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Where to go if you need some perspective
There is something about sitting in the sanctuary and being in worship that puts things in perspective. Maybe you've experienced it, or maybe you need to. The Psalmist did. He starts Psalm 73 proclaiming God's goodness, but then quickly adds a "but": He almost slipped...
Blog Archive
How East Gate Ministries helps women in crisis in the Shenandoah Valley
Since 2002, East Gate Ministries has provided residential and outreach programs that help young women choose life for their unborn children. East Gate is a ministry partner, and in July is our featured local-mission group. We asked Isla Weaver, president of the...
Do you believe?
What we believe deeply impacts the way we live. For example, if I believe, like many, that all relatively decent people go to heaven, I’ll try to live a relatively decent life and vaguely hope it is good enough. On the other hand, if I believe that Jesus is the way,...
Most people say we’re on the wrong track. What an opportunity!
Have you noticed that nobody seems to be happy about where things are headed these days? Gas prices make us shake our heads. The cost of our groceries is making us think twice about what we buy. The "culture war" over guns, abortion and climate change seems to be more...
Sharing Christ’s light to immigrants and refugees
https://youtu.be/LNNV_uNAlNw Wael Melek, who is completing his studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, recently joined First Pres as a pastoral intern. He will be completing an internship through the end of the year. We recently did a Q&A with Wael to...
Who do you say Jesus is?
Perhaps the most important question for everyone to answer is also an amazingly evangelical question. Jesus himself asks the question in Matthew 16 and in Mark 8 and Luke 9. “Who do you say that I am?” This question is so important because how we answer the...
Agitated by the state of the world? Here are 4 better responses.
When you see and experience all that is happening in the world, what do you feel? War in Ukraine. Political fighting at home. Gun violence. Suffering and death. What do you feel? Angry? Sad? Disappointed? Hopeless? Reading the Psalms recently, I found a new word to...
Do you understand what you’re reading?
I want to consider one of the great evangelism questions we find in scripture. This question comes from Acts 8:30, where Philip asks an Ethiopian eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The best definition of evangelism is one beggar leading another to food,...
Jesus is compelling. Come to Him and see.
Salvation starts with God. This is what Jesus says in John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” When you read John in the original Greek, that word there that we translate as “draws,” everyplace else in the New Testament, and most...
Do you want to be well?
In John 5:6 Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” It is a great evangelism question because it prompts a bunch more like: · What does it mean to be “well?” · How do you define the “good life?” · Are you living it? · Is it marked by the Fruit of...
What do you want?
"What do you want?” Jesus asks this question of two disciples in John 1:38. It is an intriguing question coming from Jesus when we remember that He is God Almighty and able to do literally anything. So, what do you want from Jesus? Do you take the genie-in-the-bottle...