Sunday, March 30, 2014

If It Is from God: Things I Learned from Cross - Acts 5:27-39

Jin H. Cho

Fourth Week of Lent
"Think of the self that God has given as an acorn. It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional. Think of the grand glory of an oak tree. God's intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree. His intention for us is '... the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes. When you look at the oak tree, you don't feel that the loss of the acorn is a very great loss. The more you perceive God's purpose in your life, the less terrible the losses seem." - Elizabeth Elliot

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Sins of Omission - Not Doing What We Ought - James 4:13-17

Samuel S. Bang

Third Week of Lent
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." This often quoted observation by Martin Luther King, Jr. is a vivid reminder that the good things we fail to do often has deeper consequences than the sins we commit. Too many of us have grown up with an unbalanced view of sanctification as simply avoiding sin instead of growing in righteousness. Godliness is both avoiding sin AND doing what is right before God. Let us pursue this together this Lenten season.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Redemption in the Garden - Genesis 3:7-21

Jin H. Cho

Second Week of Lent
Lent is the traditional time of the year in which we prepare our hearts, our minds, our lives, to receive the great gift of Christ's loving sacrifice on the cross, and the victory of the Easter resurrection. Today, we continue our Lenten series.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Fall - Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Jin H. Cho

First Week of Lent
Lent is the traditional time of the year in which we prepare our hearts, our minds, our lives, to receive the great gift of Christ's loving sacrifice on the cross, and the victory of the Easter resurrection. Today, we begin our Lenten series reflecting upon humanity's fall from grace—the entrance of sin in the world—as told in the story of Adam and Eve, and how it impacts us everyday.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Hospitality - Following Jesus into Dangerous Places - Ezra 3:10-13

Mike McNichols

Message from Guest Speaker Dr. Mike McNichols.
Following Jesus is very often counter-intuitive. Sometimes we want to respond to a situation one way, but Jesus calls us to respond in an entirely different way. As we share our lives in the community we call the church, we find that living by the call of Jesus is how we express the reality of the kingdom of God in the world.