the below was taken from Serrene's blog at Immovablerock.org This blog post is not meant to condemn, or frown upon anyone who misses church sponsored events. This blog post is a confession of my sin to the church.

He longs to gather us..... As I was listening to the message on Sunday, I was reminded of a story told to me many years ago when I was a young mom. This particular teacher often shared about animals ~ and since I am a lover of animals as well as children, they spoke to my heart and have stayed with me ever since. The photograph Chris shared of the hen gathering her chick...

When I heard last Sunday's message about our calling to be witnesses I found myself feeling challenged in a way I simply did not want to be challenged. That is the unfortunate truth and it has been this way for much of my Christian life. I hate being told to "step out of my comfort zone", to take risks in sharing the Gospel, to be willing to suffer in taking those risks. T...

The following is an excerpt taken from a longer post on Dick's website: Branches in the Vine. -------------- Someone said, "Telling your faith in God story is like sharing your candy with a friend". Followers of Christ should tell their story to encourage those they know and love to be "seekers" of Christ. The Apostle Paul put it this way--some "plant", some "water", and...

Many Christians have written of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The number of words devoted to this event is likely only surpassed by the many accounts of His death. In a sense this seems unfortunate. It is not that his Passion is to be trivialized. The story of the cross is the story of the ages and it is certainly true that without Good Friday there would be no Easter....

I had to laugh when Pastor Chris advised us last Sunday to "pray for the mind of Christ and then Google." (Italics mine). A couple of months ago I was dealing with a health issue and he asked how I was doing. I said fine, but indicated I wanted to check out a couple of my symptoms on a Google search. His response was something to the effect of "oh, man, are you sure you...

Several weeks back, when Chris was finishing up his series on Fighting for Rest, he spoke of how non-Christian and non-religious things can point us to God. He used multiple examples ranging from an alcoholic drink to Netflix. The basic premise was that even though these were not necessarily Christian activities we could appreciate them in moderation and have that apprecia...

Last Sunday Pastor Chris preached on the centrality of the cross to the authentic Christian life. He also called each of us back to the cross if we have in some way, in any way, drifted from it. He even went so far as to ask anyone who had lost sight of the cross of Christ, and wanted to have it front and center again, to raise their hands. Like many of you, I was one who ...

Church gone WILD? Yes, CHURCH GONE WILD! For the longest time, I believed that other Christians had attained the perfect life (or at least one closer to perfection than mine) that I had always dreamed of and could never quite get to (and it's a daily battle, tearing down this lie gone wild in my mind...). They'd "made it". They had the perfect relationship. They had a f...

"While growing spiritually, don't be looking for the next 'buzz.'" These words from last Sunday's sermon deeply resonated with me. I spent so many years seeking that one "Mountaintop Experience", that one spiritual "silver bullet" which would put right all of what so often felt so very wrong inside me during about the first decade of my walk as a Christ-follower. My assum...