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We Break Bread Together (Acts 2:42-47)

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My early years were in Ferguson Valley in central Pennsylvania and attending the Spring Run Church of the Brethren. We had worship first, followed by Sunday School. During the worship service we would all fill up a couple of pews. Grandma and Grandpap, my parents and siblings, Uncle Gary and his family and Aunt Rhoda and her family. Yes, about eight cousins all together. After worship, most of us would go to Sunday School, but my Grandma would go home to finish cooking the Sunday Dinner. (Dinner is the midday meal and supper is the evening meal.) After Sunday School the rest of us would make our way to my grandparents’ home and we would all cram together around the table for dinner. Grandma would often have roast beef and/or fried chicken and/or ham, etc. Uncle Gary always made sure he got one of the breasts. Personally, I went for a thigh. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes were a weekly highlight for me. Now, we had even larger gatherings at her house for Thanksgiving and Christma...
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Reconciled and Renewed (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

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It’s not easy to look at someone through a new lens. Our first impressions, disappointments, and disagreements often cling to our view of another person. But God invites us to see differently. God calls us to look not through the lens of the past but through the mercy of Christ. Paul writes, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view” (v. 16). In Christ, the way we see others, ourselves, and the world begins to change. ( 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 ) Paul’s words reach to the heart of the gospel: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (v. 17). New creation is not a distant hope, it is a present reality breaking into our lives through grace. God’s reconciling love does more than forgive; it renews and transforms. This is prevenient and justifying grace in motion. God comes toward us before we are even aware, inviting us to be made whole, and setting us right in relationship with hi...
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The God Who Delivers (Psalm 114)

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There is a kind of awe that stops you mid-step. Maybe you’ve felt it at the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley, or seeing the sunrise on the beach, or watching a thunderstorm roll in across wide-open fields. It is a moment that brings change. Something inside you goes quiet. You sense that you are in the presence of something far greater than yourself. Psalm 114 is a poem built entirely from that kind of awe. The psalmist recalls the Israel’s Exodus from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land and describes it in sweeping, even playful images. The sea sees God coming and runs away. The Jordan River turns back. The mountains skip like rams. The hills leap like lambs. It sounds almost whimsical, until you realize what is really being said: when God moves, all of creation responds. Nothing can remain unmoved in the presence of the living God. Israel’s story begins with grace. The people did not free themselves; they were  brought out . When the psalm tells us that “the...
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When the Storms of Life Are Raging (Isaiah 51:4-6)

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On Monday we looked at the first three verses of Isaiah 51 . Today we look at the next three verses.  4 Listen to me, my people,     and give heed to me, my nation, for a teaching will go out from me     and my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 I will bring near my deliverance swiftly;     my salvation has gone out,     and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me,     and for my arm they hope. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens     and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke,     the earth will wear out like a garment,     and those who live on it will die like gnats, but my salvation will be forever,     and my deliverance will never be ended. These verses resonate with the idea that sometimes the world feels like it’s coming apart at the seams. The news is...
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A Precious Purchase (1 Peter 1:17-23)

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We’ve all had moments when we realized something costly was given for us. Somebody made a sacrifice for us that we didn’t earn. Maybe a parent working long hours, a teacher spending a lunch break with you, a friend standing by us when it would have been easier to walk away, or a stranger offering unexpected kindness. Those moments can change how we live. They invite us to respond, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude and love. In 1 Peter 1:17-23, we are reminded of a far deeper gift. The writer says, “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors… not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish” (vv. 18-19). This is the heart of the gospel: God’s grace reaches out to us before we ever respond. We call this prevenient grace: God is already at work, drawing us in, making a way where there was none. This grace doesn’t leave us unchanged. God’s grace isn’t ju...
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Gratitude for God’s Faithfulness (Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19)

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In Psalm 116 , the psalmist begins with a beautiful declaration of love: “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live” (vv. 1-2). This isn’t some distant God we worship; it is a God who leans in close, like a parent bending down to hear our faintest whisper. Even in our most desperate moments, when “the snares of death encompassed” us, God was already there, reaching out before we even knew how to ask for help. Consider how the psalm moves from desperation to gratitude. “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (vv. 12-13). The psalmist recognizes that grace received invites a response. Not repayment, because grace cannot be earned, but a life of thanksgiving, worship, and faithful living. This is the beginning of sanctifying grace at work, shaping a heart that desires to love God more dee...
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Turn, and Live (Acts 2:14, 36-41)

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There is so much contained in Acts 2:14, 36-41 . People hearing Peter’s words are “cut to the heart” and want to know what they must do. They are told to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. But what does it mean to repent? The word metanoia (μετάνοια) is usually translated as repentance. Some translations use the expression “change of heart and life” (e.g. Common English Bible) and others include the expression “a change of mind.” When we hear the word repent, we tend to think about a feeling of remorse, but it must be more than that. Repentance is indeed a change of mind, heart, and life. Is is a “turning back to God event.” Scriptures speak of the need for the “fruit of repentance.” In other words, true repentance is evidenced by a change of mind, heart, and life, that demonstrates a desire to live a life pleasing to God and is expressed in tangible evidence of loving God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Peter’s answ...
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