What a sight it must have been when the people of Israel brought their gifts to Moses for the building of the tabernacle. The people generously brought the expensive materials that were needed for the tabernacle and its furnishings—gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; woven linen, leather, and precious stones (Exod. 35:4-9). In fact, the people brought so much that eventually they had to tell the Israelites to stop bringing their contributions (Exod. 36:3-7)! 

Now, you know how children are. They like to be involved in things, even if they are not really in a position to be especially helpful. What do you think the children were thinking—and doing—when the Israelites were taking their contributions to Moses? Did they watch as their mothers carefully spun fine yarn on a spindle and their fathers carried the family’s gold and best animal hides to Moses’ tent? When they understood what it was all for—God’s special tent—did any little girls or boys decide that they too wanted to contribute something? Was there a child who saw the generosity of his father and mother and decided to give his or her most treasured possession to the contribution? Maybe it was just a well-worn leather satchel that her father gave her back in Egypt. Or maybe it was just a beautiful rock he picked up when he was walking through the Red Sea on dry land. To an onlooker, such a gift would seem insignificant compared to the other gifts, but it is exactly the type of gift that pleases God.

Hundreds of years later, someone else was watching people bring their gifts to the temple. He watched as many rich people put in large amounts of money. When Jesus saw a poor widow put in two small coins (worth just a few dollars in today’s terms), he told his disciples, “…this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all that she had to live on” (Mark 12:43-44). To an onlooker, her gift might have seemed insignificant, but it was exactly the type of gift that pleases God.

Sometimes children pick up something in the house, wrap it or put it in a bag, and ‘give’ it to their parents as if it’s the best gift in the world. In reality, everything we give to God is like this—it’s already his. Everything we ‘give’ him has already been given to us by God. We cannot impress him with the size of our gift. Ultimately, it is not the value of the gift that matters. What matters is the attitude of the heart. To an onlooker, our gift may look insignificant, but if it is sacrificially given with the joy and faith of a child and love for God, it is exactly the type of gift that pleases him. 

One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament is found in Numbers 6:22–27, the passage that is commonly referred to as Aaron’s blessing. Although our contemporary western culture makes it difficult to have the same appreciation for spoken blessings that many people have had throughout history, these words that were a comfort to the Israelites so long ago are nonetheless still a source of comfort to God’s people today. This blessing should be in our heart and in our mind; we should read, pray, sing, and meditate on the words of this blessing. (If you are not familiar with the song based on this blessing, you should look it up and listen to it—it’s beautiful!) “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them’” (Num. 6:22–27). This blessing was oft repeated by the Israelites and is well loved by Christians today. Its elegance, simplicity, and comfort cannot be surpassed. It speaks to our great need for God and answers our deepest desires for protection, forgiveness, acceptance, and peace.

The LORD bless you and keep you. Although we are frequently tempted to look to things of this world for our meaning and security, these words remind us that it is the LORD who blesses us. Nothing else in the world can bless us the way God can. Furthermore, he will keep us—that is he will watch over us and guard us. 

The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Bible often speaks of God’s face as a metaphor for his acceptance and favor. God smiles on his people and shows us the grace that we all need.

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. To lift up the countenance means that God will pay attention to us. He will not forget about us, nor is he inattentive to our needs. The gift of peace is a summary of all God’s good gifts, the greatest gift of all being salvation and peace with God himself. Peace refers to the feast of all the good things God will give us, a feast that we have only just begun to nibble on in this lifetime. Imagine how comforting these words would have been to the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness towards the promised land. As we journey toward our promised land, these same words bring us comfort and point us to our gracious God who gives us his blessing. We serve an amazing God! 

If you’re following our 2025 Bible reading plan, you have been reminded that Leviticus is one of those Old Testament books that can feel eternal. The descriptions of the various sacrifices can seem endless, and unless you’re a dermatologist, the detailed chapter about leprous boils and spots on the skin might gross you out or put you to sleep. But in spite of all the lengthy and detailed material in Leviticus that seems irrelevant to us today, there is a message in it for Christians—a crucial message if we are to fully appreciate what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.

The central message of Leviticus is that God is holy and that his people must be holy. Leviticus 19:2 says “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” By his very nature God is righteous and just and holy. There is nothing wicked or sinful or filthy in him. If we lose sight of God’s holiness, then we have lost sight of God. If we—as is easy to do—think of God as our pal who doesn’t take sin very seriously, then we have misunderstood God. He reveals himself to the Israelites as a just God who is the very embodiment of all moral perfection. The LORD our God is holy.

Because God is holy, his people who are called by his name must be holy too. God makes this point very clearly in Leviticus (see Lev. 11:44, 45, 19:2, 20:26, 21:8). The details that fill the pages of Leviticus were God’s instructions to the Israelites on how to be holy so that they could receive God’s blessings. All the instructions about ritual washings and sacrifices unmistakably taught the lesson that God is holy and that God’s people must be holy.

The New Testament also teaches us that God is holy and that his people will be holy. Hebrews tells us that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), a reference to his holiness. The same chapter urges us to “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). If it were just up to us, we could not be holy in God’s sight. But praise God that he has made a way for us to come near to him through Jesus. Instead of all the priests and rituals and regulations of the Old Law, Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice once for all and opened up a new way for us to come into the Father’s very presence. So as you read the lengthy, detailed chapters of Leviticus, focus on the main lesson: God is holy, and his people must be holy. And give thanks for Jesus, who died and was raised for our sins, who makes us holy, and who brings us near to our holy and loving Father.

One of Jesus’ most memorable miracles has to be the healing of the demon-oppressed man from the region of the Gerasenes. Luke tells us the dramatic story in Luke 8:26-39. Coming right on the heels of another miracle (calming the sea), this healing of a man with a demon took place on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. There Jesus encountered a man who for a long time had had many demons. The terrible effects of the demons were evident in this poor man’s life: he did not wear clothes and lived among tombs; when others tried to restrain him with chains and shackles he would break his bonds and escape into the desert again (Luke 8:27, 29).

Jesus commanded the demons to leave this man, and at their request, granted them permission to enter a nearby herd of pigs. The demons destroyed the pigs by drowning them in water, and the story of this naturally spread like wildfire in the nearby town. “Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid” (Luke 8:35). Fearful as they were and not knowing what to do with Jesus, the people of the region asked him to leave. Jesus complied and began to leave by boat, and the healed man begged to be allowed to go with Jesus. He understandably wanted to stay with Jesus who had done so much to heal and restore him. But “…Jesus sent him away, saying ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:38-39).

We rightly cross ocean and continent to win souls to Christ, but may we never do so to the neglect of those closest to us: our immediate and extended family, our neighbors, our coworkers. At times it can certainly be awkward and uncomfortable to talk to our family and closest associates about spiritual things, but Jesus says the same words to us that he said to that man so long ago: “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” You don’t have to have specialized training to share your faith. You just have to look for and take opportunities to tell people how much God has done for you. This man who was healed didn’t get to travel with Jesus, but he did become a part of Jesus’ very mission. By telling others how much Jesus did for him, he was spreading the good news about Jesus and pointing people to their Savior. Now it is our turn to participate in Jesus’ mission and to point people to their Savior by going home to our family and friends and telling them how much God has done for us.

By Thomas Yukich

Nothing worth having comes easy. The things in life that are really worthwhile usually require great effort—education, a career, your marriage, rearing children, and so forth. If these things were easy, everyone would be highly educated and have a successful career, a healthy marriage and wonderful children. But these things do not come easily, and neither does a lifetime of faithful Christian living. If we are faithful to the Lord until our very last breath, it will never be by accident. Just like other things worth pursuing, faithfulness does not happen by accident and does not come easily. Let’s take a look at the way Barnabas encouraged some early Christians to remain faithful.

The Christian community in Antioch sprang up when disciples from Jerusalem fled persecution in their city and relocated to Antioch where they began a thriving church. Word got back to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem that a great number in Antioch had turned to the Lord. So the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas (also known as the son of encouragement) to go and further strengthen the disciples in Antioch (Acts 11:19-22). When Barnabas arrived in Antioch, he saw the grace of God at work in the hearts of the men and women who were turning their lives to God. Barnabas was glad when he saw the Christian transformation happening in the lives of these new disciples, “and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:23).

Remaining faithful to the Lord requires just that—a steadfast purpose. Of course, our steadfast purpose is not the basis for God’s acceptance of us. No matter how hard we try, we could never be ‘good enough’. But steadfast purpose is the correct response to God’s grace in our lives. Now that you are a Christian, Satan wants to deceive you into thinking that you’re all good and that there is no more work for you to do. He wants you to put in minimal effort. He wants you to kick back and relax. He wants you to assume that you are on auto-pilot for heaven. But that’s just not true! It takes effort and focus to remain faithful to the Lord. We cannot accidentally become faithful disciples who glorify God. So this year, in 2025, I challenge you to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. Tell someone what your spiritual goals are for the year. Pray about how you want to grow in your discipleship. Make a spiritual growth plan and list the things you will do to grow in your relationship with God. Do whatever it takes to plan for spiritual growth and for a lifetime of faithfulness, because it will not happen by accident. 2025 can be a year of growth for us as individuals and as a church if we each respond to his grace and resolve to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. 

With an abundance of caution, we have cancelled  services today. With weather and road issues we want people to be safe and off the roads. May God bless you.

It’s that time of year again to make some New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately, many people find that just a few weeks into the New Year, their resolutions have fallen by the wayside. For example, making the resolution, “I want to exercise more” is a good resolution, but it’s too vague. It needs to be accompanied by a plan with bite-sized steps. Similarly, maybe you’ve made a resolution that goes something like this: “I want to read my Bible more next year.” Like the example of exercising, this is a good goal to have. It just needs to be made more specific to include a plan with actionable steps. And this is where a Bible reading plan becomes useful. A Bible reading plan takes your overall goal (“reading my Bible more”) and breaks that down into a series of steps that you can do. Without a Bible reading plan, you might not be sure where to begin and it would be easy to get bogged down in some of the Old Testament passages that are full of hard-to-pronounce names. But a Bible reading plan gives you the structure and accountability needed to accomplish your goal.

So whether this is your first time reading through the entire Bible or you already have a habit of Bible reading, I’m challenging you to commit to the Bible reading plan for 2025 that I have posted here on our website. I’m going to commit to following this reading plan in 2025 and I hope you will too. The plan is very manageable. It is 4 chapters per day most days (some days it is 5). In one year, you will read all the Old Testament more than once (you will read the Psalms and Proverbs twice) and you will read all the New Testament more than once (you will read the entire New Testament by September and then actually spend the last three months of the year rereading some New Testament books).

God promises us that his word is powerful and will accomplish what he intends it to accomplish. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). “My word… shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). When we are regularly reading and thinking about the word of God, it will change us. He will use his word to make us more like Jesus. So, whether you are already in the habit of Bible reading or whether you don’t have a Bible reading plan yet, I challenge you to join me in 2025 in committing to this Bible reading plan and seeing how God will use it to grow our relationship with him.

Isn’t it terrible to be separated from someone you love? Perhaps your spouse has served a deployment and you were separated by thousands of miles for months on end. Maybe you live far away from your family and feel separated from them. Or perhaps you have experienced the separation that death brings between you and those who were closest to you–your father, your mother, your spouse, or a child. That last type of separation in particular is such a painful reminder of the effects of sin in our world. Sin and death divide families, ruin relationships, and tear loved ones apart. Sin also estranges us from God. When we live in sin, God is not with us, not because he abandoned us but because we abandoned him. But the beauty of the message of the gospel is that through Jesus God is with us again. In fact, the name Immanuel that was given to Jesus means ‘God with us’ (Matthew 1:23). 

Under the Mosaic Law, the Israelites were constantly reminded of the fact that sin separated them from God. God’s presence was among his people in the tabernacle (later in the temple) but the priests had to offer animal sacrifices and be ritually clean in order to approach God in their temple duties. (See Hebrews 9:6-8).

So imagine the Jews’ surprise when Jesus began teaching that he was the Son of God (making himself equal with God). They thought that God was in the temple, hidden away and separate from the people. And yet here was this man, walking through the cities of Judea, teaching the people, and performing miracles, and he claimed that he was God. This is the miracle of the incarnation: that God the Son became human, without losing any of his divinity whatsoever. He was born by the virgin Mary who miraculously conceived him and he experienced the hurts and pains and temptations that we experience. Because he was fully human, he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrew 4:15). And because he is fully God, the sacrifice of his perfect and sinless blood satisfied the demands of justice and opened the opportunity for all people to be justified by faith in Christ (Hebrews 2:17, Romans 3:21-26).

Jesus Christ was God the Son who walked among us. He truly was God with us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God and access to him (Romans 5:1-2, Hebrews 10:19-22). This Christmas, let your mind wander back to that little city of Bethlehem where some 2000 years ago a baby was born and was laid in a feeding trough. He was no ordinary baby. He was and is Immanuel, God with us, the Lion of Judah, our Savior and our Lord. Let your mind wander back to that scene and give thanks and praise to God for the miracle of the birth of Jesus.

Over the past several weeks we have seen that the Proverbs of Solomon are filled with wisdom for many different aspects of life, including our work, friendships, words, and attitudes. But ultimately, the Proverbs point us to one central teaching: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, not only do the Proverbs show us what it looks like to apply wisdom to certain areas of our life, but they also point us to the root of all wisdom, which is the fear of God.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” To fear the LORD is to recognize who he is and to have an accurate understanding of what he is like. To have the fear of God within us means that we recognize that he has the right to punish us for our sins and that his choice to save us through faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest act of grace that has ever been shown. To fear him is to give him the reverence and awe that he rightfully deserves and to show our reverence for him by living according to his standards.

But we do not fear him with the same kind of fear we feel in the presence of great evil, for there is absolutely nothing evil in God. We recognize that we are completely helpless before God and totally at his mercy. To say he is greater than we are is the understatement of the ages. How could we not fear the great, holy God of the Universe? And according to our verse, to fear God and give him the proper reverence and honor is the beginning of knowledge. That means that if we do not understand who God is, we do not rightly know anything else. God is the starting point and the reference point for all knowledge. If we get him wrong, we get everything else wrong too. 

Additionally, Proverbs 9:10 tells us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Here we learn that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. If we do not understand God rightly we neither know anything else properly nor do we know how to use knowledge and apply it to life. What this all makes clear is that if God is not at the center of our life and if we do not understand him as he reveals himself to us, we mess up everything else in our lives. Put God at the center of your life. Understand who he is and know who we are in relation to him. He is the God of the universe and we are his servants. Fear God and give him the glory he deserves. 

You may be in the habit of paying attention to the health of your physical heart, but are you also paying attention to the health of your spiritual heart? Scattered throughout the Proverbs are warnings about the dangers of certain attitudes that can infect our heart. The Proverbs also describe other attitudes that we should display.

On one hand, the Proverbs warn us about dangerous conditions of the heart. Proverbs 18:12 says “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?” If your body is ill, your spirit can still sustain you through that illness and see you through to the other side, but if your spirit is ill (i.e. broken or discouraged) that is truly a hard burden to bear. Be on the lookout for those who have a broken spirit and help them bear their heavy burden. As terrible as a broken spirit is, the Proverbs also warn us about an even more dangerous condition of the heart: pride. The proverb that we are all familiar with warns that “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Not only does pride incur terrible consequences, but it is also sinful. Proverbs 21:4 says “A haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin.” The biblical warnings against pride should awaken us to the seriousness of the physical and spiritual consequences it brings. Let God take away your pride and replace it with a strong dependence on him.

On the other hand, the Proverbs tell us about the blessing and reward of other conditions of the heart. Proverbs 15:15 tells us that “All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.” “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones,” (Proverbs 17:22). As Christians, we have every reason to rejoice. We don’t pretend that everything is good in the world (in fact we recognize and mourn the presence of real evil around us) but we do have an unshakeable hope in our Lord Jesus Christ no matter what happens in this life. Furthermore, we know that God gives us good things in this lifetime to enjoy as a sample of all the wonderful blessings he has in store in heaven (see 1 Timothy 6:17 and James 1:17). The Proverbs tell of one more heart condition that should characterize our entire life. It is found in Proverbs 28:14, which reads, “Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” The proverb announces that the person who is always reverent is happy, which is another way of saying he is blessed. This week, ask God to heal any brokenness in your spirit, to humble your pride, to fill you with joy in Christ, and to deepen your reverence for God.