'AWANA' Tagged Posts
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…