Rainforest Falls VBS is here. Click here for more information

Last month our guest Pastor the Rev. J. David Worthen referenced the following poem by Edgar Guest, called Sermons We See. After the service I immediately went home and looked up the rest of the poem. I am wired like this poem. Don’t just talk to me, teach me, show me, help me understand. As I thought about how this relates to church and my relationship with Jesus, I had to smile. I thought of all the wonderful Saints that have been at the First Presbyterian Church. All the wonderful gifts...

Jesus and his disciples left for a remote location and the crowds followed. Jesus taught them, and at the end of the day, they were hungry. It was late, they were in a remote location, with a crowd of hungry people. The disciples informed Jesus of the situation and made a helpful suggestion: send the people away so they can go into surrounding villages and buy food to eat. Jesus’ response was, “You feed them.” This surprised the disciples. They had given him a suggestion and he turned it all...

1 Corinthians 12:4-14 Paul is writing to the Corinthians because he has heard of difference in the congregation. He is distressed that the congregation of believers is rent with schisms, and I see our congregation in the reading. Partly, this divisiveness may be understood on differences in the conceptions of how a pastor is to relate to the parishioners and how that was affected by the Covid-19 quarantine. Ironically, however, their tendency toward divisiveness was also fueled by the way the...

I like to do “hidden object” puzzles. The objects to find can be text, sometimes it’s silhouette pictures, and sometimes the whole familiar picture is reverse. Regardless, I have often found that I cannot find an object no matter how hard I look, only to see that it was right in plain sight, or was not what I expected. Sometimes I think we fail to observe God’s grace that is right in front of us. We’re too busy in our everyday lives and expect His grace to be obvious. It is not—it is subtle,...

Psalm 119:73-80 This psalm is very personal. The psalmist is in deep sorrow. He hopes that his sorrow will become a blessing. He attempts to teach, but God is using this time to teach him. He prays for experience. He asks God to baffle (bewilder) the proud and to gather together the godly. Lastly he asks God to equip him to bear witness. He is anxious but still remains hopeful even though he is afflicted by cruel adversaries. He is appealing to God as a friend. Let us appeal to God as...

1 Samuel 2:8-9 I was once advised by a Christian friend, “If you worry, don’t pray and if you pray, don’t worry.”  Anyone who prays about an issue and asks God to take care of it and then continues to worry about it insults our awesome God. Of course, that’s easy to say, but far more difficult to put into practice. The world is a worrisome place as I write this. We are rightly concerned about the pandemic, although it seems to be easing. Then there is the war in Ukraine, as they defend...

With all that is going on in our world, it is easy to allow ourselves to be overcome by feelings of despair.  The news shows us a deeply divided country, with daily reports of protests, injustices directed toward others, and negativity.  Our own church is struggling with change. We choose sides as to whom to blame.  Many see no hope for our future. We as Christians can and should have a different outlook on our current situation:  we might just need another reminder of who our God is. King...

This week's reflection provided by Donna Maley:  This past Sunday, the readings were Genesis 45:3-11 and Luke 6:27-38. In the Genesis passage, Joseph sees his brothers years after they had sold him into slavery. His brothers feared him, but he was very gracious to them and had forgiven them. In the Luke passage, Jesus is teaching about loving enemies--"love your enemies," "turn the other cheek," etc. Dr. Kim addressed both of these readings in his sermon Sunday; and as he said, this is tough...

Philippians 4:4-6 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forebearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. How is it possible to not give in to a negative “Woe is me" attitude when we are without an installed minister, a Christian educator, an organist/choir director, and still being beset by COVID? Yet Paul tells us to rejoice in God and...

Luke 2:22-40 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the...