2 Kings 2:1-15Passing the Mantle On Elijah’s last day on earth, he asked his young protégé what he could do for him, and Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah knew that was up to the Lord, not him, and told Elisha that the sign the Lord had...
How smugly we can read the Old Testament! When the Israelites ask Aaron to make a god for them because Moses was taking too long on Mt. Sinai, we condemn them. When they grumble about manna, manna, and more manna, demanding meat, we call them ingrates. When King Ahaziah keeps doing the same...
Psalm 121The Creator’s Unfailing Help Tyler Anderson returned as our guest preacher on Sunday. Psalm 121 is part of a collection of 15 psalms called “songs of ascent.” They were most likely sung by pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three mandatory feasts, as they...
Psalm 23The Lord Who Is Worthy of Our Trust Tyler Anderson, a student at The Master’s Seminary, was our guest preacher. Tyler stressed that Psalm 23 was birthed from David’s life experiences. That reminder led me to imagine a scene from David’s life when he was a fugitive from...
Psalm 11The Lord as Our Refuge Sometimes it seems like the chair has been kicked out from under you. Psalm 11 describes it as the foundations being destroyed, what you had relied on being stripped away. Mario Coronado, our guest preacher, cited as an example the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths...
Psalm 19 Mario Coronado, a student in his final semester at The Master’s Seminary, was the guest preacher on Sunday. The heavens declare the glory of God … So begins Psalm 19, which is all about God’s revelation of Himself. The first stanza describes general revelation...
Checking Under the Hood: Serving Sunday’s sermon on serving, broadly defined, was paired with a ministry fair in the foyer. My prayer suggestions this week focus on serving within our church, applying principles from the sermon. On a Sunday morning, we want to be greeted warmly as we enter...
Checking Under the Hood: StewardshipMatthew 25:14-30 Pastor Todd began by reading the minds of some of his listeners: “Stewardship is just a euphemism for giving. Here comes the annual arm-twisting to get us to give more money to the church.” Then he added, surprisingly...
Checking Under the Hood: Prayer Pastor Todd focused, not on the “how” or “what” of prayer, but the “why.” He laid out five reasons why we should pray: Because God tells us to (and that is reason enough!), because Jesus prayed, because communication is vital to...
1 Kings 22:41-53(2 Chronicles 17:1—21:1)Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat was a good king over Judah: He loved God and pursued Him. He lived by and spread God’s word. He relied on the Lord’s strength instead of his own. He hated and courageously opposed idolatry. But he was not a perfect...