Life In Greencastle

"And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." - Hebrews 10:25 We made our way through the 19th chapter of Genesis yesterday, exploring and trying to unearth a word of grace and promise amidst the rubble of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thankfully, grace and promise both were there, as we discovered in the adult Bible study. It came just as we were finishing up. I had just read verses 27 through 29 in the 19th chapter of Genesis, and was about to leave the class hanging - waiting as Sarah and Abraham once did - when I noticed Brian Martin had something to say. He nailed it on the head. The hope comes in the fact that Abraham serves as a model of who Jesus becomes for us. Hidden in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah's waywardness and destruction is the promising note that "God remembered Abraham" and thereby re...

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2 When I first came to Greencastle almost three years ago, I came with a definite sense of a call: I wanted to help you hear the promises God has made to you through Jesus Christ, and how to hold onto those promises in faith. And I wanted to help you mature in your faith. I felt a call, in other words, to be your pastor. As I read through the book of Hebrews today, I bumped into this great admonition that comes in the 12th chapter. The whole book of Hebrews is certainly a "pastoral letter," just as many of the New Testament letters are...