News and Resources (Page 7)

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our passage for this week comes from Mark 9:1-13, which you commonly know as Jesus’ transfiguration. When think of Jesus, we thankfully think of His humanity and His compassion toward us. We can miss, though, that Jesus is the Word of God, very God of very God. He, too, is resplendent with glory as are the Father and the Spirit. The Jesus…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Last week, we looked together at the identity of the Messiah: the Davidic king. This Sunday, we’ll examine the function of the Messiah. Now that we know who he is, we need to understand what he does.  God’s people had been anticipating the Messiah for generations; they were hoping for a man, chosen by God, who would once and for all…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, A living parable–this is how one Christian writer refers to healing of the blind man in Mark 8:22-26. The healing is unusual. It comes in two stages. Jesus is in Bethsaida on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. His disciples are with him. A blind man is led to Jesus by his friends. The friends want the Lord to heal him. They might…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Valerie and I want to thank you for such a kind and servant-hearted response over this past week as we were at Loyola Hospital with our 17-month-old Mary Hope to be treated at the burn intensive care unit following an accident at home. Mary Hope is improving each day, and she has been a trooper through it all. We praise God that the burns she…

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  In our passage this week, we get to go behind the scenes with Jesus as he performs a two-stage miracle to bring sight to a blind man. Without God’s gracious intervention, we will never see Jesus as he truly is; we will be as blind as the blind man in our sermon passage. He has to do the revealing. Many expected the Messiah to be a…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, What a joy it was to join with you on Saturday evening and Sunday morning to celebrate the faithfulness of God to our congregation! The Lord has been faithful to our church for the last fifty years, and this weekend was a wonderful time of rejoicing together in God’s goodness and mercy toward us. Once again, I want to express my heartfelt…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, This weekend we will join together to rejoice in God’s faithfulness to our church for the last fifty years! The anniversary celebration program on Saturday evening and the anniversary worship service on Sunday morning are a time for us to gather for joyful fellowship and to magnify the Lord for his abundant and steadfast love toward us.…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, Jonathan Keller here, your Director of Community Outreach, stopping by for your Midweek Update devotional blurb. As we look forward to Pastor Rhett’s second sermon on Matthew 5:14-16 in our Faithfulness and Flourishing series, I was reminded of the Lord’s words through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 49:5-6. There the Lord announces how He…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, It was two years ago that we launched our Called to Flourish three-year vision. As we turn the corner for our final lap of this journey, let us thank God for the wonderful things he has done over these past two years. By his grace, we’ve become a church of kingdom prayer. In addition to holding multiple prayer drives and prayer dinners…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Genesis 12 just might be one of the most important chapters of the Bible. In this chapter God makes his initial promise to Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people: “I will bless you… and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3). Right from the beginning we see God’s intention to reveal himself…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul is addressing the topic of the unity of the church. Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” Paul tells us that when Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection, he gave gifts to his people, the church. Paul goes on to say that…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis famously argued that Jesus Christ is either “liar, lunatic, or lord.” Our biblical text for this Sunday, Mark 6:45-56, firmly locates Jesus in the final category. This passage recounts the time when he walked on water, demonstrating his authority over the natural realm to the awe of his…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, This Sunday we welcome our Director of Community Outreach, Jonathan Keller, to Faith Community Church. We rejoice in the Lord’s provision as we’ve prayerfully pursued the hiring of God’s choice for this important role. Jonathan was raised in Sugarland, Texas and has served with two church plants in addition to working with the PCA’s…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Christians frequently misunderstand the fear of God. The Scriptures, however, repeatedly speak of the necessity of the fear of God for the Christian life. One well-known saying from the book of Proverbs tells us that a right fear of the Lord is “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). We have two options: We will either fear other people or we…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Have you ever had the experience of going on vacation and packing more items than you would ever actually use? Did you really need the three extra hair dryers for a weekend in Michigan? Or the snowshoes for your trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park? I’ve certainly done this sort of thing (and more than once). In Mark 6:7-13, Jesus calls…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, On Sunday I was reminded of the wonderful truth that God calls his people “chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12). Rev. Powers’ sermon not only called us to go deeper into this truth, but to live it out in the details of our daily lives. As we go throughout this week, remember that you are clothed with the righteousness of…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In Mark 5:21-43, Jesus demonstrates compassion toward two females with much in common: one, a woman suffering from a twelve-year-long bleeding disease; the other, a twelve-year-old girl, born the same year the woman contracted her illness. Both of these individuals would have been considered insignificant members of the community. In fact, the…

Dear Faith Community Family, What an incredible event we had this past Saturday! Attendance and engagement exceeded all our expectations. Thank you to those who meticulously planned and executed the event, and all our volunteers. This includes Dave’s band “Front Row” for setting a festive mood. Celebrating 50 years at Faith Community is off to a great start. The Elders…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our Community Celebration is finally upon us! The event on Saturday begins at 11am and goes until 3pm. Please make a point to invite your friends and neighbors if you haven’t already. This celebration is the culmination of literally months of hard work from our Anniversary Celebration Committee and many others who have pitched in to make…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, The people who heard Jesus teach during his earthly ministry had all sorts of ideas about the Kingdom of God–what it was, how it would come, what it would mean for God’s people. In particular, many believed that the Kingdom of God would arrive suddenly, with pomp and fanfare. Jesus, however, surprises many of his hearers when he teaches…