Do you remember that Ken-L Ration’s popular advertising jingle from the 60s? I can still hear the two children singing, “My dog’s better than your dog, my dog is better than yours.” It was a fun competition, but not all competition is fun. Unfortunately, at times, within the body of believers we too find competition…
In the 1800’s, Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his morbid curiosity of human behavior. His short story Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment is no exception, as a science experiment is eagerly tested on four of Dr. Heidegger’s closest friends from year’s past. Dr. Heidegger’s question: If humans had the opportunity to go back in time and…
Waiting is hard. Especially in a pandemic. When will this thing end? When will our lives get back to normal? When will they find a cure? When will I go back to work? When will the kids go back to school? When will my loved one get home from the hospital? Waiting is hard. This…
We are familiar with wars and rumors of wars being the birth pains of the last days, with blood moons and falling stars heralding the end. But in the very last verses of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi offers one surprising and encouraging prophesy about the end times. It is exceedingly practical and has everything to do with family dynamics. This…
Is guilt always bad? As we enter week two of Nehemiah, the broken walls around Jerusalem had been repaired, but then came the work of rebuilding the hearts of the Jews. This rebuilding of the souls happened when the reading of Scripture was taught and applied for their lives. The result? The people wept. Why? They realized how far they were from…
Disillusionment and abandoned dreams make the heart sick. We see this in Nehemiah as he hears of a ravaged Jerusalem. However, the Lord opens a surprising door to hope and restoration. Today, offer the Lord your own disappointments and hear of the grace he offers to the downhearted. This sermon was given on Sunday, March…
Have you ever felt like God just seems absent in your life? I often think how the exiled Jews in Esther’s time felt. These were the Jews who stayed after many other Jews returned to Jerusalem and the lands of their forefathers. Does that mean that God is done with these people? Many of them…
Zechariah’s remarkable prophecy of a triumphant king mounted on a donkey has become so familiar that we can forget just how radical of an image this was. It would have been nearly unprecedented in the ancient world. And yet, it is just one of countless examples of the radical grace that makes the gospel unparalleled…
We live in such an exhausting world, don’t we? Some have even called our phones “Massive weapons of mass distraction.” News is coming at us from all angles and breaking news seems to come at us every 30 seconds! Where do we find true rest for our souls? Zechariah and Matthew give us a recipe…
Today, the Prophet Daniel provides hope to a discouraged population. The promises found in our reading are just as comforting in the present as they were to the suffering Jews in Babylonian exile. Join us as we dig into this “fourth beast” of Daniel’s vision to find God’s plan for His creation. May the Lord…