The dream of an ideal society in which everyone has enough to live on and gets along with one another has always sparked the interest of people depressed by the constant striving and conflict of the human race. During the 1800s in the US dozens of utopian groups sprang up along the east coast only to diminish in number and finally disband due to disagreements and infighting.

It is ironic that most people, while yearning for a utopia know that it is an impossibility. What is tragic is the denial of the majority as to why this is so. The common reasons for our inability to get along are typically a lack of education, money or both. While each of those commodities are extremely important, history has overwhelmingly taught us education and money will never resolve the ever-present fighting between human beings. What we need is a complete moral makeover which is not within our capability. As one writer put it:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.

We need a Savior and that is exactly what Christmas is all about – God entering the world to confront sin and evil. Pride, greed, envy and self-centered lust are the unresolvable problems of the human race. Only a supernatural intervention can overcome those inbred characteristics each one of us has. Salvation – it still matters, it is still the one essential gift God offers to humanity.

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

If you were to sell the chemicals which make up your body, you’d get about $1.00!!! An article in Time magazine suggests that insurance companies have a $50,000 monetary value on human life. If you would sell the different organs of your body, you might be able to raise over $500,000. People who follow the utilitarian way of thinking say that if you are experiencing pleasure, your life is very valuable, but if you are experiencing pain, your life is negligible. None of the above information is very encouraging, is it?

We are coming to the close of the season of Advent, a time when Christians meditate not only on the first coming of Christ when he was born in Bethlehem, but also on his second coming on Judgment Day. While held to be a reality for thousands and thousands of years by the vast majority of people, the concept of God holding human beings accountable for their earthly lives has lost influence in our culture. Some scoff at the absurdity of God having a court case for every single person who ever lived. Others resist the idea that there is life after death.

Though the Christian teaching of Judgment Day may have fallen out of popularity, it is what gives human life incalculable worth! The reality that what we do each day has an influence on eternity means that a price cannot be put on our lives. Even more shocking is God’s role in this matter of Judgment Day. The whole point of Christmas is that God intervened in human history in such a way that He opened eternal life to the entire human race. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and his historical, physical resurrection are the guarantee that no person need spend forever separated from him.

Having doubts about the value of your life? Ask yourself, “Why would Jesus go through all the pain and suffering on the cross if my life was meaningless?” The answer is self-evident.

Because of Jesus and the coming day of judgment, your life is priceless. Go out and live that way!

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

Since Orson Welles’ classic 1938 production of War of the Worlds, Americans have been fascinated by the thought that there is some kind of intelligent life on other planets. It may be just curiosity, but recent developments among origin of life researchers indicate we may be looking for answers to our deepest questions from life beyond our planet. Certain well-respected scientists are now suggesting that because the chances of life emerging from non-living sources is so incredibly low, possibly life was brought to earth by extra-terrestrial beings!!!

Our interest in life forms beyond our earth may be motivated by a longing for answers to the problems we struggle with every day, but don’t seem any closer to solving.

Why is it so hard to get along with each other?
So often life seems meaningless. Is there something we’re missing?
Why aren’t we having more fun when we work so hard at it?
How do we face death? Is it only the end?

Christmas is the Christian celebration of the invasion of the Infinite. The One who created life makes himself known to us in understandable and relatable ways. His message is simple and clear. He not only made the human race, he gives our lives meaning, purpose and above all, hope in the face of death. We don’t need to look for aliens in the far corners of the universe. We need only journey to the manger scene in Bethlehem to find the answers we so desperately need.

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

Human beings have always been obsessed with staying young. Already 2500 years ago there is frequent mention in Greek mythology of water which, if one took but a sip, would make the person forever young.

The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon believed he would find the Fountain of Youth when he traveled to Florida in the early 1500s. Apparently, he never found it for his death is recorded as having taken place in July of 1521.

Today our search for the fountain of youth has not stopped, only changed geographical locations. Today we believe forever young is found in health stores, gyms and plastic surgeons’ offices.

We’re afraid of getting older and rightly so. The older we are, the more likely we’ll be meeting death soon. And that thought is not a pleasant one for anyone who is honest with themself.

The great tragedy of our search for the fountain of youth is that what we are looking for is right in front of us. But for whatever reason, most choose to pursue what they deep down know, will be futile.

Jesus Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives believing in me will never die.” Forever young? Better, forever perfect. In another part of the Bible we hear that the life Jesus offers in eternity will have neither death, nor mourning, nor crying nor pain. It will be a forever so good we have difficulty imagining it.

As we continue our celebration of Christmas, we want to keep Jesus’ death and resurrection always in the backdrop, for these two events connected with Christmas are the solid hope we have of being forever perfectly happy. And that is something worth celebrating!

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