Blog: June 2022

One of the very special features of our church life is Sunday School.  We have a long-standing practice of gathering each Lord's Day not just in our Worship Services, but also in age-specific classes for teaching, discussion, sharing, and encouragement.  Sunday School is a great way to feel "connected" here in our GBC family! Summer Sunday School runs from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m.  Locations and age groups are as follows: Adults:  During summertime we combine our four regular classes and meet together in Fellowship Hall (see details here)....

This Sunday we begin a sermon series exploring the Psalms, and we’ll kick it off with a foray into Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is an elaborate, passionate tribute to God spotlighting the wonder of his Word:  the Lord has spoken (rather than stand­ing in silence and leaving us to fend for ourselves in this harsh world); he’s given us commands, testimonies, precepts, promises, ordinances, laws … truth for life!  Without Scripture we’d be lost.  God’s Word is “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v 105). To change the analogy, Psalm 119 is ...

I recently saw a commercial from Viking Cruises.  It was narrated by the company chairman, Torstein Hagen, who mused about the meaning of life: “When you really philosophize about it, there’s only one thing you don’t have enough of, and that’s time.  Time is the only truly scarce commodity.  And then, when you come to that realization, I think it’s very important that you spend your time wisely.  And I think most of us have no regrets about things we did, but I think we can have regrets about things we did not do.  More people have come ...

If you’re a follower of Jesus, you need to be growing in spiritual wisdom.  And if you’re advancing in wisdom, you’ll want to know the difference between legitimate concern and sinful worry. Our studies in 1 Peter bring us to one of many Bible passages teaching believers not to worry:  “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (5:7).  Of course, Peter echoes Jesus:  “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25).  ...

We’ve gone deep into the pressing, practical truth of 1 Peter via the current sermon series.  And we’ve been confronted again and again with the major theme:  encouraging Christians to stand firm in their faith while sojourning in a hostile world.  This letter is a travel-guide for exiles living in “enemy territory.”  Peter is blunt:  suffering and loss are to be expected as part of the normal Christian life (by contrast, a life of ease and comfort for Jesus’ people would be truly strange—see 4:12). But there are other important sub-themes ...