“After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.” — Mark 16:19 Tomorrow is Ascension Day… so if you live here in Lancaster County, get ready for a quieter than normal Thursday and a procession of horse and buggies crowding the roads. Much of the plain community — Amish and Mennonite alike — pauses to observe the day. Family-owned businesses close their doors with handwritten signs…
Monday was my day off, and I spent a good part of it power washing our house. I got about half of it done. And honestly, I couldn’t believe how dirty it had become by just… sitting there. When we bought the house in 2019, it was in showcase condition. The appliances had been recently replaced, the paint was touched up nicely, and the lawn and flowerbeds looked like they’d been professionally maintained. The house had likely had been power…
One of the great mysteries—and adventures—of my Christian life has been learning to discern the will or voice of God. I was raised in a church tradition in which one didn’t hear the voice of God. We didn’t need to—we had the completed Word of God in the Bible. But conversely, God did guide—revealing His will through things like circumstances, internal peace, godly counsel, and of course through reading the Bible. We didn’t believe in new revelation, but in the…
The Fourth Word: My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? Second Mennonite Church, Philadelphia, April 3:2026 Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34 At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” So now we come to the center. Three words have already been spoken, and three more will follow. But…
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re moving an entire brick house on Rt. 625 next to Conestoga Wood Specialties. I’ve been watching with fascination over the last few weeks as they dug out around the foundation, cut through the concrete sections, and slid massive steel I-beams underneath. Then—somehow—they lifted the whole thing, inch by inch. When I drove by Sunday morning, there it was… an entire house sitting on a flatbed trailer. I can’t imagine the tension of…
You’ve probably heard the story—when Hernán Cortés landed in the New World, he burned his ships. No retreat. No backup plan. No “we’ll see how this goes.” The only way forward… was forward. It’s a little extreme—but also quite inspiring. Because if we’re honest, most of us live with more than a few “ships” docked in the background. Things we’d like to do. Tasks that need accomplishing. Issues that need addressing. The spirit is willing… but the flesh is weak…
A week or so ago I was driving while my YouVersion audio Bible was playing through the book of Numbers. I had just finished painfully listening to two very repetitive chapters listing the census of the entire nation of Israel… tribe by tribe… clan by clan. It was, shall we say, a bit tedious. Then the Levites were counted—clan by clan. At some point I thought to myself, “Well, this is why it’s called the book of Numbers. Clever.” Our…
Today is a day of fasting and prayer at Bethany. In light of the unfolding military conflict in Iran and the growing uncertainty across the Middle East, we’ve invited our church family to pause, set aside some of our normal routines, and seek the Lord together. To help guide that time, we’ve prepared an hour-by-hour prayer guide with Scripture, prompts, and songs to focus our intercession throughout the day. When events in our world begin to move quickly and beyond…
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8) It is one of the saddest sentences in the Bible. They heard the Lord God coming and they hid. Why hide? God was not a stranger. He wasn’t their enemy. This was the One who had stooped in the…
“Slaughterhouse Religion.” That’s what my grandmother called the Old Testament sacrificial system. Grandma Matthes came out of mainline Methodism. She loved Jesus and, later in life, came to a fuller assurance of her salvation. But whenever she tried to read through the Bible, she would get bogged down in Leviticus. She’d arrive at the detailed description of the Old Testament sacrificial system— and that was as far as she could go. It was just too upsetting for her. Grandma had…