Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  God Speaks… and a Man is Silenced! -  Luke 1:1-25 Introduction: For this Christmas season I decided to start a new series, beginning today and leading us up to our celebration on Christmas Eve of the birth of Jesus. I have preached extended series through Matthew, Mark, and John, but have only done a few isolated sermons on Luke. This Gospel gives us some of the most familiar stories surrounding the Incarnation, but also some other scenes and events that at least I have not given the attention that they deserve. Paul said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… ” So, I hope we can learn together what God has for us as we begin a study the third gospel. God chose to give us four Gospels, and each has it’s own emphases. They supplement each other in giving us a more complete picture of Jesus. Our goal as always is to know Him better and to love Him more!    ...

  Thanksgiving 2020 – Psalm 117 Nearly 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln called a divided nation to acknowledge and give thanks to the One True God…   THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION Abraham Lincoln, 1863 "It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choisest bounties of...

  Thankful Pilgrims:  Psalm 84 Introduction : One blessing of living in NJ, so close to our daughter’s family, is that we get to share a meal with them occasionally. When we had the grandkids with us up in Maine for a time as they had to transition to online learning, it was good to see the children growing in their willingness to pray before meals and give thanks. Their parents are teaching them the way of God. Being thankful to God isn’t only for Thanksgiving! Remember the story of a family that was gathered around the table for Thanksgiving dinner, when the dad asked his young son if he would give thanks for the meal. The boy eyed every dish on the table and then bowed his head and prayed, “Lord, I don’t like the looks of it, but I thank you for it, and I’ll eat it anyway!” Come to think of it, our grandson said something like that last week when Mary Ann made a meal at their house. “Grammy, are there tomatoes in that?” Yes Hunter, there are. “That’s ok, I’ll eat it anywa...

  All Hail King Jesus!  Psalm 2 Introduction : After Pentecost the young church faced opposition. The leaders are first arrested and threatened in Acts 4, and when they were released, they had a prayer meeting. We read about it in Acts 4:23-30… 23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.   24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,   25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "' Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?   26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'-   27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with...