Salvation

Let the Children Come!

By Ross Engel –

My wife walked slowly up the aisle of the church; she was dressed in black, my seven-month-old son James on her hip and my three-year -old daughter excitedly holding her hand. The eyes of all those gathered watched her as they came forward. There was a slight gasp from the front row as she picked up our three-year-old and leaned over the casket so that Eliana could get a better look at “Mr. Art.” After a few sweet words, they took their place, sitting with the rest of the congregation, and awaiting the beginning of the funeral service.

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Life in the Promise

By Paul Koch –

At night I read to my son when he gets into bed. We just finished reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. If you’re unfamiliar with the basic story line, the four Pevensie children enter into a magical land called Narnia through the back of a large wardrobe in a spare room. Now, the land they find there is locked in a perpetual winter caused by an evil witch. When one of the children says that winter isn’t all bad because you can play in the snow and of course there is Christmas, they learn to their horror that there is no Christmas in Narnia. The witch’s power makes it always winter but never Christmas.

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Thou Art With Me

By Paul Koch –

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…” Seldom does one go to the funeral of a brother or sister in Christ where these words are not spoken. And rightly so, for Psalm 23 is a powerful Word of God and it has sunk deep into the psyche of his people. The language of that Psalm, especially in the old King James translation is the go to passage from the Word of God for obituaries and those little cards at the mortuary. It may not be your favorite Psalm, but there is no denying that for most of you this is the Psalm that you’ve come in contact with more than any other.

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To Esther

By Scott Keith –

10 April 2016

Dearest Esther,

I love you. You were born 7 April 2016, and you were baptized into Christ today. When I first saw you, my heart leaped for joy. I had many of the same feelings looking at you as I did when I first saw your dad, Uncle Josh, and Aunt Autumn after they were born. But, seeing you was, in some ways, different. When I saw you, I not only rejoiced for myself and your Grandmother, but I got to celebrate with your Dad and Mom as well. You are their child, and by that, I am your Grandfather.

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When The Church Wounds Her Own

By Paul Koch –

You may not always see them; you may not be aware of how difficult it is for them to even sit in a church pew on a Sunday morning, but I guarantee you they are there. Every time I stand before the congregation to proclaim the Word as I look out and see the faces staring back at me, I find them sitting there looking for an excuse to leave. I see those who have in some profound way been wounded by the church. To be honest, it took me a long time to see them. To acknowledge them meant that I had to confess certain things about the church I loved, which I didn’t want to confess. To really see them meant things would get messy and uncomfortable.

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Seek God’s Will – Spit in the Face of Christ

By Cindy Koch –

We’ve all done it, perhaps some more than others. It usually surfaces when we are at a cross road, an important decision, or an uncomfortable spot. Sometimes it is in response to something really terrible; a death, a loss, or an extreme sin we find within. It flashes through the mind of almost everyone who loves our Creator, Redeemer, and Preserver. We take a step back and ask, “What is God’s will for my life?”

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Recovering the Virtue of Lying

By Bob Hiller –

OK, I will do my best not to bore you with the details of this week’s sports setup. This past week, after losing to Oregon in the NCAA Tournament, Duke’s head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, was caught on camera having a long conversation with opposing player Dillon Brooks. After defeating Duke, Brooks got caught up in the moment and didn’t act very respectfully. During the handshake, Coach K told Brooks he was too good of a player to act that way. When asked about it, Brooks told reporters, “Coach K is a legend. He just told me that I’m too good of a player to be showing off at the end. And you know, he’s right. I gotta respect Duke.” Classy. Well spoken. Good on that young man.

Later, however, when asked about it, Coach K denied saying that at all.

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The Firstfruits

By Paul Koch –

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Cor. 15:19) This statement by St. Paul is a treasure. It gets to the heart of what this day is all about. If in this life only we have hope, then what’s the point? Why the celebration? Why all the joy and excitement? To worship a Jesus that brings hope in this life only is the type of Jesus that the world likes. He fits into boundaries of our expectation and He is easily controlled and contained.

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Cross Bound

By Bob Hiller –

We’d prefer something else tonight. I mean, sure, it’s good for us to come and remember Jesus dying. It makes us feel a bit more holy because we are the ones on this Friday night being so very good: going to church contemplating the suffering of our enfleshed God. Oh, we can explain this death, tell you how He did it for us, and feel pretty good about our well-educated confession.

But, quite honestly, we’d prefer something else.

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Lazy

By Caleb Keith –

Two days ago, Apple hosted one of its regular press conferences. The highlight of these exclusive events is the unleashing of the latest and greatest products Apple has to offer. iPhones, Macs, Apple watches, and iPads once again become extraordinary. Each edition of these devices exceeds the last in power and beauty. However, Monday’s conference, in my opinion, fell flat. The general tone of the meeting was relatively dull, and the revealed products, while still incredible, spoke more of laziness than innovation. What I left with was the revelation that Apple is just like me: lazy.

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Empty

By Paul Koch –

I remember the first time I walked into this sanctuary and saw this magnificent painting by Hillary Asbury. I was completely stunned. I stood there towards the back and then slowly walked down one side of the church trying to take it all in. For the next few days when no one else was here, I would stand in various parts of the church and I found new details would jump out at me: new movements and even emotions were drawn out as I pondered the painting. Hilary named this work “Empty.” And that makes sense. After all, the blood red sky pulls your eyes away from the place of the skull to the brilliant white sun rising in East. And there, below the light of the new day, stands the gaping mouth of the tomb. Its black void proclaims the sentiments of the angel that first Easter morning, “I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”

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Just Enough Fatalism

By Jaime Nava –

As Americans, fatalism is a four-letter word. Which of us would like to think that our life map is planned, and our stars set? No, instead we look to those well worn boot straps, take a deep breath, and pull. We’re the John Wayne, Rambo, Lightning McQueen that carves out our reality against all odds. Those same bootstraps can be found hewn to many churches across the US. There’s the bootstrap of age-segregated services, food banks, or all types of kitschy games people play during the church service. We’re ready to try all kinds of things to make sure we grow God’s church. There’s always a new strategy, a new form of leadership, or some new law to draw people to God’s place of grace.

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Gathering the Captives

By Paul Koch –

Though we may not always know it at the time, when we look back over our lives, when we examine our wandering path to the point in life we find ourselves now, we can often identify moments that were crucial in determining our current destination. They may have been certain decisions that helped to reinforce our character, like choosing to help someone in need or pretending we didn’t see them. It could be the way we’ve responded to stress in our lives or our resolve when tragedy strikes. For there are moments in all of our lives where the way we understand who we are, our values and desires, our self-understanding of our purpose will be tried.

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Neither Progressive Nor Conservative; Christ The Way

By Joel A Hess –

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types — the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution.”

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Matters of the Heart

By Paul Koch –

Well happy St. Valentine’s Day, my friends! Today is a day for matters of the heart. It is a day of flowers and chocolates and romance. Whether we like it or not, love is in the air on Valentine’s Day. I remember Valentine’s Day as a child in Elementary School. It was a day of both promise and great terror. The night before, you would fill out Valentine’s Day cards that your mom had bought from the store. Each one had some candy to go with it, and at the appointed time the next day you would go around the classroom and place your Valentines into the others students’ brown paper bags that were tapped to the edge of the desks. But there was always that one special Valentine.

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The Exodus

By Paul Koch –

The season of Epiphany is drawing to a close. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and with it comes that somber and reflective time of year called Lent. Compared to Lent, Epiphany is an exciting time of the church year. After all, an epiphany is a manifestation of something divine, a moment of sudden insight or revelation. And so Epiphany begins with appearance of a star that leads Magi from the east to worship our Lord. Then we focused on the

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Chose Your Own Adventure

By Jaime Nava –

Growing up we had some well abused “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. You roll stats by randomly choosing a number on the last page for certain abilities or something of the sort. Once that is done, you begin on the first page. From there things are off and running. You would get a few paragraphs and then you had to choose which path to take. It would tell you which page to turn to and start on the next branch of choices.

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