It’s a bit unnerving just to be asked, “Do you love Jesus?” Sometimes we don’t know how we feel. At any given time we might be too tired, too hungry, too distracted, too busy to find the place in us that loves Jesus. We might pass through a season of indifference to Christ. Or a season of willfulness and unrepented sin. My way not your way. And then we can’t connect to the deep place in our heart that loves the Lord.
Presence, Peace and Power
April 23, 2023 • Rev. Dr. Gerrit Dawson • John 20:19–23
Imagine Jesus standing in the midst of your life. In the moments where you are not doing anything, but only thinking about everything. He arrives. Can you see him? He is there. He smiles at you. Holds out his hands. Speaks kindly: “Peace be with you." Imagine his deep exhaling of his Spirit. As he breathes out, breathe in his air, the Holy Spirit he gives. Say as you inhale, “I receive your Spirit.” As you exhale, imagine your breath pressing his Spirit throughout your whole body.
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A Good Question
February 19, 2023 • Scott Graham • John 5:1–18
Do you want to be healed? You need to see and believe in the crucified and risen savior before you. Do you want to be healed? You need to give Christ the right to identify and judge sin in your life. Do you want to be healed? Recognize that his love for you is passionate and powerful enough to be worth any name calling or ostracization that might come your way from others. Do you want to be healed, and receive the perfect rest God promises?
Everything I Ever Did
February 12, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • John 4:15–30
How about you? Will you risk his gaze? His closeness? His desire to be with you always? Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! Surely, he is the Savior!
Sir, Give Me This Water!
February 5, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • John 4:4–15
If you have believed into Jesus, giving him your life and asking for his, you have the Holy Spirit. You have water aplenty to sustain life. You have that well inside you. You as believers can draw from the very life of God. But, of course, it’s not automatic. The refreshment of the living water arises when we pray, “Your will be done.” The Spirit flows in a way we can taste as we offer ourselves to be led, shaped and guided by Christ. His agenda replaces ours.
We have to guard this well. To keep it from contamination. To stop listening to so much blather and swill. We have to take the time to draw deep from the well. Reading Scripture. Listening to God in silence. Gathering with his people to worship. Putting his praise on our lips. Learning his Word so we have something to pray. Asking Christ to open our eyes to ways we could love. Accepting his invitation to lay down your will and energy for someone this very day. Aligning your life with Jesus every morning. Filling your mind and words with his words. Drinking deep from him in the Lord’s Supper.
The well is already there in every believer. Christ Jesus invites us to press deeply into him. To faith into him, drawing on his promises. Drawing on his love. Relating to him. And going forth to love and serve the Lord by loving and serving others.
Lured Out of the Dark
January 29, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • John 3:16–21
We’ve drunk a lot of darkness in our days. But it’s not too late. Never too late as long as you are here in this present moment. The dungeon flares with light. The cell doors are open. The death sentence has been commuted. A land of everlasting light and life awaits. Will you arise and follow Jesus this very hour? With whatever he is showing you of yourself, will you take it out of the dark and into the light? In repentance and faith. Trusting, risky, the truth: God so loved the world, that he gave.
Nicodemus, Part 1
January 22, 2023 • Darin Travis • John 3:16–21
Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again. He says it twice so that Nicodemus won’t miss it, “Truly, truly.” "Pay attention mighty ruler of the Jews, because if you are not born again, you will not enter, you will not see, you cannot be a part of the kingdom of God." Nicodemus did not like Jesus’ words. Rather than crying out in joy over the possibility of becoming something new, he cries out in disappointment, “How can a man be born again?”
Get Out!
January 15, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • John 2:13–25
The temple court can be so clogged with the day-to-day trading that there is no room for prayer and worship. The marketplace is so loud we don’t hear the cries of the little ones. Get these things outta here! The new temple has been established. The body of Jesus is the temple. We are joined to him, we become living stones in his temple, growing and fitted together in love.
Water to Wine
January 8, 2023 • Gerrit Dawson • John 2:1–12
When the wine failed, Jesus turned the old water into exquisite new wine. The party was saved. But of course, much more was going. Jesus came into the world changing everything around him. With the wedding at Cana, Jesus launched the great days of his ministry, cleansing sin and overcoming disease. But those days were just the beginning. For our bridegroom, our host, the Lord Jesus himself, has more still to give us. He has indeed saved the best for last. Christ will return for his bride, the church. And ignorance will be no more. Estrangement will be no more. Death will be no more. Tears will be wiped away. Rejoicing will resound through the universe.
