Today and next Sunday many of us will “Gather Live” and see each other face-to-face for the first time in many months. We’ll be outside, socially-distanced and wearing masks, but we’ll be together. For many of us it will be a precious reunion. For me it will be the first time I’ve actually seen some … [Read More…] September 20, 2020
If you read the Bible, you will find numerous stories where in God’s goodness despair is turned to deliverance, misery is turned to majesty, brokenness is turned to beauty, and grief is turned to glory. These stories are not here to stoke our wishful thinking. These stories show us, in compressed form, the redemption God … [Read More…] Sovereign Stories
God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them. (John Piper) Here at the end of the book of Ruth we discover that God is doing far more in this little family from Bethlehem than they could ever have imagined. From the dark days of tragedy, to … [Read More…] September 6, 2020
As we wrap up our series , featuring conversations on race between panelists representing members of our staff and congregation, we conclude with two important question: what does the Bible say about race, and how should we respond to this issue? Pastor Best helps guide our thinking on this important issue by encouraging us … [Read More…] The Bible and Racism
A month ago we closed on our house in Olympia and, as my children explained it to our friends, we became “homeless.” We quickly taught them a better way to describe our time “between homes,” but in many ways that’s how we’ve felt these last weeks. We’ve stayed in several rental homes, a couple hotels, … [Read More…] August 23, 2020
You are loved, more than you know. I often close my letters with these words. They remind us of what we are prone to forget: in Jesus we are loved to the skies. The Bible tells us that though we are far more sinful than we ever dared realize, in Jesus we are … [Read More…] August 16, 2020
