Pastor Isaac recommended this one because it goes so well with our series on Jonah! Thank you Casey Bralla for sharing! “Whooped Upside the Head” One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 16:9: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” As a stubborn engineer, and a late-in-life convert to Christianity, I’ve often needed God to “whoop me upside the head” to make His presence and desires known to me. This is the…
Finding Faith in 57 Days of Uncertainty “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” Psalm 13:5 It was very early on Sunday, February 22, when I was aroused out of a sound sleep by a quiet “ding” on my phone. Opening my phone at 5:32 a.m., caller ID told me it was the hospital. My stomach sank. This could not be good news. The doctor identified himself as one of the cardiologists on my…
(Thank you Miki Clouser for our devotional this week!) I have been listening through the Bible in a year, but somewhere around June I got off track and was struggling to catch up. I attended a birthday party in West Virginia early in July, so on the 400-mile drive home I planned to marathon it. I started listening at the end of Solomon’s reign where God sends a prophet to Jeroboam with this message, “…Solomon has forsaken me and worships…
(Thank you Debbie Barker for submitting this week’s devotional.) Every year around this time, something happens to me. While most people are soaking up the last days of summer, I’m practically giddy. Forget January 1. For me, the real New Year begins in late August. I’ve always been this way. As a child, I loved walking through the school supply aisles. Apparently, I’ve always been a nerd. (I know… everyone thinks I’m so cool. Sorry to burst your bubble.)…
This week’s blog is shared by Carol Musser. Recently, I stepped into something completely outside my comfort zone – a three-day backpacking trip through World’s End State Park with four other women. I had never backpacked before, but when the invitation came, I eagerly accepted. I expected an adventure. What I didn’t expect was how much God would teach me along the trail. Confident in my natural abilities, I assumed the journey would be difficult – but certainly manageable. The first…
Pastor Steve is on Sabbatical, we thank Pastor Isaac Martin for today’s contribution. A few weeks ago, Pastor Steve used a creative illustration in his sermon about who is shaping us. As Steve pointed out, you don’t get a purple dinosaur if you have green Play-Doh and a Christmas tree cookie cutter. You need the right mold and the right color of Play-Doh to get the right result. This spoke to me in a powerful way. This is the third…
This coming Monday, August 10, I begin my sabbatical. We announced it during a worship service this spring, but since several people have recently asked about it, I thought I’d share a little of the story behind it. Many of you know that our employee handbook provides pastors with a scheduled sabbatical after every seven years of ministry. I’ve now been serving in pastoral ministry for thirty-five years, and I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the wisdom and kindness…
This past Spring on Easter Sunday, I sent everyone home with a packet of flower seeds and an invitation to plant a little “resurrection garden.” I encouraged our church family to sow them in a small plot to remind us that God’s promises are sure, but sometimes take a long time. Jesus Himself said, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed” (John 12:24). Ironically, I was…
My veggie garden is a bit of a disaster this year. Between the weather, ministry, and life in general, I got a much later start than usual. Eventually I managed to get my normal lineup in the ground—tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and green beans—but everything felt rushed, and ever since then, the garden has shown it. This year I also tried something new. Jim Paul and I often compare notes about our gardens. Early this spring he started several flats…
Well, like I mentioned before the sermon on Sunday, we lost another tree at the Benedict estate this past weekend. ☹ One of the things that first attracted Pam and me to our home on Cedar Avenue was the trees. We only have a third of an acre in a development-styled neighborhood, but when we bought the house, the property had twelve large, mature trees. Combined with a sweeping panorama of Lancaster County farmland behind us, it felt almost like…