Pastor’s Blog

Daily Devotion Jan. 4, 2024

“If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15, NIV).

     At times the Scriptures appear contradictory. The passage above is just one example. Jesus’ statement apparently conflicts with the idea that we are all saved by grace through our faith in Christ. In other words, God does not forgive us because of the good things we do but as a result of our dependence upon Jesus for our salvation. How, then, can it also be true that God will not forgive us when we refuse to forgive others?


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Daily Devotion January 3, 2024

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”                                   (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV).

     Last weekend, my wife and I crossed the Mario M. Cuomo bridge in New York for the first time. The newly constructed passageway spans the Hudson River. Interestingly, I learned that the Hudson is not a river, but an estuary.

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Daily Devotion Dec. 21, 2023

Daily Devotions will resume January 9, 2024


Daily Devotion Dec. 19, 2023

“At just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6, NIV).

     Sometimes we make life harder than need be. I once met a young woman named Julie who struggled over her relationship with God. She hadn’t been to worship in several months. When I inquired as to her reasons she replied, “God would never accept me the way I am. I need to get my life together before I can approach Him.”


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Daily Devotion Dec. 15, 2023

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).

     Forest Gump is one of my favorite movies. Gump is befriended by his former military commander, Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Forest rescues Lt. Dan from further injury in the midst of a fierce firefight.

     Unfortunately, Lt. Dan’s legs are badly damaged and are subsequently amputated. Lt. Dan’s response toward Forest is not one of gratitude but hostility. The lieutenant is angry that Gump just didn’t leave his commander in the jungle to die in battle. Lt. Dan believed that dying gloriously in combat was his personal destiny and that Gump robbed him of such honor.

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Daily Devotion Dec. 14, 2023

“The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20, NRSV).

     
     Cathy and I have been watching this season’s episode of Survivor on CBS. The show places eighteen persons in a remote, exotic location in order to determine who will outwit, outplay, and outlast all the others. The participants typically use various means of deception and duplicity in
order to eliminate one another from the game.

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