Category: From the Pastor’s Desk

A lot of the stress and anxiety in our lives can be eliminated! Isn’t that good news? Now I am not talking about getting rid of your kids or your spouse.  I’m not talking about quitting your job or getting a total home makeover.  I’m talking about steps that we all can make in our lives to eliminate lies and negative influences that unnecessarily stress us out and weigh us down. So much of the weight that we carry is from unrealistic expectations, negative influences, and lies that we believe.  I’ve tried to already help eliminate some of those lies. …

In 1855 Joseph Scriven wrote the Hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”.  In the first verse we find these words: “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needles pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” Today I want to talk about just that, I want to discuss prayer. So often prayer is either totally disregarded because we don’t believe it works, or it is misunderstood, as something formal or formulaic. I hope that this message will give us all a fresh understanding and appreciation for the power of prayer, especially …

Today we have a guest speaker, Paul Connor of the Pennsylvania Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Paul is just the fourth State Rep of the Association, having served in this position for 25 years, longer than anyone before him.  Paul loves the church and loves to preach, having served as a pastor in multiple PA churches before becoming State Rep for the PARBC.  Paul will be retiring in just 2 months and is sharing his farewells with as many of the Association’s churches as possible in these last months of his formal ministry, though I am sure he will continue …

Are you weary?  We began this series to help address the pain, sorrow, stress, and worry that have many people down.  Life is doubtless going to be hard at times, the question is, can you rise above?  While times of sorrow and mourning are to be expected, and stress will come no matter what we do, some seem to handle it better than others.  What is the key?  Is it ignoring our emotions?  Is it medicating them? In this message we want to talk about those feelings of pain and sorrow and gain the right perspective.  We want to talk …

What gets you down?  What wears on you, makes you feel that life is more than you can bear?  We all feel stress at times, we all experience loss, but sometimes, the severity of these and other difficult life events begin to take their toll.  Sometimes the sheer number of adverse experiences that we are dealing with become cumulatively overwhelming. In this message we want to explore and validate the wear and tear that life’s struggles can take on our emotional well-being.  We want to do a mental health check and see if we accurately understand where God is in …

It is our privilege to have Steve Martinez bring our message today. Steve married Ashely, a girl from our church, about 14 years ago and they served here for a time as our Youth Leaders. Steve has since served as a Youth Pastor, a Bible teacher at a Christian school, an Associate Pastor, and now serves full-time at a Christian School in California. We are excited to have him here today sharing about Christ’s love for us from John 13.

It is easy to have the mindset that reaching the world for Christ is the work of a few special people.  We hear the testimonies of missionaries and their work in other countries and are impressed at what they do and the sacrifices they make.  You might even be among the faithful that give and pray for missions.  You may go to church and get excited about what you see God doing there.  But did you know, the work of reaching the lost with the message of the Gospel is not just for a select few?  It is not just …

Is it okay to wish someone Happy Father’s Day??  We live in a world that is very fractured and polarized.  Currently, one of the most contentious issues is that of human sexuality.  With so much division and confusion, some might be wondering if celebrating a father figure and saying what a good job he has done is fitting when so many can’t agree on what that all means! Thankfully, God has no confusion and really, we have no reason to be confused either.  God has told us clearly in His Word what it means to be both a man and …

Do you believe that everything just happens by chance?  That any meaning in life is only what we can get from the face value of all that happens?  God wants us to be rescued from the despair of the mindset.  He wants us to that, while we live in a fallen world with much evil, He is working behind the scenes to execute His redemption plan.  He also wants you to know that He knows you!  You have meaning to Him and He loves you.  He wants you to be part of His family and He wants to do great …