Hobart

What is Love?

What is love? Quite naturally, people search for love. In 2012, What is love? was the most searched-for phrase on Google. People define love in different ways: an emotion, action, state of mind, or a combination of these. Though some define it as nothing more than our biochemistry at work, most say love is much […]

Jesus: Double Agent

Christmas, the traditional day for celebrating the birth of Jesus, provides the church its focal point for gratefully acknowledging the Incarnation of the Son of God. In response to this historic event, the angels joyfully praised God (Luke 2:13) as they watched God’s master plan unfold. I believe this is significant to notice. The angels rejoiced […]

Unanswered Prayer?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, We believe that prayer is vital to a life of faith. Skeptics may view it as merely talking aloud to an imagined deity, but that is not our problem. The problem we face with prayer is when it seems to go unanswered. When I think of biblical examples, two come […]

Healing

Divine healing or deliberate hoaxing? Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I believe that God heals. Healing was a significant part of Jesus’ ministry. It is one of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. Sadly, the Spirit’s “gifts of healing” (v. 9) have often been corrupted and distorted by […]

In Search of Knowledge

Author and evangelist Ravi Zacharias tells of being a graduate student when a new edition of Encyclopædia Britannica was released. It was a massive work that had taken 14 years to produce and he remembers being fascinated by the statistics: 200 advisors, 300 editors, 4,000 contributors, over 100,000 entries, 34 million dollars and 43 million […]

The Meaning of Christmas

Though we are in the Christmas season when we celebrate the joy of Jesus’ birth, we are in shock following two horrific events. In the Philippines, Typhoon Pablo killed over 1000 people with 900 more still missing and 80,000 left homeless. In Newtown, Connecticut, 20 children and six teachers and administrators were brutally murdered by […]

Advent: Bad News, Good News

You probably know about the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, in which the Americans resoundingly defeated the British. But do you know that this battle was fought two weeks after the signing of a peace treaty ending the War of 1812? News traveled slowly 200 years ago—but not today! We are kept on constant alert about everything and […]

Grace From First to Last

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Grace is the first word in our name. We did not choose it because it sounds “religious.” Each word identifies our experience as a fellowship and grace is an integral part of our identity – especially our identity in Christ. As a denomination, we have always understood grace to […]

Forward together, through prayer

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As you know, I often close my Weekly Update letter with the reminder that prayer is the battleground where we fight the good fight of faith. It is through prayer – both individually and corporately – that we go forward, together. There are many ways to pray of course, […]