The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
Jonah 1:1-4
 
Jonah was a prophet of God who was called to a wicked people to proclaim God’s judgment. But, instead of heading the call and being obedient he rebels and runs the opposite direction. Perhaps he was thinking he would just get out of dodge and go live a different life somewhere else. Ever wonder why he would rebel like that? Why run from doing the very thing God had called him to do?

In Jonah chapter 4 he says why he rebelled – because he knew God would be loving and compassionate. He had a feeling God would forgive and redeem them. So, instead of giving them the chance to change he decided he would just run away. No way was he going to give such an evil people a chance to come to God. He would rather die than see them change!

Where do you see yourself in this story? It is easy for us to say that’s messed up – no way would I ever treat someone like that or run away from God like that! But, haven’t there been times when we rebelled against God because our agenda wasn’t being met, God wasn’t doing what we wanted so we took things into our own hands. Has there ever been a time when we rebelled because God wasn’t serving our agenda?

What about those times when God asks you to love your neighbor and your refuse for ­­   (fill in the blank)? Jonah had a “us vs. them” attitude. They have killed and butchered us for too long, it is time for them to suffer. This wasn’t an attitude of love but one of anger, bitterness, and vengeance. 

The amazing thing – despite the rebellious heart and attitude – God still pursued him. The storm was one of mercy. God cared about him too much to leave him in his rebellion. Know today, that even in your rebellion God, in His mercy, is pursuing you and ready to redeem you too.

Pastor Matt

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."
John 20:19-22
 
Can you put yourself in the disciples sandals that first Easter morning? What must have been going through their heads? The week had been long with lots of exciting moments, but it ended tragically. They just buried their friend, their teacher. Now, Peter and John claim Jesus’ body is no longer in the tomb and Mary Magdalene is saying she saw and spoke with Jesus. The room the locked themselves in must have been full of grief, confusion, and a lot of fear.  Ever been locked in a room like that?

In the midst of all that fear the testimony of Mary wasn’t enough. They still weren’t sure what was happening. They found themselves paralyzed. Fear can do that to us. We can all relate on some level – words can’t change or fix a situation. We need action. Sometimes even being told God is with us isn’t enough – we need to experience Him for ourselves. We need our own encounter with the risen Jesus.

Thankfully, that is what happened in that room. Jesus showed up. The risen Christ came to them, right in the midst of their fear and all the other emotions and things that were keeping them in hiding, locked away. The risen Christ was there, in the midst of His scared disciples. It is what He promised – to never leave or forsake them (or us). If you are in a room today, locked away in hiding, know that Jesus is there with you. That is what the resurrected Lord does – He shows up.

In that room He offered the disciples exactly what they had been looking for – peace. In fact, He breathed on them and encouraged them to receive the Holy Spirit. To receive was to take hold of, to grasp. Jesus was there, offering them life, all they needed to do was take ahold of it. Right now, Jesus is breathing on you, offering you life, offering you peace, offering you forgiveness, offering you love, or whatever else you might need to get out of that dark room. Will you receive it? Will you grasp Him and let Him lead you out?

​Pastor Matt

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me…
Matthew 4:18-19

A man named Warren Wiersbe defined a disciple of Jesus as someone who is not simply a sitting and listening to a teacher. They are someone who lives with the teacher and who learns by listening, looking, and living. Discipleship involves more than enrolling in a school and attending lectures. It means total surrender to the teacher and living life with and like the teacher. That definition certainly gives some meat to what it means to being a follower (a disciple) of Jesus. If that is what it means to be a disciple then how do we make one? How do we become one? How do we grow as one?

We usually answer that by saying we need to read our Bible, we need to go to church, and we need to pray. These are great things. But, being and making a disciple cannot stop there because being a disciple is more than learning, it also includes living with. Discipleship is not a solo journey or event, it is team effort, journey with family and friends. Jesus made disciples by teaching them, but by teaching them in life and in relationship. 

Paul told the church in Ephesus that God, “makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16) He was making the point that growth (becoming like Jesus) doesn’t happen in a silo, it happens in the Body of Christ, it happens together. To grow and make disciples we need each other and we need each other living in obedience to Christ. The more we do that the healthier, the stronger, and the bigger the body will grow.

“We become a holy people together. We hear the voice of God most clearly in community. Love is superficial until it is lived out in the context of real relationships. The journey of grace is a team event!” (David Busic) When we say yes to Jesus we are saying yes to entering a growing family. We are in this together – struggling, growing, learning, and living together.  Let’s be disciples and make disciples together.

​Pastor Matt

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me…
Matthew 4:18-19

Who do you follow? That is a pretty normal question these days. It seems like the younger you are the more varied that answer it going to be. Following someone today has been reduced to a click of a button. We can be following hundreds of people via social media and not truly be following any of them. Today, when we think of follow them, it means we get their posts on our news feed. We might be aware of their latest thoughts or antics.  But, when Jesus invited the disciples to follow Him, He was inviting them into something so much more.

One of the words used a lot in the New Testament and in the Church is disciple. Simply put a disciple is a follower. Jesus, when He invited Peter and Andrew to follow Him was actually inviting them to be one of His disciples. But, as the rest of the story goes, we quickly learn that to be a disciple of Jesus meant a whole lot more than just sitting in on some teachings and knowing about Him. Right from the start Jesus asked them to leave their home, their careers, and their family to follow Him.

In a very similar way God has extended this same invitation to all of us. Revelation tells us that Jesus is standing at the door and knocking, just waiting for someone to let Him in. Jesus is standing at the shore of our lives and inviting us to join Him in His life – Come follow me. So, what will we do with the invitation? Will we go? Will we let Him in? For many of us we get stuck on what that means we will have to give up, what we will have to leave behind. 

The disciples left a lot. They left those nets behind for a life of hardship and persecution. So, why did they do it? Why should we do it? Why follow Him if we aren’t guaranteed a life of ease? I think they would tell you they chose to follow Him because they believed the life He was offering them (despite the persecution) was better than the life they had been living or the one they would have ended up living. They believed the Gospel to be enough. The Good News that Jesus had come to usher in the Kingdom through His death and resurrection. He was promising, through the difficulty, the life they wanted. One of redemption, reconciliation, peace, and goodness. No one else could lead them there, but Him. So, will you follow Him there to? 

​Pastor Matt

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:8
 
When was the last time you tried to engage in a relationship with someone that was not pursuing any kind of relationship with you? It probably didn’t go very well did it? That’s the kind of thing that can get us labeled as a stalker or crazy person in our world today. But, that is what God, in all of His love for us, has done and is doing. He is pursuing us even when we are not pursuing Him. That is what Paul meant in Romans 5 when he said, “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” 

God doesn't start to love us once we accept Him or put our faith in Him. He doesn't start to extend to us His grace only once we have fallen in line. God’s grace is at work in us before we ever surrender our heart and lives to Him. In the church world we call this ‘prevenient grace.’ This simply means that God comes to us before we come to Him. He seeks us out right where we are in whatever condition we are in. God initiates, we respond. Grace always comes first.   

I always stand amazed at the fact that God would send Jesus to die for us. Making that kind of sacrifice for someone is miraculous by itself. But, then, when you combine that with that fact that He did it when we didn’t love Him back, when many wouldn’t love Him back. God’s relentless pursuit of us makes His love and sacrifice even more awesome to me. He never gives up on us, which also means we should never give up on each other. There is always hope.

In Luke 10 it was God’s prevenient grace that made the harvest field ripe and paved the way for the 70 disciples to get to work. It was that same grace that caused Jesus to look at those lost cities with hope and excitement. As we look out at our city and our lives, no matter how bad they might be, there is always hope because God’s grace is always present. 

God loves you so much that He has come searching for you. He is looking for you before you even start looking for Him. He is at work in your life even before you know Him or even want Him there. My prayer, is that we all recognize God’s grace and respond to Him in faith and love. After all, who else would fight for us like that?
​
Pastor Matt

The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.
Luke 10:1-2
 
I grew up in West Virginia – out in the country – farms were all over the place. Towards the end of the summer and into the fall we would drive by acres and acres of corn and through apple orchards.  When the harvest was ripe it was a beautiful site – fruit on the trees and corn on the stalk. Harvest season meant food, fresh fruit and vegetables, and income for the farmers. There were festivals and parties around this time of year! So, when I read Luke 10 I find it interesting that Jesus would choose to use harvest to describe the cities he was sending the disciples to.

When you think about what was happening in the world at this time it didn’t seem very bright. Israel was under Roman rule – they weren’t free. There were great divisions among the people. The Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans. The Pharisees wanted nothing to do with anyone that didn’t look like them or live like them, all those sinners needed to stay away. The very people Jesus was talking to had decided to leave jobs and family to come follow Him. If we lived in that time we would probably describe it as hopeless or at the very least broken and chaotic. But, Jesus saw a great harvest and was looking for people to go work in the fields. 

Jesus looked into the cities of Israel and didn’t see the bad, instead He saw the opportunity. He saw acres and acres of corn and apple orchards full of apples! He saw fruit! What He was looking at wasn’t hopeless or broken. It was beautiful and ready to yield a great crop. So, He sent His disciples out into the field to gather it in and find more people to help them.

Knowing that is how Jesus viewed what was right in front of Him 2,000 years ago gives me great confidence in how He looks at us today. When God looks into our world and into our lives He doesn’t see a lost cause, He sees a harvest – a great harvest. He sees opportunity, He sees life. Don’t ever look at the world around you as dead and gone. Don’t ever look at your life and view it as a lost cause. Those are lies. Jesus looks at us and says now there is a great harvest and with a little work can yield some amazing fruit. The harvest is great!

​Pastor Matt

“Do not be afraid because of the words you have heard…
Isaiah 37:5
 
Opossums are funny little creatures. Partly because their name is spelled funny – what is with the ‘o’ at the beginning!? They have a reputation for playing dead when they are scared. At least that is what I have always believed about them, until I cornered one. It was dark and my dogs were barking like crazy. When I went to see what was going on I found an opossum cornered under the stairs of our deck near a corner of our house. It did not play dead, that ugly little creature was ready to fight. Growling, teeth showing, I mean he was ready to attack. There was no playing dead! Have you ever found yourself backed into a corner and not sure what to do about?

In Isaiah 37 we read about a man named Hezekiah who found himself backed into such a corner and people on every side telling him what to do about it. None of them were very positive and some basically telling him it’s over, you’re finished, just give up. What a tough spot to be in, when we want out, but don’t know how to get out, and it seems like there are not very many people willing to help us get out.

It was in that moment Isaiah sent him a message, it was a simple one.  He said, don’t be afraid, you are going to be ok. God has heard you and He will be with you. That is a pretty encouraging word when you find yourself stuck in battle you see no way out of. With that, Hezekiah went to God in prayer and basically laid his entire situation at God’s feet and said here you go. This is it, my problem is yours, lead me through. Hezekiah was lead to victory.

You might find yourself in a corner today and I want to say the same thing to you that Isaiah said to Hezekiah – do not be afraid, God has heard you, and God is with you. Surrender your situation to Him and watch Him be glorified in the midst of it. Victory is yours today in Jesus. Trust Him and pray to Him, He will be with you.

Pastor Matt

Luke 8:43-44 (NIV): And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.”

Are you at the end of your resources? Do your problems seem beyond solutions? There
is a person who knows how you feel. The bleeding that has plagued her for 12 years has left her weak and exhausted. This causes her to be an outcast to her family and place of worship. Each trip to doctors who have no answers fills her heart with hope, but empties her wallet. Now, she is propelled forward by miraculous reports of the blind seeing, the lame walking, and the deaf hearing. A spark rises within her as she braves the crowds following Jesus. At the risk of making this man unclean, she quickly touches the hem of his robe, believing she will be healed.

Her touch of the garment of God is the act of faith that Jesus recognized. Jesus rewarded her risk, and acknowledged her faith with complete healing. She could now return to her family and place of worship with the assurance that she was truly clean. A step of faith always changes us and brings us closer to God.

You can come boldly at your hour of need.
Expect what you are seeking.
Give thanks.

​Chris Cooke

I can tell “the” story, but what about “my” story, or “your” story? The hymn writer speaks of Jesus and His love in this well-loved hymn. If it’s just “the” story and not “my” story, it can be just an idea removed from me in history. However, if it’s my own personal story of Jesus and His Love—that’s where heaven meets my heart and a testimony is shared.

From a tiny baby with little hope to live, Jesus’ love saved me so that I can live for Him. My mother’s desperate sacrifice that offered me to Jesus allowed me to live. That love of Christ found me as a six-year-old girl whose heart was stirred to receive Him. That same love protected me on the streets of Portland in broad daylight when a man had an idea to pull me into his car—but stopped short. That same love protected me through travels, school, work, relationships, grief, unemployment, and fulfilling careers. And, it still protects and guards my heart today as I am in relationship with Him.

How has Jesus’ love drawn, guarded, and protected you? Can you encourage someone today with your own story? It may just be what they need to hear so that you are the Light of the world.

Chris Cooke

Matthew 18:12: “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

A lifeboat can only hold four people, but five need to be rescued: a young child, a doctor, an engineer, a housewife and an elderly man. The young child has a future. The housewife can have more children. The doctor and engineer have valuable knowledge. Though the elder has wisdom, his time is short. It is a hopeless cause—of who to keep and who to let go.

In this world, we are defined by so many things: Status, education, position, money …. None of this matters when we meet with eternity. The One who died to save us doesn’t rule us in or out. He pursues us all as lost sheep because he values us equally. Jesus sees a sheep, wandering and weary. That is why He searches for it, lifting it onto his shoulders to be carried back to the safety of his flock and care.

Are you that weary sheep, tired of what is not working in your life? Do you long to be carried to a better place on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd? Ask Jesus to carry you back to His flock. Recognize the One who gives you that salvation and claim his gift of forgiveness.

​Chris Cooke