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

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.(Acts 2:1-4, NIV) So begins the New Testament account of the Day of Pentecost in

We don’t often think of the Lord as a Warrior, but sometimes the Scriptures speak of him that way. This will be our theme for our worship service next week. After the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea and the Egyptian army was drowned when the Red Sea returned, Miriam wrote a song praising God. In part, it says: “The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.” (Exodus 15:3, NIV) Psalm 45 also talks about God in this way as well as his representative on the throne of Go

Last Saturday saw a good-sized group of intrepid souls converging on the church building for work day. It was a great turnout and there was lots done to spruce up around the building. A big thank you to all of those came out to lend a hand. We all appreciate your efforts. We are continuing our series through the Book of Psalms this Spring. Yesterday we looked at Psalm 16 and saw that “The Lord is our Refuge,” and next week we’ll look at Psalm 32 and see that “The Lord Forgi

A couple of weeks ago, many of us found ourselves taking refuge in our basements or interior rooms as strong wind, thunderstorms, and even a few tornadoes tore through our area. It looks like this might be the case again today, though I’m hoping and praying that we avoid the worst of this storm. These storms remind us remind us, though, of the importance of having a safe place to go when we’re in the face of danger. Next Sunday the title of the sermon will be “The Lord is O

Yesterday saw the beginning of a new sermon series on some of the psalms. The title of the series is “Declare His Glory” which is taken from Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” (NIV). The psalms teach us about God’s character and nature. We’ll also see the way they point us toward Jesus. I don’t often say this, but if you missed the service yesterday, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to it. I think it’s an im

It’s interesting to me how last week’s Easter sermon, yesterday’s sermon, and next week’s sermon have all lined up. Of course, I’d planned them ahead of time, but it didn’t occur to me then that all three are focused on the importance of us sharing our faith with others. On Easter Sunday, the final point of the sermon was that the resurrection of Jesus is such good news that his earliest followers couldn’t keep quiet about it—even when the authorities tried to threaten them i

It was so good to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection yesterday. We had such a good crowd both for the breakfast and also for the worship service. I especially enjoyed seeing so many families worshiping together. A big thank you to all who helped with our especially busy week. Thanks so much to the decorating crew for making the sanctuary look beautiful for both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Thanks also for those who made the Fellowship Hall look so special for Maundy Thursday.