New Eyes
Pastor Doug Dent
When we look at people different from us, people from another ethnic heritage, or religion, or a different sort of community, do we assume certain things about them based on old prejudices? Or do we approach each encounter open to what God is ready to show us? When we look at the physical world around […]
The Other Samaritan
Pastor Doug Dent
Visual art offers us so many perspectives, and each time we come back to it we discover something new. The same is true of our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Living water flows at the heart of that relationship: refreshing, restoring, and reviving. If you feel that your spiritual life is a little dry, […]
Bet You Can’t Eat Just One
Pastor Doug Dent
Rationalizations can be deadly, but there is a way out: God’s grace. When we recognize temptation for what it is and acknowledge we cannot beat it on our own, God enters in and gives us what we need to succeed. It is all a matter of whom we trust. If we trust ourselves alone, we […]
Unclimbed Mountains
Pastor Doug Dent
This ordinary conversation between two people somehow manages to traffic in the profound as the traveler reflects: “It doesn’t seem so much to climb a mountain you’ve worked around the foot of all your life.” It feels somehow very sad that this farmer spends his entire life staring up at the mountain’s looming form, but […]
The First Step Toward Reconciliation
Pastor Doug Dent
There is no easy path to mastering everything that Jesus asks of us, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. But we move closer to Jesus and his way when we speak with honesty about our sins and our shortcomings, and when we take steps to repair relationships with the people around us. None of […]
Integrated Faith
Pastor Doug Dent
A public figure once made a speech about conservation and the environment. He ended by saying, “I now call upon the Christian part of myself.…” Really? Is Christianity just one part of ourselves? Perhaps the speaker meant that statement as a transition to acknowledge that his faith shaped his environmental views. I hope so! But […]
The Search for Satisfaction
Pastor Doug Dent
The promise of this verse is the gift of satisfaction. When we act justly, we have better relationships with the people around us. When we love mercy, we are building a better community for all. When we walk humbly, we feel in step with Almighty God. True satisfaction does not come from property or power […]
Foxhole Faith
Pastor Doug Dent
The observant student will notice that this psalm is not about David at all; it is all about God. The Lord is cited 17 times (including pronouns) in 14 verses. The contrast is between the weakness, fear, pleadings and prayers of a faltering human being, and a powerful deity who can extract him from certain […]
A Light to the Nations
Pastor Doug Dent
Some lighthouses are retired and no longer serve as an official “aid to navigation.” Yet they still stand as a solitary reminder that we may be the only light that someone might see, the only book that someone might read, the only picture someone might admire. It is a sad thing when the light goes […]
From Bethlehem to Rosewood
Pastor Doug Dent
Jesus showed us the way when he healed the servant of a Roman centurion (Luke 7:5-13) and helped a Canaanite woman from the district of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21-28). Since he was familiar with suffering, he was never afraid to show compassion to people in need, even if they were outside of his religious […]
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