Blog: January 2024

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28, ESV). This single verse is the subject of Thomas Watson’s book, All Things for Good (1663).  Watson was a pastor in London and a prolific writer.  You can access his story and many of his writings at ccel.org. I first read this book about ten years ago in a season of soul searching and ministry transition:  “What is God up to?”  I was distressed.  The Lord used Watson to put my nose in the Bible and ...

In recent months, certain denominations have expressed their “progressive” doctrine by veering away from the Bible’s teaching on marriage, gender, and sexuality.  For example: Although formally affirming traditional marriage, in the United Methodist Church bishops and churches have been ordaining non-celibate gay clergy and celebrating same-sex marriages since 2019.  A result of this defiance of Methodist teaching is that nearly a quarter of the 30,000 UMC churches in the US have left the denomination, most of them joining up with the new ...

2024 has gotten off to a tumultuous start here at Goshen, with a fire in our Youth Room and now a complex process of assessing damage, dealing with insurance, and arranging for cleaning/ restoration. Plus, it’s thrown us a curve regarding meeting space (thanks to Delaware County Christian School for helping us out!). At our Prayer Gathering last Wednesday, I asked the group to join me in reading various Psalms of thanks—it just seemed that, instead of dwelling on all this nuisance, we needed to look up and thank the Lord for so very many ...

It’s a highlight of my week to pray through Scripture together with the Wednesday evening Prayer Gathering group!  And, by the way, you’re most welcome to join our prayer time (currently we meet on Zoom, contact the church office for the link). This week we read through Hebrews 11, section by section—the “Hall of Faith” chapter. Over and over we’re told:  “By faith” God’s people obeyed, built, sojourned, looked forward, were tested; they “conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises…”  In countless ways down through the ages, ...

APRIL 7, 2024 Update: We continue to make headway with the restoration process on the upper level of our buildings.  Lord willing, we'll be able to acess some of our upstairs rooms next month, and we're targeting a June return of our worship service to the Sanctuary. In the meantime, we're preparing to re-launch Sunday School on April 21 (all classes will be downstairs--details here). That will bring a schedule change:  As of April 21 we will have... Sunday School for all ages, 9:30-10:15 a.m. (coffee available ...

What is it about the American love of sports that results in Shohei Ohtani getting a 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for $700,000,000?  This sets a record for professional baseball. Before Ohtani struck this deal, the highest-paid MLB player was Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels (he has a 12-year contract for $427,000,000).  And the Philllies superstar Bryce Harper, who’s on a 13-year contract for $330,000,000, is not far behind. Our family got a taste of sports-mania a few months ago when the Phillies peaked in the ...