December 6, 2019 Hey there church family!  As we continue our series on “How the Gospel Changes us,” let us consider how broken and fractured relationships lead us away from experiencing the fulness of the Gospel.This Christmas season with who do you find yourself in conflict?  We live in a world where there is constant opportunity for conflict, fights, struggles, bitterness, aggression, disunity....  Read More

November 29, 2019 Hey wonderful church family.  Have you ever thought about how interesting it is that our society so quickly can go from a day devoted to thankfulness and gratitude to the very next day that declares that you need more, more, more so go, go, go and get more stuff that you don’t have.  Our society says don’t be thankful for too long.  One day is enough!  The struggle of living in a...  Read More

November 22, 2019 Hello church family:  This week I have to start out this letter with some bad news but I promise, as God also promises, there is always good news coming.  You know that this world that we live in is difficult.  It is broken.  We are living in a world that is not operating the way it was designed to operate.  And the difficult truth about our lives is that we will not escape life’...  Read More

November 15, 2019 Happy rainy Friday church family!  So far we have covered three hindrances to enjoying the Gospel changing us.  These three so far have been guilt, shame, and anger.  This Sunday we will add another great hindrance to life change through the Gospel, FEAR AND WORRY.  Our fear dwells in the present telling us that this world is dangerous.  Worry lives in the future and continually ...  Read More

November 8, 2019 Hello Church Family:  Great news Friday… The Gospel is the power of God to kill your anger.  Everybody knows anger.  Anger is everywhere.  Anger is a destroyer.  Anger destroys unity.  Anger destroys people.  Anger is blind to itself.  Anger says, I am right and you are wrong.  Anger sees the speck in everybody’s eye and yet does not see the plank in its own eye.  Anger tends to b...  Read More

November 1, 2019 Hello Church Family!  Do you ever struggle with feelings of worthlessness that are accompanied with thoughts of rejection and a general gloomy glum attitude that you are always falling short of your community’s expectations of yourself or even your own individual expectations of yourself? Welcome to your own personal world of “Shame.”  Most likely you know this world all to well. ...  Read More

October 18, 2019 Hello Church Family:  As we continue in our series, "How the Gospel Changes Us”,  we have been reminded that the God of the Bible, the Triune God who loves us beyond anything we can imagine, has known us before the creation of the world.  His love has set a destiny upon us since before there was any time.  That is the kind of love He loves us with a foreknowing and predestining lo...  Read More

October 11, 2019 Dear Church Family:  Here we are in our fourth week of our series, “How the Gospel Changes Us.”  Last week we discussed the fruit of faith that is our repentance.  Our response to the gospel is a delightful, happy repentance from all of our sin that so easily separates us from the love of Christ. Well, the weight of repentance can be heavy.  Have you ever felt like this statement,...  Read More

October 4, 2019 Hello Church Family:  Are you actively killing sin in your life?  Are you actively helping others kill sin?  Or are you actively killing the person instead of their sin?  As we continue in our series, “How the Gospel Changes Us,” we get to the somewhat forgotten response that all believers are called to participate.  We are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to be living a life of ...  Read More

September 27, 2019 Hello Church Family:  As a body of Christ we have the important task of staying faithful to the Truth of Scripture.  One way that we can remain faithful to God’s Word is to understand the attacks that have come upon Truth of Scripture throughout history.  We can know and discern present day heresies within the Church by understanding the attacks that have come upon the Church ov...  Read More

September 20, 2019 Hello Church Family:What parts of the natural state of fallen humanity cling to your life?  Selfishness? Strife? Profanity? Worry?  Gluttony? Seriously… how has your fallen nature shown itself this week?  Not only does the Fall effect us in our daily lives and relationships but we stand condemned if we were to stand without Jesus Christ who has come to be our rescue from our fal...  Read More

September 18, 2019 Adults of GCT…What if five years from now, in a dark night of the soul, a passage of scripture suddenly opened up to you because of the work you did in studying God’s Word this week? Wouldn’t your investment in Bible study be worth it?  A storeroom, as Jesus indicates in Matthew 13, is a place for keeping valuables over a long period of time for use when needed. Faithful study o...  Read More

September 13, 2019 Help Church Family:  We are going to pause at Luke 7, for the next several weeks to do a series on “How the Gospel Changes Us.”  I believe that understanding how the Gospel changes us is crucial to living lives that are not held hostage to a life dominated with sin and hopelessness.  God has created us for so much more!  He has come offering hope to all of us.  Jesus has come fo...  Read More

September 6, 2019 Hello Church Family:  Well praise the LORD that He has mercifully spared our Hampstead community from a Dorian disaster!  Thank you Lord for your perfect care!  I hope that all of you have come through without damage to family and home.  If you have damage please let me know with a private message.  We would love to help in any way that we can.  Also, please join me as we pray an...  Read More

August 30, 2019 Hey Church Family:  Can you imagine being in the presence of Jesus when He asked the disciples at His Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6, this question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46).  I am sure you could have heard a pin drop.What would your answer be?  I believe this question from Jesus is also intended for us.  Jesus asks us today, “Why ar...  Read More

August 23, 2019 Hey Church Family:  Do you want the Lord to forgive you of your sins?  Then forgive everyone who has sinned against you, says Jesus.You know when you pray the Lord’s Prayer and you get to the part that says, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12)?  Have you ever paused for a moment and thought about what you are really asking?  As we pray th...  Read More

August 16, 2019 Hello Church Family:   We worship the One true God who listens to us in our time of greatest need and in times of not so great need.  Basically, our God hears us, He listens to us, He leans into us as we call out to Him.  He hears our cries.  Our God who listens also understands.  He understands the entire situation.  There are no surprises to our God.  And since our God listens an...  Read More

August 9, 2019 Hey GCT:As you live in America today and watch people live out their own self-established standards of life and engage in a specific lifestyle, the worst thing that anybody could ever do at any given moment when interacting with them is “judge them.”  If you would ever hint that you disagree with their lifestyle you will get a quick response of condemnation towards your discernment....  Read More

August 2, 2019 Dear Loving, Wonderful, Awesome Church Family,Thank you for your patience and bearing with me as I am recovering from this concussion. I never knew a concussion would be like this.  We were hopeful recovery would be faster than this but it is dragging on. I saw a neurologist today who said some brains heal more slowly.  I have always been on the slow brain spectrum, lol. It seems my...  Read More

July 23, 2019 Dear Church Family,I want to bring everyone up-to-date on Steve’s concussion. It is a bad concussion but it could be far worse.He has been struggling with word-finding, and that seems to be coming back gradually.He stares at a wall for hours, and is contented to do so. If you know Steve well, you know his brain is typically spinning on multiple subjects and he struggles to “get the W...  Read More

July 19, 2019 Hey GCT:  Do you have your own personal, individual enemy?  I am not talking about enemies of the USA.  I am talking about a specific person whom you are at odds with.  An enemy is usually someone who you are at enmity with.  There is hostility in the relationship and many times even hatred.  There is a quarrelsome and contentious spirit where neither person wants to be around the ot...  Read More

July 12, 2019 Hey GCT:  Have you ever looked deeply into Scripture, putting aside your own traditions, and sought out what are the biblical tongues of the Bible?  We cannot do an exhaustive study in this email but here is a synopsis.  There seems to be two types of tongues in the Bible.  When your Bible uses the word “tongues,” it means, literally, languages. The Greek word (glossa) that’s transla...  Read More

July 5, 2019 GCT:  Well we have a arrived at another one of Jesus’ teachings that is absolutely counter-cultural to not only our society but also our American Christian thinking. Jesus tells us, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! (Luke 6:22).So, this scripture produces some convicting questions f...  Read More

June 28, 2019 Great news GCT:  God’s blessing is promised upon HIs people.  He seeks to bless us everyday with lives filled with a complete deep satisfaction that only comes through lives devoted to Him.  He calls us to listen and obey and enjoy the blessing of deep satisfaction no matter your circumstances, trials or hardships.  As you look throughout the entire story of the Bible we are reminded...  Read More