By Joel A. Hess –
Pokémon Go is enjoying the last of its fifteen minutes of fame. But don’t worry, gamers. More similar, sophisticated, and exciting games are on their way. I’m looking forward to chasing down stars in my car as I play MarioKart Go.
Pokémon Go and similar games are grabbing people’s attention by employing what gamers call augmented reality.
By Caleb Keith –
Today, I spent approximately four hours separating, organizing, and scanning various papers, articles, and magazines for Dr. Rod Rosenbladt. Since his retirement last fall, I have been assisting him with various aspects of the transition. This has meant moving a lot of books and sorting through a lot of paper. Most of that sorting involves scanning important documents so that he no longer needs to keep stacks of papers. Today, I was excited as I opened up one of the last boxes labeled “Scan.”
By Joel A. Hess –
Recently, a friend posted something on Facebook that we all probably think from time to time. She wrote, “The World must be coming to an end!” She then listed a number of examples from the news headlines and concluded by pleading to her audience, “Turn back to God!”
Things do look bleak. Everything is falling apart. Worse, we don’t seem to have any competent leaders in whom we can place our hope.
By Paul Koch –
The more that I consider Luke 10:38-42, the more I think that this is a perfect text for the understanding of the Christian life. We may be familiar with the story of Mary and Martha and the tension that plays out in their hospitality to our Lord, but this text has never really been all that well known to us. In fact, it is often misquoted or misapplied to our lives precisely because we don’t spend much time really receiving the incredible Word we are given here. What we find in this text is our Lord arriving and being welcomed into the home of a woman named Martha. In her home Jesus is being cared for as he begins to teach those who are gathered there. One of those who come to sit at his feet is Mary, the sister of Martha.
By Scott Keith –
Today in church, we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan, and Pastor Koch explained it very well. In fact, he proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to us through the exposition of the parable, and I almost wept! But, having said that, in his sermon, he discussed the mercy of God given on account of Christ boldly, and that got me thinking about the difference between grace and mercy.
By Cindy Koch –
Any self-reflective person questions herself at some point in life. Am I making the right decision? Have I walked the good path? Who am I, and what am I doing here? Surely, some people don’t care to examine the motivation that drives them. Some people don’t give the time to consider the outcome of their choices. But I suspect you are someone who ponders your identity.
By Scott Keith –
It is Father’s Day weekend, and I have been in Cadillac, Michigan at Joel Hess’s church teaching on Being Dad – Father as a Picture of God’s Grace. As I say in the book, the story is the tale of two lost and found sons and the dad that has been in the middle the whole time. This is the tale of the Father who loves us and sent His Son, that through His death and resurrection, we might be like one who “was dead, and is alive” in order that we might be claimed as His own child.
By Paul Koch –
Well here it is. Months of planning and work behind the scenes and today you get to let it all show, for today is Father’s Day. Today the restaurants are all booked up and the last minute details come together as we finally tell our dads how much we love them. Well okay, perhaps the restaurants aren’t booked and the plans aren’t that extravagant, but most dads that I know are fine with it. We know full well that as days of celebration, Father’s Day is a far cry from Mother’s Day. We know that it wasn’t even an established national holiday until Nixon signed it into law in 1977, some 60 years after Mothers’ Day.
By Bob Hiller –
I’m not a big fan of NASCAR. I don’t fancy Formula One Racing. It’s not that I don’t think those drivers are incredible, because I do. I would argue that racing is one of the most skilled and rigorous sports out there. I just didn’t grow up with it, so it’s not my thing. But the other day I was talking sports with a friend who told me all about his love for NASCAR and Indy Racing. He told me how his dad used to take him down to the race tracks and show him around the pits. He grew up on the roar of the engines, the smell of the exhaust, and the intensity of the race. He loved it, he said, because his father taught him to love it.
By Ross Engel –
With Father’s Day looming on the horizon, I thought it would be fitting to consider the important task of training up one’s children. Proverbs 22:6 is often quoted when it comes to the raising and rearing of children. “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
By Cindy Koch –
Speak positively. Act happily. Pray hopefully. When God closes a door, he opens a window. He doesn’t give you more than you can handle. He works all things out for our good. Sometimes it’s helpful to hear the Pollyanna perfect sayings about our life. Sometimes it’s not.
By Scott Keith –
Living as the men we have been called to be means that we live as men who love. The Apostle Paul is clear about this in 1 Corinthians when he claims that, no matter what we say, if we speak without love, we are no better than a banging gong:
By Paul Koch –
Several times throughout my career I’ve had young people, both girls and guys, come to me in confidence and inquire about the morality or ethics of getting a tattoo. They have heard at some point that tattoos and the Christian faith are not compatible, or at least they are frowned upon. After all, don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? And usually the first question I ask them, before I show them my own tattoos, is “what do you want a tattoo of?” If they’re young, I encourage them to wait. After all, what you think is cool now is probably not really all that cool. But there are certain things, certain moments or life changing discoveries, that just might be worthy to get permanently tattooed on your body. And I think that the words of St. Paul in Galatians 2:15-24 is just such a discovery. If there was ever a revelation that we ought to take down to the tattoo parlor and engrave on our bodies, this is it.
By Bob Hiller –
Do you remember the old Nike commercials where Charles Barkley announced: “I am not a role model…I am not paid to be a role model…I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court”? I remember that commercial resonating a great deal as it came in the wake of the news that Magic Johnson was HIV positive. Johnson was a hero of mine, and as a young Christian kid, I had this naïve view of the world that successful athletes were good Christians who lead morally exemplary lives. I was in the sixth grade and went into mourning when the announcement came out. I was burned, not just because he was no longer going to play basketball, but because of my hero’s promiscuous sexual habits. My hero had let me down.
By Graham Glover –
Dorothy is right: “There’s no place like home”.
For the past 8 ½ years my family and I have had 6 homes, not including those temporary abodes of mine when deployed.
That’s a lot of homes, especially considering they encompass 5 different cities.
What I find remarkable though is that if you ask my daughter and son where “home” is, they don’t hesitate in their response. Home is Gainesville, Florida – the place where they were born, but only lived respectively for 2 ½ and ½ years of their life.
By Scott Keith –
Lately, I have been considering the implication of what it means to be called to be a Christian. Is it simply that Jesus has, through his life, death, and resurrection, set me free from sin, death, and the power of the Devil, and that is it? Is there nothing more? What I mean by asking those questions is that I think we underestimate our preoccupation with our need to do something. You and I need to feel active; we need to feel as though we have contributed in some fashion to the way God feels about us and treats us.
By Paul Koch –
In a day where our communication is shaped and defined by electronic media more than anything else, the art and beauty of the hand-written letter is almost a forgotten joy. E-mails and texts and Facebook updates are quick and easy ways to stay connected to family and friends, but they always seem to lack something compared to an old fashioned letter. When our thoughts and well-wishes are translated through our computers and cell phones, the individual persona is often filtered out. By comparison when you receive a hand-written letter, it is like you are receiving a part of the person who wrote it.
By Bob Hiller –
As a football fan, I would love to one day take my kids to see an NFL game. Watching the games on TV, you get the impression that these games are fast-paced, high energy games with thousands of fans rooting as one body for the victory of their team. To me, the idea of taking the Hiller clan to an NFL game is exhilarating: Sitting with my kids, decked out in Broncos gear, going nuts over huge plays and hard hits. The idea of the whole thing is awesome. But, the reality, I fear, would be a different story.
By Ross Engel –
Struggling to speak, she quietly exhaled, “Pastor, I have shame and I have regrets.”
This past week, I was called to the home of an unchurched woman who is in the final stages of her life. She wanted to talk with a pastor before she breathed her last breath. I gladly went, not knowing what to expect.
By Caleb Keith –
Galatians 3:23-29 and Galatians 4:1-7 are two pieces of the same story. While separated by a chapter division, these verses are not divided in their message. The theme of this section could be labeled “The Law and The Heir.” Throughout these verses, the Apostle Paul tells the story of prisoners who were slaves, set free, and adopted as sons made to be heirs, who now receive a full inheritance. The letter to the Churches in Galatia omits the Apostle Paul’s typical greeting.
