Yesterday during the worship time, we began a series on the Book of Ephesians. We really looked at the beginnings of the Church in Ephesus. Acts 19 tells us about the challenges that this church faced. Yet, through God’s strength and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they were able to endure. Their example is an encouragement to us as we seek to continue to do God’s work in our community. As a part of the sermon, I shared a part of a post by the pastor of a Chinese Church in

Josanne and I were in Harrisonburg, Virginia last week where I was attending the Annual Meeting of the Central District Conference. Yesterday we were able to come to Landover, Maryland to visit with our daughter, Bethany, for a couple of days. I’ll be back in Danvers this week while Josanne will travel over to Eastern Kentucky to spend time with her aunt. We missed you all yesterday, but are thankful for James McMillion and his willingness to fill the pulpit in my absence.

Psalm 121 was the focus of our worship service yesterday. This psalm depicts a dangerous journey, but one where the Lord promises to be with us and to offer protection. I closed by reciting the first verse of “Ready for the Storm.” This is a great song that talks about the storms we face in life, but in the chorus says that “I am ready for the storm.” The song was originally written by Dougie MacLean. A great Scottish song-writer and performer. He is perhaps best known for hi

Yesterday in our service we saw that God is faithful in his love, in his protection, and in his plan by looking at Psalm 118. One verse that was very meaningful to me as I was preparing yesterday’s sermon was Psalm 118:5: “When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place.” God’s faithfulness is true even when we find ourselves squeezed or in a tight spot—he will bring us to a place where we have room to breathe. Later, Psalm 118:13 say, “I was pus

Yesterday was focused on praising God for what we see in his good creation. One song we sang was “For the Beauty of the Earth” by Folliott Pierpoint. The second verse reads: For the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night, hill and vale and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light, Christ, our Lord, to you we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise. I closed the sermon with an encouragement to pay attention to what we see in creation this week and to be in

Yesterday’s worship service focused on God’s promised restoration. The repeated refrain from Psalm 80 is: “Restore us, LORD God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” (Psalm 80:19, NIV) The idea of restoration is a beautiful—that things and people are worth being restored. God’s promise is that though we are not what we should be, as he works in us and as he draws us together he’s restoring us. I quoted a song by Gungor called “Beautiful Things.” M