Busy, Busy, Busy
A guest blog by Shawn Blythe. We are busy people. I know this because when somebody amicably asks me how things are going, my first instinct is to answer “Busy!” Whether it is true or not, that is the impression that I have of my life. Busy with home repairs, daily tasks, family visits, church responsibilities, hobbies, vacations, and a myriad of other activities that fill my calendar. The 19th chapter of Matthew always resonates with me because it also seems
More Than Enough To Go Around
Today’s reading in our Central Reads 2024 bible reading plan is a bit of a tough one…at first glance. There’s a story that, quite frankly, is difficult to understand – because of how out of place it seems for Jesus. It’s the one where a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus to have her daughter healed of a demon, and Jesus responds by basically saying that he’s only come for the lost sheep of Israel, and that it’s not right to give the
Act On It.
In this week’s readings from the bible reading plan, we finished the sermon on the mount on Monday (Matthew 7). It’s an amazing bit of teaching from Jesus, world-changing, personally convicting, and far reaching. But I want to highlight how it ends – because I think it’s what is so often missed:24 “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and
A Baptism Refresher.
The upcoming baptisms on Sunday have been a catalyst for a lot of conversations in our house about baptism, and today’s bible reading in Matthew 3 only made our pancake breakfast refocus on the topic. Baptism can be a complicated thing, especially for young children. So today I thought I would share a simple breakdown I learned to explain baptism to kids, but also serves as a good reminder for us. This explanation actually focuses on John 3:16 - “For
The One That Got Away
The One That Got Away Fishermen look back on their great fishing excursions and always have a story to tell about “the one that got away”. I've heard people talk about past loves like that. I look at the 2008 NY Giants season like that. If Plaxico hadn’t shot himself in the leg, they were going to win back-to-back championships. They were dominant that year. That was the one that got away. The same is always true (for me at least!) for sermon