This blog is Pastor Jay's weekly musings about God's Word, God's world, and God's call to our culture. We hope they encourage, challenge, and inform you. Sign up to recieve them in your email.
Who are we supposed to please, God or man? Our inner Sunday School rushes to the surface on a question like this: God! We should please God. But the question isn't quite as straightforward as that. The Scriptures speak about pleasing God and pleasing man. Look at these passages that speak of pleasing people. Romans 15:2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good...
Keep ReadingSchools have always followed wherever the gospel goes. Schools meet needs that arise from gospel compulsions. The gospel compels us to know God more and thus learning to read allows us to read his holy Word. The gospel compels us to glorify God and we can do that better when we see his world accurately, which history and science allows. The gospel compels us to love our fa...
Keep ReadingEveryone has to deal with fear about something at some point in their lives. Yes, there are those people out there that are super talented, highly connected and powerful, and gifted with all kinds of resources; and it can seem that they fear nothing. But if you dig long enough and deep enough, Eureka!, you will strike fear. The source and cause of the fear is irrelevant at...
Keep ReadingWhen Open Door Fellowship first started, 2022 wasn't just 10 years away, it felt like it was a million years away. There were so many uncertainties, and no one knew what to expect. I had never started a church, let alone pastored a church on my own. None of the people from Church of the Open Door who came with the plant had ever done a church plant before either. We knew t...
Keep ReadingFew things bring panic to the souls of many like the thought of sharing the gospel. Each potential encounter has its own panic-inducing features. To share with a stranger means potentially upsetting a nice casual encounter with accusations of being a religious nut-job imposing beliefs on people. But share with a friend or relative and you quite possibly sour a relationship...
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Thursday morning met us with a new addition to our church sign. Someone had given up some of their evening to spray paint "Facist" across the front. "Facist". Huh. Do we have a thing for faces? Yes, we absolutely love faces. We love all faces. We love the faces of those who are born and those who are still in the womb. We love faces of all sizes, even the smallest that ar...
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For whatever reason the song and feeling that has been going through me since last Friday comes straight out of the Wizard of Oz. Remember those munchkins dancing and singing "Ding dong the witch is dead, the witch is dead, the witch is dead." That captures it nicely. That wicked case, Roe v. Wade, has been oppressing and preventing us from protecting life for 50 years now...
Keep ReadingSymbiotic relationships are absolutely fascinating to me. God has made his creation to have systems and entities within it that are dependent upon other systems and entities in direct ways. I say direct ways because we all recognize that everything within creation is dependent in some ways. Only God is self-existent. But there are things in creation that are dependent in w...
Keep Reading30 seconds sounds like nothing in the scheme of things. But have you ever been in a teaching setting with a group of people and tried sitting silent for 30 seconds? I'll tell you what will happen. Your awkward-ometer will redline after about 10 seconds. Another version of this is the old saying "The watched pot never boils." What is happening in these situations? What is h...
Keep ReadingOne of the regular issues that arises in busy families is keeping all of the proverbial plates spinning. The schedule is full, the laundry needs to get done, soccer practice is starting, kids are fussing about something, and guess what? The dishwasher just started leaking. In the middle of all of this comes church. And not just Sunday Services but bible studies, kids clubs...
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