CONCORD

How did we get to the end of the year? Time seems to be picking up speed each year. As I often do at the end of the year I want to pause and reflect on all that God has done here at Concord. The first thing that comes to mind is the 23+ children that came to faith through VBS this year. Etched in my memory is watching teachers counsel and pray with kids, most of which were from the community. This enabled us to spend all summer and part of the fall Baptizing people. What a bl

As an adult, we become masterful at putting on our façade or our public persona. There are a variety of reasons we do this. Often times we act a certain way in public to communicate that we have life together regardless of what happens outside of the public view. In Mark 7 Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and the scribes because His disciples were not keeping the ritual washing of the elders. This was an external or public ritual that communicated I am religio

When Christ was born time was dark and difficult. God had been silent for 400 years, with no prophet speaking during this time. As Isaiah wrote, 800 years before the birth of Christ, times had already been bad, and the people continued to struggle. Isaiah wrote of the coming chaos of invasion of multiple nations, of the inward fighting of Manasseh and Ephraim and their attack on Judah (9:21), and the outright hypocrisy and evil of their young men and widows (9:17). In many w

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. God is the God of all comfort. He is the author of comfort. The word used by Paul for comfort means to call alongside. Imagine for a moment someone who is sick and calls for someone to come