I'm going to lose ten pounds . I'm going to run a 10k. I'm going to work to earn a promotion. I'm going to go back to school for a higher degree. I'm going to quit drinking / smoking / overeating. I'm going to work out 3 days a week. Sound familiar? There's a story I came across while researching for a new sermon series beginning this January. Three frogs were sitting on a log on the shore of the lake one hot summer day. One frog decides to jump in the lake. How many frogs ar

A few years back, my wife Lindsay and I went to Walmart the day before Christmas Eve. If you've ever been there on that day, you know it's absolute chaos. Lindsay and I are very different shoppers. I'm on a mission, I know exactly what I want, where I'm going, and I'm getting in and out. Lindsay likes to browse, checking out the knickknacks and Pioneer Woman plates, even though we weren't there for any of that. I kept having to remind her of our purpose, why we were there in

from the Christmas Candlelight Service, December 21, 2025 For the past month, we've explored miracle births in Scripture: Abraham and Sarah's Isaac, Manoah's Samson, Hannah's Samuel, and Zechariah and Elizabeth's John the Baptist. Tonight, we arrive at the culmination of them all: Jesus. What's in a Name? Names carry profound meaning. The name we know as "Jesus" comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua, meaning "the Lord delivers." Just as Joshua brought Israel into the prom

Every baby is a miracle, a gift from God. But some stories make it undeniable that God had His hand directly involved. Today, we're looking at one of those stories, a reminder that the same God responsible for all the miracle births in Scripture is still at work in our lives today. What's in a Name? His name was John, which means "God is gracious." Every time someone called his name, they were reminded of the God they served. Every time they yelled at him (because let's be ho