4-21-2025
We believe Jesus is alive. Some believe he is alive because of an empty tomb. Some believe he is alive because the disciples met with Jesus after he died. Because they met him, they went from hiding from the world to changing it. Some believe that Jesus is alive because of people. For 2000 years, people from across the world have been meeting Jesus, I hope you do too, if you haven’t already.
4-14-2025
Like March madness to sports fans, Black Friday to shoppers, Holy Week is to Christians. Well, maybe not. March madness and Black Friday have immediate consequences, but Holy Week does not. Holy Week is something we remember, but it is not a memory. It is not something that happened to us. Jesus died because of sin. Jesus does not remain dead. Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus is alive.
4-7-2025
John 12 tells us that Jesus, Our Savior, was a challenge and a disappointment. He challenged people because he raised the dead, made the sick well, and replaced fear with hope. He disappointed others because he did not get rid of poverty or replace the Romans. Jesus had the power of God, and yet He used it for something other than what they wanted. Often, Jesus disappoints us. Often, He challenges us. Why? Maybe to help us become what God wants us to be rather than what we are right now.
3-31-2025
We believe that God is with us. But Isaiah tells us that we should call upon God when God is near, and Jesus was on the cross, he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And one of our modern saints Mother Theresa says in her personal journals that she was wondering where God was because God seems to have disappeared for her for years and years. When the prophets, when God in flesh himself, one of our modern saints all experience God being absent we have to take it seriously. Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God and so it seems it is up to us to amek sure that even as people experience the loss of God in their lives, they do not experience of God’s love.
3-24-2025 / EVE
Eve was the first woman named in bible and one of the meanings of her name is life giver and one who breathes life. God promises us the blessing of filling the earth with God’s people. God uses women to breathe life into God’s promise to fill the earth with God’s people. God choses women who are unable to have children but have them anyway with God’s help/interference! God chose Rachel to produce Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph protected God’s people from famine and Benjamin produced Israel’s first king. God does not always leave forensic evidence for us to follow but…
3-17-2025 / REBEKAH
Do you remember the name of Esau and Jacob’s mother? Probably not. She was not like Sarah, too old to have a baby, but she was having trouble getting pregnant. Her husband prayed to God asking for a baby. God gave them two. It was a hard pregnancy. It was part of God’s purpose to fill the earth with God’s people. When God gets involved things get strange. Instead of the oldest getting everything, the youngest one did. When your life is getting strange, it could be God’s fault!
3-10-2025 / Monday Meditation form Pastor BOb: SARAH
Sometimes, Sarah and Abraham’s story gets lost, misplaced, forgotten. But God gets our attention with Abraham and Sarah. Two people leave home to make a life for themselves, and they somehow weirdly struck it rich. Two people too old to become parents become parents. Abraham and Sarah help us believe in God. We do not just believe because of God in our life, but because of others. God is in our lives, but also in the lives of people around us.
3-3-2025 Monday Meditation from Pastor Bob: ELIZABETH
Elizabeth was the childless mother of John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest of human beings. She was too old and yet God blessed her with a child who dedicated himself to God. God has a way of getting the right people for the right job at the right time. What is God asking you to do?
2-24-2025 Monday meditation from Pastor Bob: MOTHER OF SAMPSON
We do not know the mother of Samson’s name, but God called her to produce Samson. God told her that she was to have a baby who would be called a Nazarite, one who separates himself from the world. When we think of Samson we think physically strong, mentally weak. He was gullible, hot-tempered and broke almost promise he made to God. He did one thing right. He fought against the Philistines, who were the main enemy of God’s people. So if you think yourself unworthy, remember you come from a long line of unworthy people that God has loved.
2/10/2025 Monday meditation from Pastor Bob:
Windows in the bible are strangely important. Important powerful women are shown standing behind a window, (2 Samuel 6:16; Judges 5:28-31; 2 Kings 9:30), watching, observing life but not being able to participate. Rahab uses a window to help the men of Israel to escape certain death. Faith is sometimes described as a window. Windows let us see things we would not able to see otherwise but can we use them. Can we use our windows as doorways to something we would not usually do?
2/3/2025 Monday meditation from Pastor Bob: As a sports fan, I know that the general managers, (The G.M,) makes about which players they want on their team. God makes a good GM. God chose Rahab to fulfill God’s promise to God’s people that God would provide land to them. Rahab was the answer to someone’s prayer. Because of Rahab, God’s yes was made possible. I believe God trusts us to make His yes to someone’s prayer happen for them. What prayer can you answer?