Category: From The Desk of Pastor Gene

  Applying the gospel to relationships regardless of race and culture As Christians, we have an obligation to be salt and light in our world (Matthew 5:13-16). We are also called to imitate Christ (Ephesians 5:1). So as we experience racially and culturally related hatred and division, how do we apply the gospel? What does the Bible...

I Surrender All Judson Van DeVenter was born in 1855 on a farm in Michigan. After graduating from Hillsdale College, he became an art teacher and supervisor in the Sharon, Pennsylvania public schools. Van DeVenter was also actively involved in evangelistic meetings in his Methodist Episcopal Church. In fact, as his friends recognized his talent, they urged him...

Matching A good while back I was playing concentration with a grandson who was 3 years old at the time. In case you’re not familiar with the game, it is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up each turn. If you...

Ready or not here He will come As children we played hide and seek for hours with our neighborhood friends. If you’ve ever played this game, you already know this but one person would count and everyone else hides. When the person got done counting, as he prepared to look for and tag the people in...

The Altars of False Gods Do you bow at the altars of false gods? You may be thinking, before I answer, who or what are these false gods? Well, let’s start with the Bible. There are approximately 50 false gods mentioned in the Bible. You may be familiar with the names of some of them...

  Mirror, Mirror on the Wall Before we get started, let’s get on the same page. In case you’re wondering, I’m not interested in replaying the Snow White movie for you or exalting the so-called magic mirror on the wall. However, I am concerned about what we are beholding. Why? When we truly behold the...

  Knock-Off In case you were somehow unaware, there is a major market for knock-off merchandise. According to a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the trade of fake merchandise has slowly risen over the last few years and now accounts for 3.3% of global trade. You may be thinking 3.3% doesn’t sound...

  Christian in Name Only is not Christian It may be hard to believe but people all around you, maybe even including you, call themselves Christians but do not actually follow Jesus. The evidence of salvation (James 2), to include the denial of self and taking up the cross daily (Luke 9:23), is largely missing....

Knock, Knock You may be disappointed but I don’t have a knock, knock joke to share. Although, I do have a vegetable joke but I’m not going to share it because it’s corny. Well then, moving on. Instead of a knock, knock joke, I want to remind us that Jesus is knocking on the door of...

  Self-control—there is more to it than you might think Benjamin Franklin once said, “Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.” A good example of self-control...