We come to a time in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus no longer expects His disciples to just follow… they are now being called to DO the things they’ve seen Jesus do. And He gives them the power to do it! God still expects His disciples today to do the same things… yes, to go out and preach the word… but to also practice what we preach and demonstra…

We often think that when it comes to God, WE have to be the ones to find Him. But today’s story shows that while we may be looking for God, He’s come to look for us too! And He wants to be found. And He wants to give to those who ask Him for help.

If we believe God created everything and everyone, just by speaking, then is it reasonable to believe that God has ALL THE POWER THERE IS? If so, then we could also assume He doesn’t need our help. But we see in the scriptures when Jesus healed people, He didn’t just speak and heal everyone. He healed individuals. Because those individuals then wen…

“He Is Risen!” “He is Risen Indeed!” This is a traditional Christian greeting goes back well over a thousand years, even quite possibly among the first generations of Christ followers. Today, we continue to proclaim this because this is THE foundation of our faith.

We all know that God loves everyone. But we can often find ourselves trying to add exceptions to God’s love, things like we’ve been seeing in the Gospel of Luke like “Yes, but not those with leprosy… not the tax collectors… not on the Sabbath… not those who hate us…” This week, we see a “sinful woman”, and how a religious man sees her and how God s…

We believe God loves us, even say “more than you know”… But God loves us differently than we love each other. Believe it or not, Luke 7:18-28 describes God’s love.

Last week in Luke 6, Jesus tells us to “love our enemies”. In Luke 7, we meet one of these “enemies”, a Roman centurion. But this man is more than an enemy… he is a man looking to Jesus for help. Help that we ALL need!

We all believe that God loves all people… and we all know that God expects us to love all people. We even know that we are supposed to love our enemies. But do we? Or do we have excuses to Jesus’ clear teaching about loving those who aren’t always so easy to love.

In Luke 6, we see once again how the “religious people” see Jesus, their Messiah, standing right in front of them, doing miracles… and all they can do is ask questions about what’s appropriate on the Sabbath. How do we religious people get this way?

We’ve heard of “blind spots” in our cars. But we can have spiritual blind spots in our walk with Jesus. Sometimes Jesus points these out to us, like He does in Luke 5:27-39. We can often think we are so safe in our beliefs… but then Jesus helps us to see what we have blinded ourselves from seeing, especially when it comes to how we see (or don’t se…

While we love God and are thankful for all He has done and continues to do for us, we will all have those times when God does something we don’t expect… Did we do something wrong? Are we being punished?

Since God has chosen PEOPLE as His main instrument for sharing His good news with the world, some may think that those will have to be exceptional people. Were Jesus’ 12 disciples exceptional people?

If you had a message of good news for the whole world, how would you go about sharing it? Today, we have mass media and the internet. But when it was time for God to announce His good news to the world that He was sending our savior, He chose a person. Why a person?

It is appropriate to refer to our belief in Jesus as a “faith”. And the Bible defines “faith” as being based in what we hope for but cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). But our faith is still based on facts. The first generation of believers “knew”, because they saw Jesus with their own eyes. But what about...…

We live in a culture that is unprecedented when it comes to information availability. All for it, not negative… but I think we’ve gone from information availability to information bombardment. So MUCH, isn’t it?

What was your favorite Christmas? Can you remember? For most of us, it’s a childhood Christmas, a time when you got that special toy, sort of a “Ralphie and the red ryder BB gun” moment. Maybe it was a bike, or a video game. How many of you your favorite Christmas is a time when you were an adult? Maybe a...…

If you hear that someone is coming and looking for you, what would you think? Is that good news or bad news? Advent means “coming” and Christmas is all about how our God is more than a God who created us. He’s a God who loves us and a God who is with us.

Stanley Tam gave God the majority…even when it wasn’t much. Stanley did this because God wanted Him to and he wanted God to have control. God used this generous...

The prophecies of Daniel, especially in Chapter 11, are so detailed that many still believe they HAD to be written after they had happened. But the power of our God is demonstrated in prophecies that are fulfilled.

In Daniel 10, God continues to not only give Daniel visions, but emphasizes that Daniel needs help too to understand it. As we’ll see today, Daniel needs help not only to understand it, but to actually bear it, to get through it. The same is true for us.

Daniel 9 contains a powerful prophecy in vv. 20-27 that can be confusing to some regarding the end times. These scriptures continue to be debated as to their exact meaning. See the chart below as we read Daniel 9:20-27…

Sometimes, current events occur and we wonder if they are part of the “End Times” that are prophesied in scripture. It’s true the scriptures do speak of the End Times, but not so we can make predictions or control the future. When tempted to make predictions, keep these two scriptures in mind… Matthew 24:34-42 and I Corinthians 14:3…

We now move into the section of Daniel dealing with visions and prophecies of the future. Some would be fulfilled in Daniel’s time, others still to be fulfilled in the future. Prophecies can be difficult to understand, especially when it seems God is allowing evil to reign through wars and wicked kings.…

Some people dismiss faith and instead insist on “proof”. But the power of our God is magnified when God does something and there are no proofs or facts or explanations… just faith. We often misunderstand faith and the power faith has, both for our lives and for those who do not know God.

Let’s begin with a deep theological question that has perplexed scholars for centuries…Would you tell someone they have spinach in their teeth? ...

I can still remember her putting down the phone. I can still see the disappointment in her face. I can still hear her crying as she ran out of the room. One of the ladies where I worked, call her “Melissa”, was getting married. I think most women dream about the day they will get married. Not only about the man, good to have one up there I guess, b…

Famous martyrs like Jan Hus (or “John Huss”) displayed great courage in speaking out against the wrongs being practiced by the church. How do you know when to take a stand and where do you find this kind of courage?

In the Book of Daniel, we read several stories that are set up to demonstrate the power of our God, things only God can do. Why? To see there is MORE than just this world and MORE than the things we see and control. Because often forget this and put so much of our faith in ourselves.

As we begin this new series in the Book of Daniel, it’s important to know the context, what’s going on during this time period. And probably the best way to start it off is by saying this:

Does my gift matter? I could go into how yes it does, all adds up, not just one or two holding getting us through. Most regular attending members give, which is...

We all see beggars by the roadside. And we all have different ideas or feelings about these people. In today’s scripture, we see not only a man who is healed, but a God who cares and responds when we cry out to Him.

I brought something with me today…no it’s not my lunch. Looks like it. We’ll be talking about a small lunch brought by a small child and what God did with it today…but that’s not it. Instead, I have some things here...

When I say “King Solomon”, what comes to mind? Son of David, 700 wives, wisest man who ever lived… well, there is something else I think of when I think of King Solomon…

I like to watch tennis, Wimbledon on right now, tournament last two weeks, tennis players train all their lives, go through grueling workouts. Now, why go through all this? Because...

Teaching youth about the Holy Spirit

Teaching youth about the Holy Spirit

As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July, a date where we declared our independence from England and to be a nation where we are free, we look as we always should do to the scriptures to see how God “guides” a nation that looks to Him. After all, we are

Throughout time, there have been arguments and debates about the existence of God. Is there a God or isn’t there? When some speak of this subject, they insist on proof. Can we prove God exists? I’ll give you the short answer,...

Do little children truly understand anything? They may think they do at times… but I think of little children more like this…

I really don’t spend a ton of time on social media, click on it, quick scroll, occasional look at something, most of us know that what we click on, increases we’ll see more of that thing, car shopping, keep getting car ads, a while back, clicked on a funny “meem”, “You had one job”, pictures...

Today, we close out our study in Romans by reading the last chapter, Romans 16. Now, when I say close out, I hope you don’t see the heading at the top of the chapter and “close out” already, thinking that this...

I think when it comes to living this life God has given us, it comes down to one of two ways. The first, to see your life as YOUR LIFE, to do what you want to do, and that you see God, God loves you, sent Jesus to die for you, saved you, you have Heaven waiting, but you do what YOU want to do and hope God is okay with it, go to Heaven one day.…

Today as you can see by the title, we are going to discuss the truth about God’s plan. But as we begin, I want to state something very clearly… and that is that we cannot understand everything about God’s plan. Now the good news about this is...

Last week as we celebrated Easter, I shared with you that one belief can change everything about your life. Looking back, I might should have added…one belief can change everything about your life… but make sure it is the RIGHT belief.

Isn’t it amazing how JUST ONE BELIEF can change everything about your life? But it doesn’t have to be a new invention or a new discovery in space or technology… It can be something you believe about how the world is and what’s coming. Even if your circumstances don’t change, the most important change is in YOU and how YOU live and see the world…

Instead of trying to find life only through the law, or by only living for the flesh, we instead are to live by the Spirit, walking closely with our “Abba” Father, who enables us to endure our present sufferings, but also reminds us that we one day will be freed from these sufferings.

Even after being freed from the law, we still will struggle with living in the flesh. We know we should do better. And we know that we shouldn’t do things we keep on doing. The law is not our master, but the law can be our teacher to continue to lead us to Christ.