News and Resources (Page 8)

Dear Faith Community Church Family, I was greatly encouraged by both our time of worship Sunday morning and our congregational meeting Sunday afternoon. It was exciting to come together in-person and online to share with you more about our church’s priorities following Refocus 2020. In particular, I shared “Our Community Core,” a summary of our purpose (Why are we here?),…

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9 Dear Faith Community Church Family, A year’s end is an appropriate time to reflect on God’s faithfulness, especially at a moment when many people are revisiting the difficult things about 2020. I hope you join me in thankfulness for God’s…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, We have traveled the Advent journey together through Isaiah’s prophecies of hope and healing and now have come to the week when we celebrate the birth of the promised Savior, Jesus Christ. He has come as our “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). At tomorrow’s Christmas Eve services,…

Dear Faith Community Church, In the Old Testament, when God’s people were exiled from the Promised Land, the reason was clear: God’s covenant people had refused to listen to his messengers, the prophets, who were urging the nation to repent of their waywardness and return in obedience to their covenant God. The captivity in Babylon that Isaiah predicts in Isaiah…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, As the prophet Isaiah looks forward to the day of restoration and redemption that will come through the Messiah, he says, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5) In the coming of Christ and through the proclamation of his Gospel, the glory of…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Perhaps my favorite Advent quote (which I have undoubtedly shared with you before), comes from the pen of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A German Christian and martyr, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II. Writing from his prison cell on November 21, 1943, he said, “[A] prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent; one waits,…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, This past week, Amy-Jo Wierenga presented us with an album and a financial gift from the church on the occasion of our daughter Vivian’s birth. We can hardly express how surprised and moved we were by both the financial gift and the thoughts, prayers, blessings, advice, and Scripture collated in the album. We have put the album in…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday, we end our series in the letters of John with 3 John. Appropriate to this time of year, 3 John’s emphasis is hospitality. Biblical hospitality is ultimately a matter of putting others first (unlike Diotrephes, mentioned in the letter as “lik[ing] to put himself first.”) As we head to the polls this week and next,…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I’m sure many of you are aware that yesterday Gov. Pritzker announced that this Friday, October 23, mitigation measures will be implemented in our region to combat an increase in Covid-19 positive testing rates (for announcement, click here). This will include the…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday we have the opportunity to come together for an outdoor worship service and lunch. The worship service will begin at 11:00am with the outdoor boxed lunch beginning at noon. We also rejoice that this Sunday we will receive a new member, Jenny Johnson, during the service. Our text for Sunday is 1 John 5:6-12, where the Apostle John…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, During times of struggle and difficulty, it can be more tempting to feel overwhelmed by the world than it is to believe that because of Jesus we have actually overcome the world.  “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world,” John tells us in 1 John 5:4.  When I read or watch news stories of turmoil, hypocrisy, and/or evil…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Some of the Davidic psalms express wonder at God’s power and strength while others exude thankfulness for God’s goodness toward King David and toward his people Israel. However, there are other psalms of David, sometimes called “psalms of lament,” where he lays bare his anguished soul before God. Psalm 13 is one of these psalms. It begins, “How…

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Faith Community Church, This Sunday, we’ll be exploring the famous passage wherein the Apostle John writes, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). There are few passages of Scripture more often pulled out of context than this! As a congregation seeking to submit to the authority of Scripture, when we say, “God is love,” we…

Dear Faith Community Church Family, In 1 John 4:1-6, the Apostle John emphasizes the importance of discerning truth from error in the Christian life. Apart from a firm commitment to the truth, we cannot live obediently and faithfully as God intends. In particular, John is concerned that Christians would be firmly committed to the biblical view of Jesus, to the commands…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Psalm 97:11-12 states, “Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!”  This past Sunday evening we had the privilege of gathering together to reflect on God’s sovereignty in Psalm 97 and to lift our voices in praise during our outdoor worship service.…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, In Sunday’s sermon, we looked at the biblical example of the antithesis of brotherly love: Cain. This coming Sunday, we turn our attention to Jesus in 1 John 3:16-18: By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Which do you think is more important: what you believe about God or the way you live your life before God? Is making sure our theology is lined up with the Scriptures more important than our actions, or does God care more about how we act than he does about who believe him to be? Notice what John says in 1 John 3:11, “For this is the message…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, This Sunday we have the privilege of welcoming Pastor Nick Swan to our pulpit. Pastor Nick is on staff at Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Winnetka. He will preach from Genesis 8:20-9:17, a passage which emphasizes the faithfulness and sufficiency of our covenant keeping God in each and every circumstance. The title of his sermon is aptly…