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

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