives rusts, decays, dies, and can be stolen. What Jesus gives can never be taken from us and lasts forever. The choice is ours as to where we invest our heart’s desires. For where our hearts lie is also our treasure. Come, Be Fed, Be Sent! Rev.

Unprecedented has become the term to describe our times.  Our country has faced the storms of the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, Civil Rights riots, wars, divisive politics, and poor national leadership before but never together with a span of a few months.  One wave after another can seem to overwhelm us and capsize our boat…unless we have Jesus with us.  He calms the storms and gives us True Peace.

As we continue looking at issues of race in the Church, we turn toward the Apostle John’s vision of the great diversity present in the kingdom of heaven. There will be people from all races, language, nationality living and worshipping together as one. But lest we are too heaven focused, Jesus also reminds us that we have some real work to bring heaven to earth, right here, right now. Imperfect as the Church may be today, we strive for greater inclusiveness be

There's no doubt that our nation is under great stress.  COVID-19 has stretched our skin so thin that the toxic issues of racial inequality and injustice brewing under the surface for so long have erupted and are causing us to take good hard looks at ourselves.  And what we are seeing isn’t pretty.   There is a story in the Gospel of John where Jesus meets a disabled man laying by the healing pool of Bethesda.  It w

Ours is a very uncertain world into which we are launching our high school and college graduates!  The diseases of coronavirus and racism remind us that we live in between times of Jesus’ resurrection and his return to restore all things to proper order.  While we long for that restoration, we also know that we cannot wait to bring God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  And the graduates of our newest Greatest Generati