Coming to the Still Waters

  Well, 2020 Christmas Eve was not what I expected.  Because of increased cases in our small community, it touched some who attended our church which put in motion our prepared ahead of time plan to "rest" a Sunday from in-person services and rely again on our online capabilities.  It just happened to occur over Christmas and therefore the Christmas Eve service had the attendance of 3 in-person but video views of over 700.  In-person, without COVID concerns, the sanctuary can probably hold 250+.  Which do I prefer?  It is the 250+ because you can see them engaging in the service and experiencing the wonder of God's love of sending His one and only Son to us.  You have instant contact and can experience in person the greetings of "Merry Christmas"  with each other and share that moment on Christmas Eve among the lights and decorations of Christmas.  COVID has definitely reduced the impact of physical contact with each other. These next thoughts are mine and mine

Back in Maine!  A few more weeks and I will see my first interim completed when I pass on this baton to the next pastor of Machias Valley Baptist Church.  My heart is full of joy to be speaking with him on a regular basis about the potential ministry opportunities in DownEast Maine.  My heart is also full of joy because we have seen God's hand at work bringing these two parties together to serve together with the gospel message to Machias and beyond.  God is good and I look forward to the next assignment He has for me. I am busy clearing out the office that has served me well over these 18 months.  It has been a great place to study God's word and work on my online masters classes.  I have been thankful for the space to meet with others, especially local pastors of this area.  I wonder what the next one will look like?  I have had the privilege of working through some more books of the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, at this desk.  The gospel of Luke has been adde

  I am taking a little break at our mobile home at Betmar Acres in Zephyrhills, Florida before finishing the work in Machias, Maine.  I will assume my normal chores when here of washing the mobile, servicing the car, and pruning the palm tree.  What I enjoy the most are my morning walks around the park in the mornings and our bike rides around the park in the evenings.  I don't think I have been here during the month of December so the park looks great with all of its Christmas lights.  You can tell those from Maine because instead of lighted reindeer they have lighted moose in the front yard! The sermon passage included the second sin that tried to creep into the 1st century church.  The first was the hypocritical lives represented by Ananias and Sapphira.  God dealt with this one swiftly with them walking into the assembly only to be carried out by others.  The second is the sin of prejudice which leads to division.  Someone had decided that the "away" Jewish widows we

  As you travel through a book of the Bible you will start to collect some principles that emerge over and over again.  So it is with our study of the Acts of the Apostles.  This Sunday's sermon was Acts 5:17-42 and #11 in our time with this book.  I would like to share with you some of my common observations. Persecution is followed by bolder proclamation and praise. It seems when we feel a little pressure from the world pushing against the claims of Christ, we tend to go in the opposite direction than the 1st century church.  We look for a place to hide and protect ourselves or we resort to not doing what the angel told the apostles to do, "God and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the worlds of this Life" (Acts 5:20, ESV). The purging of sin from the church produced more faith. We would think it would be a downer  Sunday if some walked into the church physically alive only to be carried out of the church physically dead.  The opposite occurs.  Actuall