We serve a God who transforms.  God transforms our sinfulness through grace into a bright and beautiful future in the Kingdom to Come for all eternity.  God transforms earthly pain and suffering into wisdom and experience that enables us to resist evil and be vessels of love for others.  God transforms negative circumstances into opportunities […]

When we find ourselves in a state of visual and physical separation from one another as we are in this time of isolation and quarantine, we can feel very abandoned, cut off, and lost. Yet we are reminded that nothing and no one can separate us from God. Today, come and discover for yourself how […]

This week we explore another lesson from Jesus about prayer.  When Peter notices that Jesus was able to curse and wither a fig tree with just his words, he points it out to Jesus with astonishment.  Jesus responds with a command to have faith and believe in what we pray, not only that it can […]

We begin our Easter Worship series with Jesus teaching the Apostles to pray.  He explains that the attitude by which we offer our prayers sets the foundation for the prayers we offer up to God.  If we are praying for earthly recognition, then our prayers are not genuine communication with our Lord.  Such prayers lack […]

The ashes of Ash Wednesday are part of an ancient tradition from the Bible: to put on ashes as a sign of mourning. On this day, we mourn our sinfulness, our willful disobedience, and our waywardness that brings about separation between ourselves and God, as well as other people.  We in the Church choose to […]

We close our Worship series on “The Hurtful Things Christians Say” with a ubiquitous saying: “Let go and let God.”  It is meant to encourage people to trust in the Lord, have faith in God’s promises and power, but it can sound like we just have to resign ourselves to the current situation.  It can […]

Death and the sorrow experienced by those left behind after the loss of a loved one is painful beyond measure and words.  Yet from a genuine desire to provide meaning and comfort, many Christians have told those who mourn that “God needed your loved one.”  What is received is that our bond to and love […]

Continuing the exploration of the concept from where does suffering come, this week we examine the statement that God never gives us more than we can handle. This position assumes that it is only God giving us anything.  Human reality is that we receive good and bad from other people, individually and collectively. Our sin […]

If you have ever had someone tell you that your suffering is the result of God testing you, then you have probably wondered at this expression.  Does God want to cause us pain and suffering even for the purpose of making us better, stronger, or more faithful?  Many are unaware that Jesus never says that […]

Perhaps out of a sense of tough love or our own frustration with a difficult situation, many a Christian has uttered, “If you just had more faith …” to another person.  Even though Jesus conveys such a sentiment in our Scripture text this Sunday, we forget that it is Jesus, God the Son in human […]