The Spring-Clean

It happened every year around the second week of April. The tell-tale signs were tulips pushing through the ground, taking off the storm windows and putting on the screens, and the sound of my mother’s voice, “Get your winter clothes ready to put up in the attic.” And then it would begin, with a grim and determined face my mother would begin a week-long battle with what she perceived to be mountains of accumulated winter dirt in what she called “Spring-Cleaning”. It was a tough week because she was a little more irritable than usual and dinner very often was Spam with cloves or chipped beef on toast. But for all the negatives of spring-cleaning, when it was all over, the whole family agreed it was worth it. Spring breezes gently blew through the open windows, accenting the pleasant detergent smell that saturated the house. It seemed all the stale smells and germs of winter had been blasted away, replaced with a refreshing and invigorating feeling of clean.

In the event of Jesus’ life which we are going to study from the Gospel of Mark this weekend, we’re going to encounter a different type of cleaning – a spiritual cleaning. The day after Palm Sunday, Jesus went to the Temple only to find it more of a farmers’ market than the place to meet the living God. He would have none of it and promptly began to throw the merchants out. For that reason we call this story the “cleansing of the Temple”. But it was more than just getting rid of the commerce, Jesus was teaching us about the importance of worship - pure and right worship. Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is an opportunity for us to take a healthy, honest look at our worship lives and ask the question, “Jesus, do you need to do some cleaning in my heart?”

Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am

Lies

Satan is all about lies. That’s what Jesus said. The devil will twist, distort and exaggerate in his efforts to mislead us. Sometimes, he will just flat out confront us with something that is obviously not true, but he will package it in something incredibly attractive so that we buy into what he is saying. Lies – plain and simple lies. That’s what the Evil One want us to believe.

There are few areas of human existence where Satan more effectively ruins lives with his lies than in marriage. Having convinced us that we need to be most concerned about our individual happiness, he then leads us into thinking that a committed relationship like marriage can work with two people primarily looking out for their own interests. The results have been heart breaking, leading many today to question whether marriage is viable.

Jesus Christ, however, has a much different view of marriage. One time a group of religious leaders asked him about divorce. His response was a robust endorsement of marriage.

This weekend we’re going to be studying what Jesus taught about marriage. It’s much different than the lies of Satan. According to Christ, marriage is closely connected to our relationship with him. It is an opportunity to deeply influence the life of another while at the same time to be incredibly blessed.

Join us for one of our weekend services. Get a glimpse of marriage as God means it to be!

Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am

The Jesus of Surprises

One thing a person notices about Jesus is that he just isn’t predictable. That is especially true in the way he dealt with the religious leaders of his day. We would think that these would have been the people he related to, went to for support and encouragement. But instead, they were the ones Jesus most severely condemned. What he told them is that while they may have seen themselves as religious, they were not doing what God wanted. In fact, they were messing with God by changing what he had told them in the Old Testament to fit their idea of religion.

But Jesus wasn’t interested in religion. He was looking for disciples, men and women humble enough to receive him as their Savior and Lord. The religious leaders wanted just the opposite. They developed a system of rules and regulations designed more to make them feel good about themselves rather than know and experience the living God.

Unfortunately, the temptation to mess with God hasn’t gone away over the years. Sure, we can read about the mistakes of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and see where they went wrong, but the temptation to twist and distort clear teachings of the Bible to fit our way of looking at things is still very strong. It really is about letting God be God instead of making God fit our ideas of what he should be like.

Some Christians feel God isn’t doing much in their life. It may be because they’ve limited his power to work in them due to a warped understanding of who he is and what he intends to do in our lives. Join us for one of our weekend services. While you might be surprised at what Jesus says and does, you will definitely be challenged by him to grow in your relationship with him.

Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am

A Very Different Way of Looking at Things

How do you think most Christians would answer the question, “Why are you a believer?” Probably many would respond, “To go to heaven.” That is a very correct answer. Jesus himself said that he came into the world for this very purpose, to open up heaven for all who trust in him. But Jesus said there is a lot more to being a Christian than just waiting around here until we die and go to heaven. Unfortunately, some Christians fall into just that kind of thinking.

This weekend we’re going to be studying the teachings of Jesus in regard to what it means to be his disciple. Through a series of five short stories (parables) Christ makes it clear that being part of his family is all about being productive and useful in this world until he takes us to heaven. The stories are easy to understand but challenge us to the core of our thinking to reevaluate the way we have been living as the Lord’s disciples. But then again, nothing Jesus said was to make us comfortable. When he spoke, it was always to make us more like him.

If you think it’s time to start becoming more like Jesus, join us for one of our weekend services.

Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am