Thoughts from Pastor Don Filcek.
A glance over the headlines calls it COVID-19. Colloquially it is called Coronavirus. And it seems to be spreading. I have looked up the words pandemic and epidemic and neither word is entirely accurate yet. And further from reality are the words ‘plague’ and ‘pestilence’. I cannot imagine the latter word being employed by anyone…
I watched enough of the democratic national debate yesterday to know that it wasn’t anything new. I confess that I enjoy political debates and have an interest in the direction of our government. If I had to guess, I would say that I follow politics more than the average person. But from what I see…
Any conversation about Bible translation has the potential to bring up a lot of emotions. People who grew up in the church have likely become accustomed to a particular translation and they develop loyalties. Further clouding the issue is the way we naturally associate a favorite translation with people along the way. “Grandma loved that…
I grew up in a world of concrete good and bad. Wrong and right. Everything to my young developing mind was black and white. When I came to understand Christ and was saved through faith in His sacrifice, I went through a phase of systematically removing the bad and replacing it with the “good”. Out…
We can tend to think that Jesus only ever came to give encouragement. He would always leave his people with gladness and joy. Many churches have turned the church service into a pep talk. The implication would be that if we have connected with God and Jesus we would surely leave with good feelings. But…
How much glory was obscured in that manger? Who was this baby, that came to us in such strange circumstances? This week I will be preaching from Matthew 17:1-13 to identify just how much Jesus was hiding. I believe that many of us drift off theologically this time of the year. We drift off into…
How in the world is it possible that my next sermon in the book of Romans arrives right on the week of the public hearings for the impeachment of a sitting president? I can only explain it as one of those things that I see as the hand of God. Some people believe in coincidence.…
This week, I am preaching a text that contains over 31 commands! Yes, it is firehose of instruction that intentionally was written by the apostle Paul to overwhelm us with a portrait of genuine love for one another in the church. By the end of Romans 12:9-21 we have a pretty amazing picture of what…