Resurrection Sunday Mark 16:1-8

Hallelujah! Christ is risen!   Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After spending the past seven weeks in the Gospel of Mark we have finally arrived at the moment we have all been waiting for. But wait? There are only eight verses? Some of your Bibles might have a notation that the earliest […]

Good Friday Mark 15:1-47

Have you ever felt abandoned and completely alone? Maybe you’ve even questioned the goodness of God in the midst of your distress. We tend to have a strong sense of justice, until negative circumstances start to befall us. Then we pull out our exemption excuses and start to blame God for our trouble.   Well, […]

Maundy Thursday Mark 14:12-72

In our continued reading of the day to day activities of Jesus leading up to His death we come to Thursday and Jesus final day with His disciples. During the celebration of the Passover meal, Jesus announces to His disciples that one of them is going to betray Him. This causes the disciples to wonder […]

Prophecy Wednesday (or Teaching Tuesday Part 2) Mark 13:28-31

Okay, okay. I’m taking a bit of liberty here in talking about the fig tree for a fourth time, but even though these events technically took place on Tuesday, I think that this particular teaching brings a nice bookend to our study so far this week.   Yesterday we saw the disciples walking by the […]

True Faith Tuesday Mark 11:20-26

The day after Jesus cursed the fig tree the disciples notice that it had withered and died, but as is their nature throughout Jesus’ teaching, the disciples missed the point of the lesson. We too can miss what Jesus is saying if we pick this text out of its context.   Jesus tells the disciples […]

Manic-Monday

Manic Monday Mark 11:12-19

Mondays are hard. I’m not always on my best form at the start of the work week. I don’t like waking up after a long restful weekend. And if I’ve preached that Sunday, I’m even more exhausted. I understand now why most pastors take Mondays off. I often oversleep which means I don’t have enough […]

Palm-Sunday

Palm (Leafy Branch) Sunday Mark 11:1-11

Every year we come to Palm Sunday and we hear the same story. It runs the risk of becoming common and familiar in a way that loses its impact on our lives. Furthermore, the Gospel of Mark withholds certain details about this first day of Jesus final week so that it leaves even less information […]

Remembering Billy Graham by John DeBrine

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my […]

Forty Days of Identity with Christ by Micah Lovell

So much of the Christian faith is tied to the concept of identity. Though we have been given our individual identities by our Creator, we are often reminded that we are weak and in desperate need of assistance that must come from outside ourselves. Once we come to recognize that we are fallen and that […]

Sharing Jesus In A Hostile World by Adam Miller

It can be easy to talk about the things we love. If you want to see me light up, just ask me about my nieces and nephews. But you might not be as excited to hear me talk about some of my pet peeves. Just because we are passionate about something does not mean that […]

In The Wilderness by Michael Card

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when He came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with […]

When Worship Leads to Witness by Adam Miller

Over the past several years we have been working through a strategic series of topics on the Christian faith. In 2015 we talked about the transforming power of the gospel in the life of a believer. We talked about preaching the gospel to ourselves and sharing that within our families and Christian communities as a […]