Posts from November 2021

Dear Friends, As you sit down this year for a Thanksgiving meal, hopefully with family and friends around the table, you might take a few minutes to talk together about this insight from G.K. Chesterton.  “When it comes to life,” he wrote, “the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” Maybe after the last year and a half, we are a little less likely to take things for granted.  Like being about to gather with…

Dear Friends, On Sunday, we spent time thinking together about Jesus’ instruction about how we counsel our hearts when we are troubled or anxious.  Along with trusting God’s promises and having an eternal perspective on life, Jesus tells us that we should find comfort in His promise that he will come again and receive us to Himself. The second coming of Jesus is a central theme in both the Old and New Testaments.  The ancient prophets talked often about the “day of…

Dear Friends, Observant Jews have for centuries prayed the Shema twice a day.  It’s this simple prayer found in Deuteronomy 6:  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4-5). When the Pharisees asked Jesus to identify the greatest of all the commandments, he went straight to this prayer.  Love for God is the foundation of our faith. Scripture…

Dear Friends, The word “condemn” is an interesting word.  The dictionary offers a couple of definitions.  It can mean to “express complete disapproval of, typically in public; censure.”  It can also mean “to sentence someone to a particular punishment, especially death.”  Or to “officially declare something or someone as unfit for use.” After her accusers left, Jesus asked the woman caught in adultery in John 8 “woman, where are they?   Has no one condemned you?”  With her accusers gone, she rightly realizes…