Category: Bayside

Christians should be people of prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 states “pray without ceasing.”  In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus uses the phrase “when you pray” in verses 5, 6 and 7, before then saying in verse 9 “this, then, is how you should pray.”  Yet Christianity is not unique in a call to prayer.  Therefore, what… Continue reading A Final Thought August 25 2020

I have various body parts that no longer function as well as they were designed.  While I realize that the passage of decades will do that to the human anatomy, something else has caused these particular issues.  The ankle that sometimes locks up, the knee that swells, and the shoulders that ache reflect injuries that… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective August 20 2020

I have various body parts that no longer function as well as they were designed.  While I realize that the passage of decades will do that to the human anatomy, something else has caused these particular issues.  The ankle that sometimes locks up, the knee that swells, and the shoulders that ache reflect injuries that… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective August 20 2020

The Jewish people living in Jerusalem in 444 B.C. had a problem.  The protective wall that had surrounded the city had been reduced to rubble more than a century earlier by the Babylonians, leaving the returning Israelites vulnerable to attack from bandits, wild animals or neighboring nations.  The residents of Jerusalem had focused largely on… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective August 13 2020

Does God exist?  This is a critical question for us to answer, for it is a question with potentially eternal consequences.  However, it seems that the question that we hear asked more often is a variation of this short query.  We are more likely to hear someone ask “Do you believe in God?”  There is… Continue reading A Final Thought August 18 2020

When Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, and proclaims “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, he sets in motion a direct contrast between how people have been approaching worship and how God desires to be worshipped.  The people had believed that they were good… Continue reading A Final Thought August 11 2020

The Jewish patriarch Joseph had a roller coaster life.  As a young boy, he was his father’s favorite and even received from him the gift of a beautiful and colorful robe.  His brothers, out of utter disdain, sold Joseph into slavery.  He experienced joy as a son, and sorrow as a slave.  Yet while a… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective August 6, 2020

According to Jewish law as recorded in Leviticus Chapter 15, a woman who has a discharge of blood shall be deemed ceremonially unclean for as long as the bleeding continues.  So long as she is ceremonially unclean, anyone who touches her or anything that she sleeps on or sits on becomes unclean as well.  Being… Continue reading A Final Thought August 4 2020

It has begun.  In the midst of the craziest year that most of us can remember, we now have the first tropical update from the National Hurricane Center that places our community within the dreaded Cone of Uncertainty.  For the uninitiated, this means that there is a possibility that a tropical system could pass directly… Continue reading Pastor’s Perspective July 30 2020

Of all of Jesus’ teachings, surely one of the most difficult to keep is his command to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  There can be no doubt that this would have seemed impossible to do back when Jesus said it two thousand years ago.  Yet fast forward to today, in… Continue reading A Final Thought July 28