God made clear his desire to welcome outsiders into the story. Long before the New Testament, Israel's role was to be the reflection of the law for outsiders. Do the stories of the Old Testament belong? The stories of battles and rules? In Pastor Jon Porter's sermon from Sunday 1/12/25, he spoke of God's grand …
ALL IN
As we enter a new year, Jon Porter brings us a question to consider. “Does God’s love really include you?” It’s difficult for us, in our humanness, to make sense of God’s love. It doesn’t make much sense to us because we are more likely to love those who first show love to us. But, …
UNSHAKABLE JOY
Have you ever felt like joy is just out of reach? Wondering where the joy is? This blog post is my takeaway from Jon Porter’s sermon from December 15, 2024. I love his heart, but he’s got a way of digging into scripture that takes me to a new level of understanding. Often as human …
THE LIGHT OF PEACE
We all want peace, but where can we find it? There will always be wars and rumors of wars. If that’s the truth, how can we ever have peace? This blog post is my take away from pastor Jon Porter’s sermon on 12/8/24. It’s advent, a time when we celebrate the anticipation of the arrival …
LET THERE BE LIGHT
When we think of darkness, it’s usually in the sense that we can’t see. But, sometimes it’s an emotional or spiritual darkness that seems to hang over us. Pastor Jon Porter encouraged us this week to remember that this is a season of hope. Light is breaking into the darkness. Hope isn’t just a wish, …
Gratitude That Heals
The season of Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on what we have to be grateful for. Our sermon this past Sunday by Jon Porter was from the book of Luke. I think when I was reading this passage on my first journey of reading through the Bible, I failed to look deeper into …
Beyond Us: Gratitude
We often think out of scarcity. That was the case with the four men with leprosy that we find in 2 Kings 7. They were in a hopeless situation and discussed the options they had: If they stayed where they were outside the city, they would die. Going into the city where the famine is, …
Why Me, Lord?
This blog post is my take on my pastor, Jon Porter’s sermon from 10/20/24. The story Kris Kristofferson tells about what led up to his writing the song “Why Me, Lord?” is an incredible story of the hand of God at work in a man’s heart. You can watch him tell about it on this …
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Everything! All of God’s laws are summed up in that one little word. The central core them in the Bible is love and if we focus on that, no other laws are even needed. The problem is we are more concerned about our agendas and we forget about love. Love is the answer! We try …
What’s Government For?
It may seem like a strange thing to preach a sermon on, but stay with me and you’ll understand. Governments and the systems that run them are tools in the hands of God. ”For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free …
