Category: From the Pastor’s Desk

Seeing is believing; but is what we see all there is?  Is what we know all there is to know? By the time we become adults we have learned that there is a lot more to life than what we already know and there is a lot happening in the world that we do not see.  In Daniel 10 we find out that is far more true than we ever realized.  We see a glimpse into the realm of the supernatural that is really mind-blowing.  I encourage you to join in today, not only to discover these startling realities, but …

Are you familiar with the term Antichrist?  Many people have heard the term, and figure it’s something from the book of Revelation, but did you know that the person Antichrist is mentioned throughout Scripture just not by that name?  In fact, the only books of the Bible that use that name are 1 and 2 John. But what does that have to do with us now?  Is there any value in studying about the Antichrist?  In this message I want to both explain to you who Antichrist is and why it is important that we studying him and the terrible …

Sometimes we have trust issues.  We struggle to believe that God really does love us and is working in our lives.  Bob La Forge writes, in his book Contemplating the Almighty, “To say that God is faithful or consistent is not to imply, however, that He is predictable. Much bitterness toward God results from a misconception of this. Too often we speculate and try to guess the actions of God and, therefore, develop expectations. Through our limited and often perverted reasoning, we determine the “best” for our lives and then consider God’s only reasonable response to be one of quick …

Heroes often get celebrated, but the ordinary, can be forgotten.  The truth is though, that the world doesn’t run on heroes. The world runs on ordinary people doing good. It runs on people doing the right thing, over and over every day, unnoticed.  While heroes are needed to stop super villains, what has helped us all the most is someone using their gifts and strengths on an everyday level to help one or two people near them. The message today is meant to help encourage everyone to recognize the ways that God has uniquely shaped and placed each of them …

Can you remember the last time someone corrected you?  How did you feel about that?  Were you glad or sad or angry?  Correction is something we all need at times, some more than others, but we are often resistant.  To accept correction means we are admitting we were wrong.  Admitting we were wrong means admitting we are not perfect and that someone knew something we didn’t or they discovered something we hoped would remain hidden. Ouch. Our prideful natures do not like that.  But do we really want to go through life being wrong?  Does it really help us if …

When things go bad in the world, we often start to wonder what God is doing. Why is He allowing so many problems, so much trouble? We are tempted to think, to worry, that maybe God has faded from the scene or stopped caring. Because He knows our humanness and our tendencies, God has taken steps to prepare us for bad times. He has always done that for His people. Over the next few weeks, we are going to see this as we continue our study in Daniel. We are not just going to look at the “what” of prophecy, …

George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.  It might be more accurate to say, “Those who don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it” because it is possible to know something without really benefitting from that knowledge.  I’m afraid I can testify that it happens a lot.  It is not good enough to know, we have to act on what we know. In Daniel 4 we saw Nebuchadnezzar learn a very important lesson by a very difficult means.  God had to drive him from the throne with a bout of insanity …

We often hear that difficult times are what reveals a person’s true character, but I think that prosperous times might be just as telling, just as likely to produce a fall.  How a person handles success and prosperity is just as telling of there character than how they handle a trial.  Maybe more so. In the midst of a trial, we feel our weaknesses and they often drive us to help. In the midst of successes, however, we tend to only see our strengths and accomplishments and can be blind to dangerous weaknesses and tendencies that may ruin us.  This …