'AWANA' Tagged Posts
November 15, 2023
Dear Friends, When you think about gratefulness or giving thanks, what Bible verses come to mind? With Thanksgiving coming up next week, that’s a good question to ponder. Before you read any further, take a time out here and answer that question out loud. What verses or passages come to mind? I asked some friends that question years ago, and I imagine their answers and yours are not far apart. Most of them went straight to the Psalms, where over and over again we are…
AUGUST 10, 2023
Dear Friends, As I sit here and am thinking about you, I wonder, do you wonder? Do you wonder at the Gospel and Jesus’ great love for you, His people? Are you in awe that God would allow you to be part of his kingdom and what he doing in the world? It made me think of Paul Tripp’s book from almost 10 years ago, Awe. It reminds me that we are not to worship created things even if we deeply enjoy…
JULY 26, 2023
Dear Friends, Ever wonder what real community is about? Ever heard the word koinonia and wondered what the heck people were talking about? If you are anything like me you might have in the past or even today wondered what the New Testament really teaches about it. I know in my early days as a new believer, I didn’t have a clue as to what God intended for me to know and to be shaped by and for.The word koinonia…
JULY 19, 2023
Hi everyone! In many of our Christian circles, we have all probably heard the phrase “established church”. “Oh! That church on that side of town is great. It’s an ESTABLISHED church.” Have you ever wondered what people meant by using this phrase to describe a church? What does the church in question have to be or have to have in order to be considered “established”? Does it need to have engaging preaching? Dynamic worship? Thriving small groups? Does it need…
JULY 12, 2023
Hi all! Many of you might have wondered, after I shared this past Sunday about growing up with pseudo faith, how I actually came to real faith in Jesus. If you grew up like me (which you probably didn’t do particularly, but maybe more so generally), you had no idea who Jesus was or how much God really loved you. I went to church most Sundays, was very involved in serving and then helping lead our youth group. But I was…
JUNE 28, 2023
Dear Friends, I sat across the table from Pastor Tommy Nelson who has for years served as the Pastor at Denton Bible Church as he told me about the day his body shut down. He was still breathing. He could still see and hear everything that was happening around him. He simply couldn’t respond. Couldn’t move. When his wife spoke to him, he could hear her questions just fine. And he had answers. But his mouth wouldn’t work. All signs pointed to a…
SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
Dear Friends, Some of you know the name Tim Challies. For the past 20 years, Tim has been blogging at his website www.challies.com. After posting a few book reviews and some other articles on his website, Tim came to a point where he realized he either needed to stop altogether or take blogging more seriously. He set a goal of posting every day for a year. Before long, his hobby became his vocation. Today, about a million people visit his blog each…
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022
Dear Friends, Jesus reserved his strongest words, His harshest rebukes, for the self-righteous Pharisees in His day. At one point, when these legalists asked Jesus why His own disciples did not adhere to their regulations regarding hand washing, Jesus told them that they were the living embodiment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 29:13. “You hypocrites!” Jesus said. “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in…
AUGUST 31, 2022
Dear Friends, Tonight was a big night for us at Redeemer. Twenty-seven kids were loved on, poured into and prayed for as we kicked off our very first evening of Awana. There were fun and games. There were group times where they learned about the verses they will be memorizing. By the end of the evening, everyone headed hope excited about what God has planned for these precious children this year. And maybe, Lord willing, more like them in the weeks ahead. I think what…
July 27, 2022
Dear Friends, There is an interesting story in Luke’s gospel that sounds like it could have happened two days ago somewhere in the US. In the account in Luke 9, we read that Jesus had “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” This is the point in the gospel account where everything begins to point to the cross. Jesus is on mission and will not be deterred. Luke says Jesus sent an advance team of disciples ahead of him into a Samaritan village…
July 6, 2022
Dear Friends, It should not have taken anyone by surprise when almost two weeks ago, the US Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the Dodds v. Jackson Women’s Health case. Court watchers paid careful attention last fall when the Justices heard the oral arguments in the case, noting then that the questions asked by the Justices foreshadowed either the end of the Roe v. Wade precedent altogether, or at the very least, new allowances for states to regulate abortion. Then…
MAY 25, 2022
Dear Friends, When I heard the news almost two weeks ago now that an 18 year old had walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and senselessly murdered 10 people, I closed my eyes and shook my head. “O Lord…” I thought. “How long…” Then the news came of the even more horrific shooting this week in Uvalde, Texas. Again, a troubled young man walked into an elementary school and ended the lives of 18 children and two adults. When…