Journeying On

What a beautiful Easter weekend! The weather seemed to highlight the reality of the hope we have in Jesus and his resurrection, and also the hopefulness that some of us are beginning to experience. It has been a hard year and a long, cold winter, but it seems that Spring has arrived.

Yesterday I finished the series on the Gospel of John with the idea of an on-going journey. True disciples continue to follow Jesus was the primary point. Journeys must be on my mind, because we are starting a series from the Old Testament book of Joshua next week. The title of the series is “Trusting the Journey.” It picks up on the idea of yesterday’s sermon and reminds us that the Christian life isn’t an “all-at-once” proposition, but is a journey where we continue to experience growth and where we are called to respond to new challenges.

When we look at John 21 yesterday, I mentioned that while traveling in Israel-Palestine we were able to visit the traditional site where Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter takes places. I think I’ve also mentioned this before, but I wrote a short reflection on this moment that Mark Ziese published on his blog. If you want, you can read that here. If you aren’t familiar with Mark’s blog, I’d encourage you to read some of it when you have the chance. He’s insightful, has a lot of experience in the Holy Land, and he’s pretty funny at times (almost as funny as me).

Make sure you read the important update from the Church Board that you’ll find elsewhere in this E-Gram. Also, the note about how to get in touch with me in case of an emergency while I’m on vacation. I think I gave the wrong dates for my vacation in a previous E-Gram. I’m having a hard time keeping my days straight, can you relate? Anyway, I will be here next Sunday—preaching on Joshua 1—and then I’ll be gone the next two Sundays with Doug Hicks filling the pulpit.

Hope you are able to enjoy this beautiful weather.

God bless, Brian

Scriptures for next week:

Joshua 1—What do you think it would have been like for Joshua to lead the people after the death of Moses?

Psalm 3—What does David say about adversity here?

2 Timothy 4—Both Paul and Timothy are facing adversity in this passage, what insight on dealing with difficulty to you find here?

2 Corinthians 8:1-17—Why do you think Paul uses the Macedonian churches as an example?