from Pastor Todd

It was a question my then new wife and I enjoyed asking each other.  It was a good way to fish for a compliment or to share lists of qualities we saw in one another.  But, at some point, we knew that the lists really did not answer the question.

Attractiveness, personality, and endearing traits might have made loving each other more pleasurable, but there had to be something deeper than that.  After all, what would we say if age or ill health or difficult circumstances took away some of those qualities?  Did we really want our love to rest on a foundation that could be so uncertain?

We found a new and better answer to the question.

“Why do you love me?”

“Because I chose to love you.”

Hardly the stuff of romantic poetry, but it has a great precedent.  Why does God love you?  Is it because of your winning personality?  Your charming wit?  Your unmatched beauty?  Your consistently noble behavior?  That would be a shaky (and questionable) foundation at best.  No, God’s love is based on something that can never be shaken or moved – His choice.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

God does not love us because we are the best.  He chose to love us and continues to love us in spite of knowing us at our worst.  After nearly 24 years, I’m glad my wife’s love is based on her choice and not my sterling qualifications.  I can rest in her love and she can rest in mine because our love is not earned or demanded.  It is given freely.

How much more can we rest in the love of God, freely given through Christ.  Not deserved.  Not bought.  Given, offered by choice.

from Pastor Jeremy

Every New Year I like to take some time to reflect on the past year and think about the coming one. It is a great, natural intersection to be able to determine whether it’s time for a change of direction or safe to keep cruising. Also, it gives those of us without natural discipline an excuse to look around and say, “oh, I’m fat,” or, “I haven’t read my Bible in two months,” and then a chance to recalculate our direction.

As I was remembering 2009, I couldn’t help but think what a hard year it has been for many. A disproportionate amount of people I know lost jobs or income or loved ones, and all of us were confronted with significant changes in the economy and government. All these changes seemed to offer clarity to some and discontent to others. I just couldn’t get away from the thought that we are all continually seeking satisfaction. Whether man or woman, young or old, white or black, rich or poor, we are all pursuing some form of satisfaction daily. We have pursued this goal through every channel imaginable. We may seek it from food or from exercise, from relationships or from solitude, from accumulation or from simplicity. And every year, when we get to this natural crossroad, it seems to me that we resolve to pursue the opposite of what we’ve currently been doing that hasn’t been satisfying us. While we hope that the opposite will bring satisfaction, this usually results in one of three things. We end up dizzy from the chase of another failed attempt, defeated by the reality that we can’t sustain our efforts, or extremely disappointed that, when we get to the other side of the fence and after all our labors, it didn’t provide what we were really looking for.

One of the first passages I read in my Bible this year was Psalm 104, where David talks about how all creation, even the earth and the animals, were created with the need to be satisfied. In verse 28 he says, “…when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.” I believe that we were meant, as humans, to find satisfaction, even in the small intricacies of life – through food and through exercise, through relationships and through solitude, through nature and music. However, when we pursue these things as primary instead of secondary, as the main course instead of side dishes or spices, they will leave us worn out and very unsatisfied. Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Do you want satisfaction this year? Pursue the thing that will fill you. Pursue Jesus. Tired of New Year’s resolutions? Maybe you have been resolving to pursue the wrong thing. Turn the main course back into Jesus and see how much flavor the spices can add. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” Happy New Year! I hope it is one of great satisfaction!

from Pastor Todd

The young couple had plans.  They were looking forward to their wedding and setting goals for the rest of their lives.  Family members had been notified and the preparations were spinning through their minds.  Then the young woman discovered she was going to have a baby, and the father was not the man she planned to marry.

When she learned the news, she must have known that it could jeopardize all of her carefully guarded dreams.  Her reputation would be ruined, no matter what her fiancé decided to do, and there was a very real possibility that he might break the engagement.  In her neighborhood, she would be seen as an immoral woman, for people she knew were extremely conservative about such matters.  Most likely, no man would consider her a suitable prospect for a wife ever again.  No one would believe her side of the story, so she would have to endure the stares and whispers if she kept the child.

The man loved his fiancée dearly, but he could see no other explanation than that she had been unfaithful to him, for he had never had sexual relations with her.  He must have been deeply grieved, but his compassion for the young woman led him to consider breaking things off quietly to spare her the embarrassment of public inquiry.

Then, he was advised to go ahead with the wedding and to raise the child as his own.  It sounded simple, but it meant that his reputation would be stained along with that of his wife.  He would be thought of as a weak man, one who silently accepted the insult of his wife’s actions.  Or perhaps the rumor would take hold that he had only married her because the child actually was his and so he shared her shame.  Any chance for him to advance in social or religious settings might be lost if he accepted this baby.

The timing of the pregnancy could hardly have been worse.  They had looked forward to traveling to his hometown to register, their first official act as a “couple.”  But now the journey of 70 miles would have to be made in the final trimester of her time.  The man could not afford a better means of transportation, so the woman would have to ride a donkey over the hilly, uneven roads while he walked beside her.  Special accommodations would be needed when they arrived, and those could be very difficult to find since the town would be crowded with visitors.  Even interaction with strangers could be awkward, for people were bound to ask questions of the expectant mother.

Yet the young woman said, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.”  And the man took her home as his wife and waited patiently until she gave birth to a son.  She chose to put up with the rumors and he chose to accept the undeserved gossip.  And they called the child Jesus.

Merry Christmas.

Todd Scoles
Associate Pastor

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

A simple verse with a lot of meaning for the Thanksgiving season.

Thanks is more than just a feeling. It is something you give. It is not assumed. It must be demonstrated in word and action.
Thanks must be given to someone. It is an expression of gratitude to the One who has first given to you. It is an acknowledgement that God has provided something of value to you.
Thanks is not to be given only when your agenda is being met. It is given because you know that God’s agenda is always being met and that it is best.
Thanks is not a celebration of prosperity and success. It is a celebration of trust in God’s goodness and contentment in His provision.
Thanks sees what God has done for you in the past and hopes for what He will do in the future because He is present in your life now.
Thanks is not given in order to get more. It is given because what you already have is an undeserved gift from God.
Thanks recognizes God’s sovereignty to arrange and address circumstances for His purposes.
God deserves thanks as a natural response to the life you have been given in Jesus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Todd Scoles
Associate Pastor