Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor
Throughout God’s Story, judgment and punishment were never an end in themselves and never the end of the story. Judgment and the resulting punishment or consequence is ALWAYS for the purpose of restoration. God is at work in every single one of our lives to bring about repentance so that he can restore us to each other and to himself. (more…)
Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
(Matthew 25:35-36)
There’s something about compassion for the poor and less fortunate that is central to the heart of God. And according to Jesus, if you read on in his message about the ‘sheep and the goats’ here in Matthew 25, there’s also something about compassion for the poor and less fortunate that separates the righteous from the unrighteous. If the faith that saved us is genuine, it will move us to care for the poor. (more…)
Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor
When a foreigner resides among you in your land,
do not mistreat them.
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.
Love them as yourself,
for your were foreigners in Egypt.
I am the LORD your God.
(Leviticus 19:33-34)
As Followers of Jesus we are called to love those who are unlike us. This means putting ourselves in the place of those who are experiencing difficulty even when we do not relate to their situation, as God expected his people Israel to do, because of their personal heritage of having been foreigners themselves in Egypt. (more…)
Jon Taylor – Lead Pastor
In this week’s message, we continued to look at how Jesus elevated women and rose above cultural norms of the day to counter the lies in that culture and show women’s inherent value that they’ve had since Genesis. Both men and women are created by God and given worth and value by nature of our creation and Creator. It was a lie in the culture (women are inferior) of Jesus’ day and still is a lie in many cultures today. He showed that value in a story told in Luke 10. (more…)
Austin Willard – Guest Speaker
Our prayer life is evidence of our faith in God. We can allow our past discouragements with God to impact our present heart negatively and thus affect our prayer life. How can our heart be strengthened so that our prayer life flourishes?
Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor
Chuck Foreman – Teaching / Missions Pastor
How did Jesus do it? How did he uphold the righteous requirement of the law (God’s design for how our lives best work) and still love people—really sinful people? We see him do this over and over in the gospel narratives. He sides with the guilty against their accusers, all the while not condoning the sin, but looking passed it into the life of the sinner, somehow discerning the deeper need of the moment for support and affirmation. In doing so, Jesus stands in opposition to those bringing condemnation and judgement, absorbing the hostility directed at the condemned onto himself. Could that be what he has also called us to do as his followers? (more…)
