Hey Eastgate – We will be continuing to do our online service at 10 AM on Sunday, streaming on Facebook and YouTube. We are exploring possibilities for how we can meet together in person, we’ll keep you posted as the details of that become more clear. In the meantime, we can be patient, the main thing is to do whatever we do in a way that is safe for everyone and in cooperation with our State guidelines as well as the CDC.

This Sunday we’ll still be studying Job – and we’ll be covering a lot of chapters – chapters 29-27 – but don’t panic, we’ll do an abridged version.

Job has a fourth friend who has been silent until chapter 32 – but he says some things that offer a more nuanced look at the dialogue that unfolded through chapters 4-27. It will be interesting to read – and there are some very timely and thought provoking questions that will emerge from that text.

I hope you are all doing well – I know that we all miss being with each other – but don’t forget, we are connected through Christ, and that connection doesn’t depend on a building or a meeting – it just requires that we stay close to Him. Hope you can tune in on Sunday and be refreshed in God’s word!

We’ll be continuing our online services this Sunday – watch at 10 AM on Facebook or YouTube. This Sunday we’ll be reading Job 28 in our study of that book. We’ll also be observing Communion – so be prepared with bread and wine, or juice…or any symbolic form of sustenance. We’ll be sharing that “together” at the end of the teaching.

Job 28 marks a shift in the focus of the book. We stated last time that the case which the Challenger brought against God (that real righteousness doesn’t exist because it comes with a reward, thus making people mercenaries in their pursuit of goodness) was lost when Job confessed a determination to pursue righteousness regardless of reward or cost. 

Chapter 28 comes in like an interlude. It doesn’t appear to be Job, nor any of his friends doing the talking, and we’re left to assume it is the narrator, bridging us to the next section with a poem. What is the subject matter of the poem? What does that tell us about how things will resolve from here?

What was the main concern and point of emphasis for Job and his friends (think of the triangle we showed)? How does that differ from the point of this poem?

I really like this chapter and because of its overall context, the message behind it is profound. Hopefully it will inspire some good discussion in the Q/A at the end of the service. Hope to “see” you on Sunday!

 

This Sunday we’ll be resuming our study in Job – we’ll be covering an abridged version of chapters 22-27 – but you can read the chapters in their entirety HERE.

This section finishes the three cycles of dialogue between Job and his friends, and contains the climax of those cycles. The main thrust of this section will center on the idea of righteousness for righteousness’ sake, not for reward or benefit. That’s a compelling concept, one we might mentally assent to, but on further introspection, may find difficult to realize fully in our own motivations.

It will be an interesting and challenging study – hope you can join us online at 10 AM, on Facebook as a live event and on our Youtube channel. Hope you are enduring in His grace during these days – I pray for you always.

We have been experiencing an unprecedented time of global crisis. It feels like we get pressed by bad news on every side, and that begins to take a toll on us mentally and emotionally. If there’s one thing the resurrection of Jesus speaks to us, it is of a profound hope which springs right out of the darkness.

After our live event Sunrise Service, we’ll have our regular 10 AM service online as well – we’ll take a short break from Job, and we’ll reflect on the encouragement we can receive from John’s account of the resurrection. Resurrection challenges us to defy the encroaching darkness, and find the ability to overcome through the Risen Christ.

I hope you can join us, Sunday 10 AM, on Facebook Live as well as YouTube.

Be at peace, you Children of God!

As you surely know, we will be doing online only services this Sunday – and while I know it’s Palm Sunday, as often happens with us in teaching through a book of the Bible, we won’t be doing a Palm Sunday service but rather we’ll continue our study in Job.  I still think it is quite apropos for our situation.

We’ll be reading from chapters 15-21 – an abridged version, though you can listen to the chapters read in their entirety in the audio file above.

We’ll also be doing a Q&A after the teaching, so please post your questions during the service and we’ll discuss them at the end.

What do you notice about Job’s attitude toward God as this second cycle of dialogue plays out? What is happening to his perception of God? How might our own religious assumptions and attitudes lead us to similar perceptions of God? Those are things to ponder in this section.

Tune in on Facebook or Youtube this Sunday at 10 am. Hope to see you online!