March 18, 2020 Church: If you find yourself besieged and maybe overwhelmed by COVID19 and its affects on people, governmental systems, the world economy and human institutions take a moment and be encouraged by enjoying God in His creation.  Remember, God has given us His amazing creation to remind us of who He is and that He is in caring control.Have you noticed the pink azaleas blooming?  Have y...  Read More

March 13, 2020 Happy Friday Church Family:  Well, things have escalated pretty quickly in the USA including our small, somewhat rural Pender County.  As believers, we have the opportunity to live in fear and panic or to engage our faith that has been given to us by the King of this Kingdom, Jesus Christ.  Recall the last several weeks as we have exposited Luke 7-8.  Jesus shows us that He is the G...  Read More

March 12, 2020 Church Family:  As I am sure that you are aware, COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to spread across the globe and now across the USA.  The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday has now declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.  In situations like this, it is very easy to panic and live in fear of the headlines and the unknowns.  Let us not be a people who live in fear but instead in f...  Read More

March 6, 2020 Wonderful Church:  Here is some great news.  Jesus heals.  Jesus healed one person after another during the New Testament times.  Jesus healed “many people of many diseases, and plagues and evil spirits and He bestowed sight to the blind” (Luke 7:21).  Jesus was all about healing people.  In Luke 8:40-56, we see Jesus heal a woman who had a twelve year old uterine hemorrhage.  She ha...  Read More

February 28, 2020 Hey Church family:  You know the story in Luke 8, about the man with the demon problem?  Have you ever thought, why did the demons even exist for the man to have the demon problem?   I think most of us would agree that Satan and his demons exist.  They are real.  They fight against God and His purposes.  They are murderers, liars, and thieves as scripture tells us.  Throughout sc...  Read More

February 21, 2020 Hello Church Family:Do you ever struggle with thoughts and feelings that this world is way too big, dark and dangerous and crazy out of control and that you are all alone to navigate all this mess that you cannot do anything about?  Wow, just writing that sentence makes me anxious.  That kind of thinking grows a root of unbelief that digs down deep into our heart and robs us of a...  Read More

February 14, 2020 Hey Church Family:  This week’s passage in Luke is a weighty one that must lead us to our own self-evaluation.  How do you hear the Word of God?  How you hear God’s Word is a really big deal.  Jesus tells us very clearly through the Parable of the Sower that how we hear God’s Word determines if we have a place in the Kingdom of God (Luke 8:1-18).  Let the weight of that teaching ...  Read More

February 7, 2020 Hey Church Family:Wow!  The world is moving more and more to a place where nothing seems to be a sin any longer.  Our society struggles to see many of its immoral, unethical actions or thoughts or its heart’s desires as an offense to our Holy God.  This is a dangerous place to be.  Church, we do not want to be unaware of our sin.  Not knowing our sin results in not needing a Savio...  Read More

January 31, 2020 Hey church family!Do you ever doubt this whole “Jesus is Lord” thing we are banking eternity on? Every believer that has ever walked this earth has endured times of doubting this faith that we call Christianity.  Maybe you have recently come across some compelling atheist philosopher, or NatGeo documentary that you thought was persuasive, or maybe you just attended your local biol...  Read More

January 24, 2020 Hey Church Family:  What is compassion?And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her (Luke 7:13).  So… what is this compassion that Jesus experienced?  Compassion is simply taking the pain of other people into your own heart and letting it move you to do something about their pain.  Making their pain your pain.  Making your neighbor’s pain your pain.We are recipients of this...  Read More

January 17, 2020 Hey Church Family:I recently had the incredible opportunity to go on a trip across Italy.  In order for me to get to my destination I had to travel on the Trenitalia, the high speed Italian train service.  It was an awesome ride!  The only way for me to get on the train and enjoy Italy was to have a ticket that was acquired at the ticket booth by paying some Euros.  The conductor ...  Read More

January 10, 2020 Hey Church Family:What do you find yourself striving for? Do you strive to be living a life of greater holiness or greater sinfulness?  Do you ever ask the question to yourself, "what am I doing that is not holy?”  What am I doing or how am I acting that is not pleasing to God - what is not holy in my life?  Hebrews 12:14 tells us to strive for the holiness without which no one wi...  Read More

January 3, 2020 Hello Church Family:How does your loving Heavenly Father want you to enter every day of this new decade?  He calls us to live lives in 2020 fully believing that with great purpose He is personally managing this universe with absolute caring control.  He calls us to trust that He is completely in charge of this world in 2020 even though His hand may be hidden from us, He calls us to...  Read More

December 27, 2019 Hello Church Family!As we look to begin 2020 this next week do you find yourself spiritually sleepy or spiritually renewed?  Are you struggling with spiritually stagnancy, sluggishness or dullness?  Do you run through life not desiring or pursuing or enjoying the presence and promises of God or the loving relationships that He has blessed you with within the community of your chu...  Read More

December 20, 2019 Hey Church Family: What an amazing thought!  The Son for God, The Logos, The Alpha and the Omega, The I Am, The Creator of the Cosmos, dominions, rulers and authorities and all things, The One foreknown before the foundation of the world, The One having neither beginning of days nor end of life came to Earth for us, was sent to us, was given to us, was revealed to us, putting on ...  Read More

December 13, 2019 Happy Friday GCT:Great news… as believers we are fully forgiven. Those of us who are children of God, regardless of background, regardless of current struggles, are fully forgiven.  All of our sin, past, present, and future, has been absorbed on the cross of Jesus Christ.So, how do we practice that same forgiveness with other people around us?  You know those difficult times when...  Read More

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