Micah foretold: the coming King has arrived in Bethlehem. Most of us know these words, as something from a foreign land and a foreign time. To these shepherds, seeing an angel is foreign, but not the message. They had been waiting in this place, for this moment, for generations.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

In the time of the Bible, a person's name was understood to be a declaration of their character and identity. Today we look at Isaiah 9 and the declaration of the names by which we would know God's Messiah.Autor: Rev. Dr. Mike Fleischmann

If God has a plan for history, do you believe God has a plan for you?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What is the vision of the future you are yearning for, praying for, working for, striving for? What is your hope? This advent, we will look at promises of hope— prophecies of Jesus’ coming, prophecies of his birth, and prophecies of his eternal reign. Advent is a time when we remember that the King is Coming.…

Have you ever had to deal with someone who is mad? How can we help someone else with their anger? How can we help the world with all the anger around us?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

A central tenet of Christian faith is forgiveness. Jesus came to earth for our forgiveness. On the cross, Jesus prayed to forgive those who tortured him. He taught us to forgive. His disciples had a hard time accepting it. So, how do we forgive?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Anger is normative and healthy when appropriate but when it begins to spike unnaturally, it shows us that an adjustment needs to be made.Autor: Rev. Christian Hong

Anger can also be deeply destructive—to ourselves, to others, to relationships; to the Church, the country, and the kingdom of God. How do we identify unhealthy anger? Specifically, how do we identify unhealthy anger in ourselves?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

The Bible never says “don’t get mad.” Be angry, but do not sin. Be angry, but do not hold onto the anger. Be angry, but do not let the enemy have an opportunity. That sounds great…but how do we do it?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Is anger sinful? Is it evil? Are there healthy ways to express or manage anger? The Bible has a lot to say about anger and it's relevant to all our lives, especially in a culture where outrage is liked and shared.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Is it possible to extend the kind of love Jesus is talking about beyond our personal realm? Now, more than ever, our world needs people who are learning to love.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Jesus call us his friends. It’s hard to think of Jesus, Ruler of Creation, enthroned in heaven and also think of Jesus who hugs kids and calls us his friends. It's hard to hold both of those concepts in our minds at the same time.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Is Jesus offering a conditional friendship? Is friendship with Jesus, is perhaps even the love of Jesus, based on the condition of following commandments?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What is the greatest love--the strongest, most powerful, most life-changing love--that a person can have? Romance? Self-love? Love of God? What does Jesus say?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

There is nothing wrong with desiring something God wants to give you. The problem is coveting something that is not for you. That kind of coveting focuses your attention and your will on what you do not have, instead of focusing on what you do have.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What’s the difference between reaching out to friends for support and gossip? Because reaching out for support is healthy, and gossip is unhealthy, and a lot of people honestly don’t know the difference.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Something in us believes "what I have is not enough" -- not enough money, not enough security, not enough comfort, not enough status, not enough success. There is a fear that we do not have or will not have enough. Jesus speaks directly to this fear in the Sermon on the Mount.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Our bodies matter and what we do with our bodies matter. We are called to glorify God in our bodies.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Jesus challenges the interpretation of the 6th commandment--you shall not murder--calling us to expand our interpretation to include the spirit of the law. Jesus calls us to move beyond religiosity into right relationship with God and our neighbors.Autor: Dr. Charlene Friedman

Family shapes our values, perceptions, and worldview. Family shapes our emotional world, our experience of love or shame, trust or fear, confidence or guilt. But family can be messy, can’t it? How can we honor our messy families?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Special guest two-time Lee Rouson offers a message as part of our VBS Sports Camp Celebration

Sabbath is God's gift to us-- a groundwork for our relationship with God. Let's look at sabbath from God's perspective.Autor: Rev. Christian Hong

In the Sabbath commandment we learn that God wants to spend time with us. Sabbath is practice for eternity. What is the Sabbath for?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

omg...It is a common phrase when something is great, or terrible, or just mildly amusing. Some people say it so often they think nothing of it.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

The second commandment shows that God wants more than our obedience; God wants our hearts.

The 10 Commandments are an invitation to covenant. That’s what God and the people were doing at Sinai: confirming a covenant. God has proven God's faithfulness and invites us to be faithful.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Rules somehow feel different when they are religious, don’t they? The words “thou shalt not” just have such weight. Religious rules can induce fear, and guilt, and judgment. Why did God choose to give us rules?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Autor: Rev. Joseph Kang

If God allowed Jesus to experience trials and temptations, what does that mean for us?Autor: Dr. Charlene Friedman

AI creates new ethical questions at a time when people do not agree on basic ethics. When people do not agree on right and wrong, how can we agree on what’s right and wrong for AI?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What is truth? That’s the question of our age. Modernism says truth is objective, factual, separate from the observer. Postmodernism says truth is subjective, relative, in the eye of the beholder. Israeli philosopher Yuval Harari claims that many truths are intersubjective: we decide together what’s true. Now we have AI to tell us what’s true. Have…

Artificial Intelligence is poised to transform society. What might this mean for our lives, and our faith? Come to consider how our ancient faith is not only relevant but essential in an AI world.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Guest Rev. Martin Boardman reminds us that there is hope, there is renewal, and there are times of refreshing through Jesus Christ.Autor: Rev. Martin Boardman

What do we do when we experience heartbreak? How can we seek healing?Autor: Rev. Christian Hong

Have you ever had a moment in time that transformed how you see life from then on? Sharing the stories of what we have actually experienced in our faith journey is a very scriptural thing to do! Eye witness accounts are of great importance in our human story; and also, in history of God’s people.Autor: Dr. Jim Owen

What do we do with the weird parts of the Bible?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you declared, “This is not how the story was supposed to end!”? We think life is supposed to be comfortable, but we all know that’s not how life really works. There are hurts, trauma, broken relationships, illness, and death. But that's not the end of the story.…

Can we live in a way that honors Jesus, points people to Jesus, and glorifies Jesus, instead of us? Is Jesus worth it?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Sometimes it feels like our lives or our history are a train going off the rails. Jesus reminds us that we are in God’s hands! God has a plan, God has a future for us, therefore we have hope.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

These were the three main worldviews or perspectives during Jesus' lifetime, and Jesus did not fit any of them. In today's scripture passage, we are going to see Jesus go toe to toe with some great minds of his age and turns out: Jesus makes sense.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Life has all kinds of questions. What is the big question in your life right now? Are you seeking a true answer or an answer that you want to be true? How might God answer the question of your life?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

People look at Jesus and ask, "Is he judging us?"Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

This Lent, we will walk through Jesus’ final week as written in the Gospel of Mark. Let me invite you to place yourself in the Jerusalem crowd and ask: who is that guy? Who is Jesus? What might we learn about him, and what might that mean for us?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

We live in a world in transition with tons of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We have two political movements promising that they will lead us to peace, and the other will lead us to disaster and this year, an election year, the stakes feel higher for both sides. Jesus has a prescient word for us today: “Watch out!…

So many people live their lives for themselves, They focus on their own problems, put energy toward their own success and relationships, and advance their own agenda. We were made for something greater than ourselves. We were made to push back the darkness.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What does that mean, exactly, to follow Jesus? Let’s look at his followers and see what we discover.Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

What is our greatest need?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

If we are family of faith, how do we relate to people who are not part of the family? That might include neighbors, coworkers, friends and it might include people who don’t like us. How do we relate to them?Autor: Rev. Dr. Barnabas Sprinkle

Your best life is lived for what you are made for. You were not made for the grind. You were not made for loneliness or meaninglessness, for addictions or compulsions, for fears or worries. You were made for a purpose. You were made by the Creator of the universe for a purpose larger than yourself. Do you know what you are made for?…