Category: message highlights

Thank you for being here today!  We call this “Holding down the Fort” while many in our church are up at Franklin Lake having a campground service.  And thank you for the gift of time you gave us last week as we enjoyed a time away in Door County.  Last week Lori, Luke, and I attended a church service on… Read more →

Two neighbor boys were best of friends on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Sunday, however, they did not spend time with each other, because one was a Catholic and the other was a Baptist. Their parents encouraged them visit each other’s church services. On the first Sunday, the Baptist boy visited the Catholic Church. Just before they… Read more →

What a privilege we have today to celebrate two commands that Jesus gave us before He ascended to heaven.  Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are each a memorial and a proclamation of our faith.  Baptism by immersion in water, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit shows a solemn and beautiful figure, our faith… Read more →

Charley Hooper is a disabled person that cannot speak, walk or see anything beyond light and dark and perhaps the shadowy shape of a face held inches away.  As she grew bigger, her parents feared she would eventually become too heavy to take anywhere. So they came up with a radical solution. The New Zealand couple gave their daughter hormones… Read more →

Technology changes daily. This is true of all technology such as smartphones, tv’s, tablets, cars and laptops. New technology comes and goes so rapidly and is often replaced by faster, smaller, more efficient and more powerful development. I remember corded phones, 8 track tapes, and cassette tapes from analog to digital. However, the problem with technology is that the latest… Read more →

For a hundred years, a mural of Christ held a prominent place on a wall in the Sanctuary of Mercy Church in Borja, Spain. But in August of 2012, Cecilia Gimenez, an 80-year-old church member, took it upon herself to touch up the painting. After decades of moisture buildup, the painting had started to deteriorate, and the colors had started… Read more →

In 1726, at the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin created a system to develop his character. In his autobiography, Franklin listed his thirteen virtues by which he sought to better himself. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. Order. Let all your things have their places;… Read more →

We enjoy tremendous freedom.  We can order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.   We are able to leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and fill garage with excess.  We use our cell phone to screen calls and have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in… Read more →

A Disney film, called “The Kid,” is about the story of a successful, high-powered image consultant named Russ (played by Bruce Willis). Russ lives an empty life, but one day, Rusty (played by Spencer Breslin) is transported and shows up at his home. Over time Russ comes to realize that this kid is actually Russ himself when he was eight-years-old.… Read more →

Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples, was knocked overboard around 2 a.m. by the blast from a direct hit from a Japanese battleship. Wounded in both legs by shrapnel and in semi-shock, he was kept afloat by a life belt that he managed to activate with a simple trigger mechanism. Four hours later at 6 a.m., Staples was rescued by a… Read more →