Sermon Series:Confident Christianity

One of my favorite family movies is Steven Spielberg’s Hook.  It is a live action sequel of sorts to the Peter Pan story in which Peter leaves Neverland and grows up, marrying, raising children, and completely forgetting his former, adventurous identity.  His green, leafy suit is replaced by a business suit; his pirate skirmishes become […]

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And […]

Dear friends, let us love one another,for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live […]

1 – Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 – This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 […]

4 – Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 – But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. 6 – No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known […]

28 – And now, dear children,continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming. 29 – If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. 3:1 – See what great lovethe Father has lavished on […]

When I first came to Redland we had a particular fellowship that we observed once a year. There were a lot of avid hunters and fishermen and fisher-women in the church back in those days and throughout the year they would freeze their catches or their kills. Then in the spring they would empty their […]

On August 23, 1973, Jan Erik Olsson—who was out on parole from prison at the time—attempted to hold up a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. When the police showed up, Olsson took four people as hostages—three women and one man—and a stand-off between Olsson and the police began—a stand-off that lasted six days. During these six […]

I don’t know of anyone who LIKES to take tests. In fact, some people have a mental disorder that makes them very afraid of test taking. It’s called “testophobia” — no kidding. People who suffer with it get so afraid that they freeze up as soon as the test is passed out. Perhaps you know someone […]

I remember an event in 2010 that gripped our attention and the media focus for two months. Thirty-three miners were trapped 2,300 feet underground in northern Chile. Emergency officials were unable to communicate with the miners for 16 days. The first communication received was a written note in red ink tied to a probe, that […]