Sunday was our annual Music Sunday worship service, when we hear the Christmas narrative through Scripture and song. Here are some scenes from the day, which also included our annual Christmas-cookie event between the worship services.
It’s peak fall-color season around here, and the trees are really showing off their reds, oranges and yellows. In the early-morning or late-afternoon light, they are particularly stunning. Stunning, but dying. Have you ever thought about that? Leaves are at their...
One British newscaster declared the queen’s death “a time we had all hoped would never happen.” Others on social media expressed similar disbelief. A lady interviewed on TV said, “I am shocked. I don’t know what to say.” Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson told...
https://youtu.be/ucQ6vpfdIjg Fall brings all kind of new routines, and at First Pres, that means new opportunities to fuel your walk with Jesus by connecting to others in one of our many discipleship groups. Here's a rundown of what's starting. Sunday Mornings We...
Many of our students are starting school during these few weeks. We pray for them and our teachers. We invite you to use this prayer in your individual and family prayer times this week. :: God of all knowledge and wisdom, Proverbs tells us that “the fear of the...
What a mess! In the thick of reading through the Old Testament accounts of the various kings who ruled God’s people, the bleakness of a life without God is on full display. Over and over, you read that king after king “did what was evil in God’s sight,” and that those...
The word “sin” in the New Testament is related to archery and means “missing the mark.” I find this understanding of sin helpful because it brings clarity to sin’s nature. You can miss by a little or you can miss by a lot, but a miss is a miss, and so a sin is a sin....
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,...
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...
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...