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Dear SCC & Friends, Immanuel ~Isaiah 7:14 Reflection #197                  The name Immanuel is of Hebrew origin and means God with us. His name emphasizes that which is the center of the center which is our relationship to God… …I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ~Matt. 28:20 He came to seek and save the lost… He bore our sins and was wounded for our transgressions. He put His righteousness on us and took our…

Dear SCC & Friends, … Knocking… ~Matthew 7:7 Reflection #196                  Recent reflections have been about asking and seeking, and we’d be remiss to overlook the third part of the trifecta… knock and it shall be opened. All three, ask, seek and knock have a present tense dimension… Ask is continually asking, seek is continually seeking, and knock is continually knocking. Knocking is a physical action and spiritual metaphor that takes intentionality and persistence. Even when we ask and receive,…

Dear SCC & Friends, … Seek… ~Matthew 7:7 Reflection #195                  Ready or not here I come! Every child knows the excitement of playing hide and seek… the glee of finding the person who thought they had the perfect hiding place. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. ~Prov. 25:2 Seek and you shall find is more accurately translated continually seek, which calls for an ongoing…

Dear SCC & Friends, … give thanks… ~1 Thessalonians 5:18 Reflection #194                  Are we going to have a prayer, it’s Thanksgiving you know? Before we’re served, shouldn’t we say grace? Lucy asks Linus to pray, and he begins with a brief history lesson… In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain…

Dear SCC & Friends, Ask… ~Matthew 7:7 Reflection #193                  There is a difference between asking and hoping, as one is proactive in nature and the other is a posture of heart. Asking implies expectation of a response. “Ask” has many synonyms… beseech, entreat, inquire, request. Asking is the portal through which our faith is activated. We’ve asked God to forgive our sins. We asked to receive Him into our lives for His glory and honor. None of us have all the answers, but…

Dear SCC & Friends, …honor to whom honor… ~Romans 12:7 Reflection #192                  True honor is an outflow of a grateful heart and something we can do. Honor. It sounds a bit quaint in today’s vernacular. A gentleman’s honor. A lady’s honor. To honor thy mother and father. The Honorable Judge so-and-so. But for thousands of years, honor has had meaning. It has had value. It was—and still is—considered paramount to who you are. Do you honor your family by being a man or woman…

Dear SCC & Friends, The first day of the week… ~John 20:21 Reflection #191                  “All week long, content comes at us from a cacophony of voices. World leaders, political pundits, novelists, sportscasters and journalists, infotainment sites and shows, celebrities and social media stars—everyone has something to say. But on the first day of the week, the day we celebrate the resurrection, someone stands up with an ancient book to deliver a message designed to cut through a noisy world of constant chatter. You’ve heard…

Dear SCC & Friends, …lest we drift… ~Hebrews 2:1 Reflection #190                  Drifting may be defined as the movement or direction from a desired path, which suggests that it is an unintentional or gradual process. It takes intentionality to stay focused on why we are here and what we are here for. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way… ~Isa. 53:6 It’s more than just doing our duty… The angel of the church of Ephesus addressed…

Dear SCC & Friends, What shall we do? ~John 6:28 Reflection #180                  Our faith is not to be a spectator sport managed by professional clergy with a weekly check-in on Sunday morning. There is something in human nature that hastens to delegate and relegate responsibility to the expertise of others. Am I a forgetful hearer or an effectual doer? Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out…

Dear SCC & Friends, Have salt in yourselves… ~Mark 9:50 Reflection #188                  Salt is essential to all of life. Jesus chose His words carefully when He said, “You are the salt of the earth.” ~Matt. 5:13 In antiquity, salt was a precious commodity… In ancient Greece, slaves were traded for salt – An unruly slave was said to be “not worth his salt.” It just takes a little salt to make us thirsty and it doesn’t take much to affect the taste – Just a…

Dear SCC & Friends, …this I know… ~Psalm 56:9 Reflection #187                         During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s there was a move of God known as the Jesus Movement. It was predominantly driven by young people who had a deep thirst for the reality of God in their lives. A common expression was often used to distinguish between a believer and non-believer… “Does he know the Lord?” They weren’t talking about Bible scholarship (though important) or church attendance (also important) but having a…

Dear SCC & Friends, If you forgive… ~Matthew 6:14 Reflection #186                         Forgiveness does not come easily to us, especially when someone we have trusted betrays our trust. And yet if we don’t learn to forgive, we will discover that we can never really rebuild trust. ~Billy Graham~ Almost forgiving and forgiving are two different things. None of us get through life without being hurt and offended. In fact, it’s a fact… We are going to be disregarded, mishandled, abused, accused and otherwise. The ultimate issue is…