Buying Peace
Pastor Doug Dent
Each of us deals with stress, but stress need not be debilitating. A massage is nice, yoga is good, and we need opportunities to be quiet and meditate. Ultimately, however, real stress relief comes from knowing that God loves us with an everlasting love, and that God has already conquered the world. We already have […]
A Companion for the Journey
Pastor Doug Dent
We are all on a journey. God goes with us on the way. Oftentimes God is with us through the presence of those who accompany us on the road, even if they are with us for just a little while. May we be open to what we can learn from one another, so that we […]
A Holy Imagination
Pastor Doug Dent
Imagining a Better Way. If we cannot imagine that we can have victory over sin, that is a good indication that we are not living as the children of God, but rather as children of the devil, who “has been sinning from the beginning” (1 John 3:8). But if we believe we are born of […]
Crowdsourced Christianity
Pastor Doug Dent
The Christian Way still stands in contrast to the world. Instead of “me first,” it is “us first.” Instead of “hate your enemy,” it is “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43-44). Instead of “store up treasures on earth,” it is “store up treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20). In the Crowdsourced Christianity of first-century Jerusalem, Christians worked […]
Jesus is Dead? Easter Sunday
Pastor Doug Dent
We see resurrection when we remember the full story of Jesus, from his ministry in Galilee to his crucifixion and resurrection. Even though some of the story is painful, it holds together, and it gives us a pattern for understanding our own experiences of death and new life, as individuals and as a community.
”The Old Rugged Cross” Revisited – Good Friday
Pastor Doug Dent
We wear crosses on chains, emblazon crosses on t-shirts, and stick crosses on our cars to remind ourselves that the Cross of Christ will see us through. A few years back, there were little cards printed with tiny wooden crosses pasted to them. Next to the cross was a little poem titled “The Cross in […]
No Safety for a Savior – Maundy Thursday
Pastor Doug Dent
This is our time to die: to the world, to sin, to our selfish needs. Like Jesus, we must confront the conflict around us, as well as the conflict within us. We must confess that we desire a Jesus other than the one we are given in the gospels. We must confess our desire for a Jesus […]
Donkey Sunday – Palm Sunday
Pastor Doug Dent
Finally, we serve Jesus as people with God-given nobility. Like the donkey who carried Jesus, we can walk through the world with confidence and grace. “You are a chosen race,” wrote the apostle Peter, “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” As God’s royal people, we should hold our heads high and never feel that […]
Magnetic Jesus
Pastor Doug Dent
With Holy Week coming soon, maybe you are already feeling the attraction. Maybe you feel your soul yearning for that saving story of King Jesus, riding on a donkey, then hung from a cross, then bursting forth from the tomb that could not hold him. As we move towards our celebration of those world-changing […]
Moving to Jesus
Pastor Doug Dent
The idea of moving serves as a useful metaphor for us. We may not always instinctively choose our daily activities and responses to others based on what we think God wants of us. To make that move, we must make a conscious effort, to imagine ourselves in another person’s situation, to consider how he or […]
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