“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”: The O Antiphons, our midweek Advent series

The Advent season rings out with the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  The hymn’s origin is not from Scripture but a series of responses, the “O Antiphons,” spoken by […]

Psalm 91:11-12: Angels Unaware; Not Them, Us

The more you traverse the text of Scripture, the more the angels fly forth from its pages.  The book of Judges alone mentions angels some 20 times.  Read through the […]

Luke 17:11-19: Christ’s Uncommon Mercy

Most of us don’t stumble over rare artifacts since they are, well, rare; sometimes, one of a kind.  Some of you into specialized hobbies may.  Perhaps Denny Villwok handled a […]

Mark, Lesson 1: Introduction

By Pr Rich Futrell Overview With the events in his Gospel, Mark makes no attempt to link them to the historical events taking place within Judea or the Roman Empire. […]

The Monsters Among Us

This is our pastor’s newsletter article for October 2019. Ancient peoples dreaded the deep.  The darkened abyss gurgled with predatory beasts, fanged creatures to swallow you whole, hungering for more.  […]

Luke 16:1-9: The Dishonest Manager

The beginning of Luke’s Gospel: A pregnant virgin sings, rejoicing in her God.  The Lord “toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.  The hungry, he filled with […]

Subjective Justification

Recap and Intro Justification: God’s declaration of righteousness, which also establishes someone in a state of righteousness.  This can only happen because someone’s sins are forgiven.  (“Justification” can also refer […]

Matthew 7:15-23: False Prophets

“Beware of false prophets,” our Lord cautions.  The danger is real; otherwise, why did Jesus warn us with such words?  Now, if a false prophet can exist, so also can […]

Objective Justification

This is a short series we’re studying on justification, with this first lesson on the objective reality of what Jesus did. Our Universal Condition The book of Romans reveals our […]

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10: Vocation

How did we find ourselves in such an unsatisfying and uncivil place?  From our perspective of only a few decades, we realize the most basic of civilities are slinking away.  […]