Hosea 11:1-9 Hosea(Mark 10:13-14) The benefit of hindsight is great. Often we see things we had no way of seeing before, or we see things whose significance we did not recognize in the past, or in the moment. We receive warnings in advance, and yet we do not heed those warnings. We say that we’ll never do that, and then…
1 Kings 18:[17-19] 20-39 Elijah at Mount Carmel (Mark 9:2-4) We have here the classic battle between power and faith. Elijah, that most famous of prophets, it facing off against Ahab, who accuses Elijah of troubling Israel, when Ahab has followed Baal. This is the introduction of Jezebel who gets the short end of the stick historically and in the Biblical tale.…
If you wanted to hear what MMM does to make a change in the lives of the people of Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, listen to Gus talk about his time in Zambia this fall with Marion Medical Mission.
1 Kings 12:1-17, 25-29 Kingdom Divided(Mark 10:42-45) Just 2 generations later, we end up in these passages. We hear what we often hear about the young neglecting the wisdom of their elders, of men who need to impress with their strength and virility, and of people who take the wrong advice. Rehoboam angers the people who was meant to serve.…
Christina Krost, Faith in Place representative for Southern Illinois, visited us in worship on October 20, 2019. You can hear what Faith in Place is doing with us, and hear what they do in general. read more here – https://www.faithinplace.org .
John 3:9-17 Focus on the idea that the verse is translated poorly, with the world (cosmos) being the focus, not man (anthropos). We’ll talk about how we need to do our part to live in community with the earth and our neighbors. Christina Krost, Faith in Place
The tail end of this passage is often used at weddings. Often the bias in using it is towards having the woman docilely follow her husband or her husband’s family. That’s not really the power of the narrative though. We have a renewal of the earlier story of the chosen people of God moving from one place to another due to…
Deuteronomy 5:1-21; 6:4-9 Hear O Israel, Ten Commandments (Mark 12:28-31) Over my lifetime, the 10 commandments have made a comeback. It sounds odd to say that, but for the longest time many Christians were convinced that anything Old Testament was made irrelevant by Jesus, including the 10 commandments, and so we heard more about the greatest commandment. And then suddenly there…
Exodus 1:8-14 [1:15–2:10]; 3:1-15 Moses and God’s Name (Mark 12:26-27a) This small (3 chapter) section of Exodus highlights again how long a scale God does things over. At the very beginning we hear that things have changed in Egypt. The people of God are forgotten – their connection to Joseph and Joseph himself are unknown by those in power. That situation didn’t…
Our midweek programming has moved to Tuesday afternoon from 4-6 pm. Dinner is served at about 5:15 pm.