Guest post by Adam BarkerThere was a time in my life when I did not understand the power of words and how much of an effect they could have on any particular situation. This lack of understanding disappeared when I decided to marry a tough, Italian girl from New Jersey.Not long after exchanging vows, I soon learned that I should be a little more selective about the words that come out of my mouth....  Read More

Guest post from Caleb Hawkins"God Be With You."Last week was my grandmother’s 81st birthday. She’s lived a long life of joy, sorrow, tragedy, and triumph. Since her early 30's, severe arthritis has slowly but surely ravaged her body, particularly her hands which now seem shriveled. Through all these years, especially the ones I have spent with her, one thing has been constant along with the pain. ...  Read More

I am struggling, as I know many of you are, to sort through how to love our neighbors responsibly at a time when separation is the clearest kindness we can offer. Still, people are in need right now of practical help and relational connection. Different people have different limitations and different fears during this crisis. And we have different capacities and comfort levels with what we are pos...  Read More

Guest post by Samantha HammettI never thought I would say this, but I’m ready to go back to school. Yup, I said it. Usually, even after a week of break, I am still tired, still restless, still wishing for more free time. The reason: I’m an over-planner. Even in my breaks, I plan every moment of every day - coffee dates, new restaurants, trips to visit friends I haven’t seen in months - trying to s...  Read More

"But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ..."— Hebrews 3:13-14There are a lot of different images and ideas that enter our minds when we think of the church. Some of them are biblical. Some of them are likely not. Whatever we conceive of when considering the church, the write...  Read More

I have a normal routine of early devotional time with the Lord that includes Scripture, prayer and journaling. The health of my soul and inner life needs all three of those practices. And while I have been engaged with Scripture and prayer over the last several days through the ebbs of disruptions and flows of new developments, I have not been able to slow down and put pen to paper. In the early m...  Read More

Churches everywhere are trying to adapt to the changing landscape and we're no different. We will be streaming our sermon on Facebook Live starting this Sunday, March 15, at 10:30 a.m.We know not everyone has an account on Facebook and we will continue to look for accessible and workable solutions in the coming weeks, but this was the easiest way on short notice to reliably keep us moving forward ...  Read More

Joe Hwang has an established pattern of fasting in his life as a spiritual discipline so I asked if he had any thoughts or encouragement as we come to the close of this week of fasting. May his words below strengthen your souls as we head into the end of this fast and the Lord's Day together tomorrow... Thanks Joe."No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it will pr...  Read More

Psalm 67God’s heart has always been to gather to himself a people from among all the nations on the earth. The gospel is far greater in scale and scope than our lives and our church and our nation. Jesus’ mission and finished work are good news of great joy for all people. God has determined to make his saving power known and recognized and rejoiced over throughout the whole world. And so we pray ...  Read More

National AwakeningPsalm 2Obviously, these are polarized times in our country. It's easy to think the issues are political, social, moral, economic or whatever else. But the real need of our country is Jesus. Like all kingdoms of the earth, ours is set against Jesus. Like Israel in her former days, we are prone to doing what is right in our own eyes. In fact, because of the individualistic spirit t...  Read More

I wanted to share a timely and profound word of encouragement for us from Caleb Hawkins:We are five days into fasting and prayer. Why go another day? It’s been long enough. The news we don’t know is piling up, and television season finales are passing by. Our bodies are pretty weak, our spirits a little drained, and prayers are becoming repetitive. We want real food instead of rabbit food; we want...  Read More

Today's prayer focus was for our surrounding community and the passage for our reading was Matthew 5:13-16. I was struck when doing some reading this afternoon by the authors brief interaction with that same text. It seemed timely so I'm posting this as a sort of attachment to the blog."In the increasingly pagan world that Western civilization has become, Christian witness is bound to stand out li...  Read More