Sheep are mentioned more than 500 times in the Bible. Not surprisingly. Sheep were a mainstay of Hebrew culture. They were a primary food source and a necessity for the sacrificial rituals in the temple. So when David wrote, “The Lord is my Shepherd” or Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd,” it would have […]
Re-grets
Regret. I was thinking about the word the other day. (It’s one of the things I do…thinking about words. Kind of my thing.) “Re-gret.” “Gret” is an ancient word for “weep” or “wail.” The prefix “re” is borrowed from Latin words. It can mean “do again and again” (like re-peat) or it can mean “go […]
Not what we expected
“Wow…that’s not what I expected.” There have been many times in my travels when I have at least THOUGHT those words. I was excited to see the famous Stonehenge…and surprised at how underwhelming I found it. Not what I expected. When Cyndi and I traveled to Austria, she could not WAIT to see the church […]
A Thanksgiving message from Pastor Mark
Happy Thanksgiving, my Sweetheart Church! Among the things that I suspect we will give thanks for this week is that 2020 is about to end! All of us would offer up a hearty “Amen” to that, I’m sure. BUT…if we pause even a moment, every one of us will be able to produce a long […]
Surreal!
To describe something as “surreal” is to say that it is “bizarre, fantastic, difficult to believe.” “Surreal” could certainly describe 2020, the last vestiges of which we are counting down, many of us with glee, I suspect. If a year ago you had described what we now take for granted—everyone wearing masks, professional baseball games […]
1 Day in Port Orchard
Between now and Easter 2021 WORSHIP Join us for worship on Tuesday nights at 6:15 pm (4647 Sidney Road SW, Port Orchard, WA 98367) On another day, visit and praise and pray! Pull into the parking lot of our worship space. (The gates may be locked. Just park up by the Little League fields and […]
Almost there!
When I climbed Mt. Rainier with my two friends back in 1995, I remember looking up from the flank of the mountain and thinking, “I will never make it to the top.” The mass of rock and snow above us was huge, our pace seemed snail-like and it really seemed impossible. But we did what […]
Jesus is (still) Lord
Well…I was wrong. I said last Sunday that, come Wednesday morning, half of the country would be mad. Nope. As I write this early Wednesday morning, the WHOLE country is mad as we stumble-bumble our way towards election clarity. I am intentionally writing this blog at this time because I want to lean into the […]
How to fulfill your unique calling
My beloved Sweetheart Church: We are going to be preaching through the book of Daniel beginning in January, a wonderful study about a man who was living as an exile in a foreign land and yet found a way to be both faithful to God and useful to his culture. In a very real sense, […]
Love endures…
I’ve walked this earth for almost 64 years. I cannot recall a year that was more incessantly irksome. Pandemic, economic travails, political nastiness, racism, violence, wildfires, blood moons … and blood-red suns … it has felt apocalyptic. But it has not all been bad. At least for the Toones. There have been some sweet, redemptive […]