Psalm: 130 Meditation Acts: The sin spoken of in this passage is called “simony” in “honor” of the scoundrel who thought the gift of God could be had for a price. This is a subtle and insidious sin. (Isn’t all sin insidious?) Simon wanted a sense of power for he witnessed the power of the …
Tag: sin
Fasting
There is a dramatic scene at the end of the book of Jonah where an entire city, the city of Nineveh, is confronted with the news that God is about to destroy them. How do they respond to impending judgment? They declare a fast. The king decrees that no one, not even their animals, is …
Tuesday, June 9
Psalm: 62 Meditation Luke: I’ve always thought it was interesting that Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name. Someone must have old Him (no matter). Because Zacchaeus was a tax collector he was regarded as a collaborator with the Romans. Strike one. He was rich, probably from ill-gotten gain. Strike two. He was viewed as a sinner. You’re …
The Fruits of the Spirit
Listen. Listen to the prerecorded Children’s Message together. You can find it at pacificunionchurch.org/churchsmall Review. How did trying to play soccer without any rules show Pastor Nate that freedom is NOT doing whatever you want? Lesson. Do you guys want to know what freedom is? To find out we have to learn what freedom is for. …
The Lord’s Prayer
Prayer is one of two daily spiritual practices that are key to keeping spiritually fit. We learned in our last post that prayer is a two-way conversation with God that involves both listening and speaking. We already covered silence as the listening aspect of prayer, this week we will look at our part of the …
First Sunday in Lent
Memorize these verses as a family: Psalm 32:3: When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. Psalm 32:5b: ...I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” -- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Listen. Talk with your family about times that you did something wrong …
March 1, 2020
First Sunday in Lent Listen. Read Genesis 2:15-17. What two things has God given to Adam? What is the one thing that he has withheld? What is the punishment if Adam takes the one thing? Read Genesis 3:1-6. How does the serpent get the man and the woman (Adam and Eve) to do the one …
Turning the Shark
As we saw in the previous post, Psalm 119 is a poem inspired by one man's love for the law of God and his struggle to keep it. Scattered throughout this enormous prayer are pleas to God that he might teach him to follow his laws: Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then …
Finding Jesus in Lent
We tend to emphasize the positive in our tradition. We enjoy the anticipation of Advent, the marvel of Christmas and the joy of Easter. But the season of Lent? Not so much. There are a number of things that turn us off. It's morose. Dreary. It's about works. It's a Catholic thing. Why should we …
