Quick thought from Seth

Greetings church! I hope that you all were able to have a meaningful thanksgiving in this crazy year! This morning I am thinking about Nascar – specifically about “pit stops”. I read this morning that pit stops are crucial to success in a race. Any given car is going to go at high speeds for 100’s of miles for long periods of time. This means that they will need new tires, their 18-gallon tank will need to be filled up, and there will likely be something things that break and need repaired along the way. As a result, a car will make 4-12 pit stops in a race given how long it is. When they do make a pit stop there is a crew waiting with tires, gas, air guns and whatever else they’ll need to get that car ready to get back into the race!  The pit stop is not the main thing a race car does. But the pit stop is essential to that main thing a race car does, which is race.   These are strange times indeed. COVID 19! What in the world is God doing through all of this? This past Sunday...

  Greetings everyone! Tomorrow is turkey day! What are you thankful for today? Today I am feeling particularly thankful for my friends. These people God has put in my life that I have fun with, share life with. These people who check on me, who challenge me, and encourage me.    At the beginning of his letter to the Philippians, Paul also feels grateful for his friends in Philippi. So much so that he passionately proclaims in verse 3,  “ I thank my God every time I remember you. ”   How about you? Who are the people in your life that you thank God for every time you think of them? Make a list – let them know!    Friends are a precious gift that we must never take for granted!    Friends look out for us, even if it means protecting us from ourselves! King Solomon writes in  Proverbs 27:6-7, “ Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”  Do you have friends who will call you out when they need too? T...

  Greetings church! It’s Thanksgiving week! The Bible has a lot to say about thankfulness. One of the more famous verses is  1 Thessalonian 5:18, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ”    Notice, it doesn’t say to give thanks  for  all circumstances, it says to give thanks  in  all circumstances. This is God’s will for your life. So, next time you’re wondering what God’s will for your life is remember 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – at least part of His will is for you to actively give thanks to God in all circumstances. Why? Because this will help you keep things in perspective!    Perhaps you’re struggling to be grateful this week for some reason, maybe this verse seems a bit daunting to you. I want to share a truth with you today that is always true and that will make you grateful no matter what.    Let me start with a question: what determines somethings worth? The answer is not an ...

Greetings! This is Thanksgiving week! This is usually one of my favorite weeks of the year. It is so cool that our country has a holiday just for being thankful! Gratitude is such an important thing that we’ve made a holiday for it!    So, this week is thanksgiving and all I can think about is how different it’s going to be. It’s just not going to be like past thanksgivings for so many people in so many ways. Even if we do get together with some family some won’t be there, certain traditions won’t be possible. It just won’t be like it was last year or the year before. I think this way often about a lot of things – I wish it could be the way it used to be.    And then I read Ecclesiastes 7:10, a short proverb from King Solomon that is so profound and convicting and freeing! It goes like this,  “Do not ask, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.”   Here Solomon is not saying we shouldn’t reminisce, shouldn’t enjoy...

I want to share with you a verse I discovered (or re-discovered) a few months ago that has shaken me to my core. It has caused me to re-examine my understanding of worship and re-visit the importance of   constantly being in awe of God.     In Job 1 the devil moves, with God’s permission, against Job and takes away all of Job’s property and his 7 children. Job was a wealthy and righteous man and in a span of a few moments a series of servants come with bad news after band news culminating in  Job 1:18-19, “ Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,   19  and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”   Stop and put yourself in Job’s shoes. Things were great. He was prosperous and successful in business. He had a large family what was happy and well provided for and ...

This morning I want to share with you a scripture that I think is key to a church’s life always – but particularly during such a time as this. In the New Testament whenever Paul and Barnabas planted a church, they would select a group of   elders   to lead that church after they left. These were humble men who loved the Lord and the Church. Men who were committed to God’s agenda and not their own. The word for elder is also a word for “shepherd”. The elder is to be our shepherd – protecting us and guiding us in our spiritual lives. The elder is the Bibles way, is God’s way of keeping Jesus the Head of the church even though He is physically in Heaven. This   does not mean   that elders are perfect and always right! But it is the way God set up His church. So, when you and I commit to a specific congregation we saying that we trust our elder’s leadership. We are willing to become a part of their flock.     With this in mind I want to share an important passa...

Man, this has been a tough week church. Sunday was so strange for me. I had to preach to a camera again. It was a painfully difficult decision the elders had to make to return to virtual services only right now. I have heard from several people how disappointed they are because they love the fellowship we have on Sundays and I want you to know that the we feel the same way. It is our desire to prayerfully return to in-person services as soon as we can. And, rest assured, the elders are discussing this stuff weekly, daily – with much prayer. But in the meantime – how do we stay connected as we should?     I have shared with you before the great quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he wrote,  “ Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Chr...

I think we can all agree that these are unsettling times. There are a lot of things going on right now that are throwing us off, throwing me off! It gets easy to feel overwhelmed doesn’t it? A bit lost? Maybe even a little hopeless? It’s also a time of high emotion and strong opinions. Many of us are angry because of various things. One of the hard things about having a strong opinion (of which I have many) is that when it gets challenged there is this temptation of, rather than having a rational discussion, getting pushed further into your corner – it becomes more important to win the argument than to actually be right or represent Christ. I have been there – even recently.     This is all frustrating and exhausting, isn’t it? The other day I decided I needed to listen to some music. Michael W. Smith (well known Christian music artist) has a new cd out called “Still Vol. 1”. It is instrumental music during which Smith reads scripture. It is an excellent resource and I highly ...