Joel Gilbert

As with nearly everything in life, there is good and bad with social media. In the current environment in which we live, social media is alive with people sharing posts of their coronacations and updates about how they are managing doing school from home, work from home and life at home with a house…

The Bible’s Mix-tape Music has been a powerful tool in people’s lives. For centuries, music was distributed through tradition or through performance. Eventually, musicians created a nomenclature that allowed them to write down music - making it more complex but also making it available for people who…

Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (read the story with the kids, then dismiss for kids connection) Today, we’re going to continue our series of sermons considering God’s Story in Scripture. With the book of Esther last week, we finished looking at the historical books of the…

Two-Face In 1942, Detective Comics (later to be known as DC comics) introduced a new character in their Batman comic books - Harvey Dent. Harvey began as an upstanding District Attorney for the town of Gotham. A tragic accident left him permanently scarred on half of his face. Not only did it affect…

The book of Nehemiah marks the end of the historical timeline of the Old Testament. The book is full of action and adventure, opposition and success. In addition to revealing history, Nehemiah reveals some beautiful qualities of leadership.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way GOD MOVES IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY William Cowper, 1731–1800 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments … (Romans 11:33) Good when He gives, supremely good, nor less when He denies. Even crosses from His sovereign hand are blessings…

Now that the nation has returned from exile, the Chronicler (assumed author of Chronicles) writes the history as a means of reminding the people of Judah where they came from, why the exile and sort of what now. He leaves the door open to the hope of a coming Messiah.

One of the halmarks of the church is the commission that we received from Jesus to "go into all the world." From the time of the Ascencion of Christ to today, we've seen the Gospel spread all over the world. We Gather - We Grow - We Give - and finally We Go!

Prayer of Confession We have failed value what You value - gratification rather than holiness, stuff rather than substance with you, as a nation we have convenience rather than life. Declaration of Grace Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.…

All Grown Up and Nowhere to Grow Have you ever noticed that as children we are constantly looking forward to the next milestone? We couldn’t wait to be the next grade or the next year. We would look forward to growing. Maybe you had those marks on the wall that noted how tall you were. We move on from…