Identity in Spiritual Parenting, Pt. 1 by Mike Elmer In our intention to journey together, we have begun exploring various environments in which to examine how we are discipling our children. As parents, we are the primary disciplers of our kids, and this occurs in real time all the time, the high points of the day and the mundane moments, …
Living the Story: Rediscovering Sabbath Rest by Mike Elmer I have learned in recent years to pay attention when the same subject comes at me from multiple sources. Often this means that God is showing me something important. Now less than a year into a ministry role at Trinity Wellsprings Church, the subject of Sabbath has come at me from …
Easter Egg Hunts & Expanding the Household I have recently been pondering a passage from a phenomenal book entitled “Habits of Household” by Justin Whitmel Earley. He writes about using the term ‘household’ as opposed to ‘family’ when he discusses various habits that form the people living in our families, as follows: The biblical idea of the household enlarges family …
To God Be the Glory Pastor Steve Schantz What does it mean for something or someone to glorify God? An eagle lives out its glory by soaring on wingtip far above the landscape to feed her young nesting atop a 100 foot pine. Clouds glorify God by a shear beauty displayed against a sunset through a rainbow of refracted color. …
The God Who Speaks Our Language –Acts 2:1-4 Pastor Steve Schantz When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to …
Luke, Lucretius, and Love -Acts 27 -Pastor Steve Schantz Picture yourself as a deckhand on board a ship with Paul, a prisoner of the Roman government, A.D. 59. Paul and others are under the guarded care of Julius, a ten-year veteran and a centurion of the Roman Army. Your saga at sea, as told by Luke, begins with fair weather …
The Good Shepherd – John 10:7-15 by Steve Schantz 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go …
Anxiously Anchored? -Pastor Steve Schantz Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed,Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure. Rock of Ages, Augustus Toplady We quickly recognize the first verse of this classic hymn from the mid 1700’s. The …
What’s Your Name? -Pastor Steve Schantz Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw …
Buddy – The Mighty Lizard Hunter ~ Pastor Steve Schantz When we moved to the Sunshine state in 1988, our two children were very small – and without a pet. Though the Gator is Florida’s official reptile, there’s a much smaller and more plentiful little guy that crosses our path daily. Those tiny lizards we see everywhere… scurrying beneath our feet …