Did you ever receive a Christmas present that you just didn't want? As a child, it was always disappointing to get something practical like socks or a tooth brush. As an adult, you hope not to receive something useless or offensive. "You think I wear what size?" And sometimes the hardest gifts to receive are the ones that we truly need. Yet, it takes love to give these typ...

Joy is something we all desire, but something that so often eludes us. Why is that? I would say part of the elusiveness of joy is trying to fill a spiritual need with a physical solution. We think that more money, a bigger house, a nicer car, and so on will provide the joy we are longing for. Perhaps it’s not material possessions but we think new friends, a different spo...

Johnathan Edwards once wrote, "Self-denial will also be reckoned amongst the troubles of the godly But whoever has tried self-denial can give in his testimony that they never experienced greater pleasure and joys than after great acts of self-denial." The third Sunday of Advent, we focus on the theme of joy. Yet we can often miss the biblical pathway to joy. We tend to thi...

Preparing for the Lord's Day Peace is a strange word to associate with the holiday season. How are you to have peace with all the traffic? How are you to have peace when you have added fifteen Christmas parties/events to your calendar? What is peaceful about Walmart in December? What is peaceful about children hyped-up on the excitement of presents and the rush of sugar? ...

Advent marks the coming arrival of the Lord Jesus. We need Advent. We need time and space to wrap our minds and hearts around the incarnation. That God became man...he became human...he became touchable and vulnerable. He did that so that we might experience peace. That we might know it and treasure it. He came to heal the deep wounds of our alienation from God caused by o...

Christ's birth on Christmas day brought the hope of eternal life, new birth, and new creation. C.S. Lewis helps us navigate the ups and downs of life in this created, but fallen world. Every unmet desire and deep groan reminds us that we were made for another world and Christ has promised and purchased this world to come....

As we look to this coming Lord's Day, we begin our Advent celebrations by looking at the theme of Hope. Pastor Ron will be preaching a sermon from 1 Peter 1:3-9 entitled, "Living Hope and Great Mercy." In that sermon, we will see that we have been 1) born again, 2) to an inheritance that is 3) kept in heaven. We will also enjoy the music of the season as we sing togethe...