Prayer for illumination: God of the generations, the Scriptures are a legacy to us from Your faithful people over many centuries. Just as Your Spirit inspired and guided prophets, evangelists,…
Prayer for illumination God of prophets and parables, your Word can meet us with a challenge, a puzzle, and a promise. Send your Spirit with the gifts of understanding to…
Prayer for Understanding Lord of Peace, Lord of Glory, we have come and gathered in the House of God to listen to Your words. Teach us Your ways, thus we…
Prayer for Understanding As we read your Word let us hear your voice, and in hearing, let our lives be changed and your world transformed. Sermon: Using your gifts Opening…
Prayer for Illumination: God of Word and Wisdom, as we turn to the scriptures, may we hear Your voice calling us to deeper faith and truer devotion. In Jesus’ name,…
Prayer for Illumination Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Accept, O Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your…
Prayer for Illumination I rejoice in following Your statues as one rejoices in great riches. I delight in Your decrees; I will not neglect Your word for they are my…
Prayer for Illumination: Teach us, O Lord, to follow Your decrees; then we will keep them to the end. Give us understanding, and we will keep Your law and obey…
Prayer for Illumination: You who formed us, named us, and gathered us, open our ears to hear your message. You who give power to the faint, help us understand your…
Prayer for Understanding God of wisdom, prepare our hearts and minds to receive your Word. Where it challenges us, lead us by Your Spirit to respond in faithfulness for the…
Prayer for Understanding God of wisdom, You teach us with love, You touch us with mercy, and You challenge us with truth. Send Your Holy Spirit to help us grasp…
Whatever Became of Sin? 1973 book by Dr. Karl Menninger Psychiatric couches filled with people who feel guilty Society has lost a sense of awe or respect for God Everything…
Prayer for illumination: Seeking unity, we come to the scriptures. Acknowledging our discord, we come to the scriptures. Realigning our lives with God, we come to the scriptures. We have…
Prayer for Understanding God of wisdom, as we gather to hear your Word this day, calm our spirits and still our minds so that we can receive your message with…
Prayer for Understanding Holy God, Your Word is bread for our journey. Send us Your Spirit so that we may grasp Your love and will for us as we listen…
Prayer for Illumination O Lord, you have given us your Word for a light to shine upon our path. Grant us to meditate on that Word, and to follow its…
HEARD FREQUENTLY With all the people I’ve hurt, and what I could have done differently, I’ll never be able to forgive myself If I went away and my mother died,…
Prayer of Illumination: Gracious Lord, we pray for a humble and teachable heart. A heart that is eager to listen to Your words and learn. May we abide by Your…
Prayer for Illumination: As we are gathered here today, we ask You, our living God, to shower unto us Your wisdom and knowledge. We pray that as we listen to…
Prayer of Illumination: Draw us close, Holy Spirit, as the Scriptures are read, and the Word is proclaimed. Let the word of faith be on our lips and in our…
Prayer for Illumination Amid the distractions of our times, give us undivided hearts and attentive minds, O God. Help us discern Your wisdom in the scriptures, so that we may…
Prayer for Illumination Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the truth of Your word. We pray, O Lord, that You would open our hearts so that we yield our…
Luke 7:1-10 and Matthew 15:21-28 Definitions of “Faith” We can easily be confused about what "faith" really means because the word is used to signify so many different things: •…
My mother is 85 years old. She is a very wise, determined, and faithful woman of God. She was born in a wealthy family in the northern side of Korea.…
Prayer for Illumination Spirit of God, You came down and filled Your disciples so they would have a helper and a guide at all times. Holy Spirit, we ask You…
Commonly Heard “That may be true for you, but it's not true for me.” “No one has the right to tell me what's right or wrong for me.” “It's wrong…
In August 2018, my family went to Spain to experience the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage walk, known in English as the Way of Saint James. It’s a network of…
A few years ago, after a big transition in my life, I was going through an emotionally and spiritually down time. When I feel down, I don’t want to see…
When I was younger growing up in Korea, sometimes I wondered why Jesus was white. Korea was, at least until the 20th century, a homogeneous nation despite being invaded and…
On February 8, 2023, phone notifications started ringing everywhere at Asbury University in Kentucky. People uploaded videos and pictures of the students’ singing and praying on Social media like YouTube,…
John 12: 19-33 Years ago, the Polish government under Prime Minister Jaruzelski, ordered that all crucifixes be removed from classroom walls, factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. So when the…
Philippians 3: 1-10 About 250 years ago, two young Moravian men heard of an island in the West Indies which was virtually owned by one plantation master. He was a…
Deus Absconditus: Why Does God Hide Himself? Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t make things more clear? We pray and pray and pray. We desperately want to know God’s…
Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes which began coming over…
Julies Verne, a famous writer in the late eighteen hundreds was known for his science fiction and his ability to envision things Surpassing Our Understanding. In a world before flight,…
Philippians 4:10-20 “Being Content” January 29, 2023 A little girl was walking in a garden and noticed a particularly beautiful flower. She admired its beauty and enjoyed its fragrance. “It’s…
What Is Mankind? Rev. Robin Ross Psalm 8:1,3 1Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. 3When I…
Pastor Eugene Morell once shared about God's Game Plan. A few years after he committed his heart to Christ, he felt he was called to the Ministry. He told his…
John D. Rockefeller, was very determined as a young person to become successful and rich. At age 33, he earned his first million. At age 43, he controlled the biggest…
Somewhere in a restaurant in Paris, there is a picture of children leaping in the air, because of great joy they experienced. It was taken on the day Paris was…
It was Christmas Eve 1963 when Henry and his wife Judy made the 15 miles trip back home after the service. The unthinkable happened. Their car hit black ice and…
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM (2) 2 Samuel 23:8-17 The season of Advent is intended to be a time of soul-searching, repentance, and preparation for the coming of Jesus –…
It's the second Sunday of Advent, a word that derives from Latin "advenire" – "to arrive or come", a traditional time of repentance and preparation for the celebration of the…
Is peace possible? Is it beyond all reasonable expectation that we on planet earth will somehow, some day, live in peace? That’s what the angels sang about, on the fields…
Ephesians 2: 1-10 The first Sunday in Advent – HOPE Joe Bailey in his book "A View From a Hearse" tells of the time his son died of cancer. He…
Some tell us that Jesus’ earthly life was not very important. They say He wrote no books, composed no songs, drew no pictures, carved no statues, accumaleted no fortune, commanded…
Exodus 16:1-15 This part of Exodus occurs after the miracle of crossing the Red Sea on dry ground with a wall of water on each side. Now, in the desert,…
During World War I a Protestant chaplain with the American troops in Italy became a friend of a local Roman Catholic priest. In time, the chaplain who moved on with…
Israel Is Enslaved 1875 BC – Joseph brings his father Isaac to Egypt to escape famine – 70 people. 1450 BC. – 2 million+ descendants (foreigners) are enslaved to build…
I don’t know about you but I like to watch shows about the solving of crimes – shows like Forensic Files, CSI Miami and Law and Order. One of the…
William Barclay wrote the following in his Romans commentary: “One of the great stories of the Christian Church is that of Telemachus. He was a hermit of the desert, but…
Why is trusting God hard? When we receive Christ as our Saviour and Lord, we trust Him to forgive our sins and give us a restored relationship with Himself and…