The Pastor's Blog

If you've been listening to or reading through Hebrews this past month you've probably noticed that a large chunk of it -- from 4:14-10:18 -- deals with Jesus as our great High Priest and as the sacrifice offered for the forgiveness of our sins. This Sunday we will be reading Hebrews 8:1-13 and Hebrews 9:11-15 as our Scripture reading. In preparation, though, I invite you to read Hebrews 9:1-15. In the first 15 verses of chapter 9 there is a comparison between the sacrifices offered in the old and new covenant. And so here we see the difference between what...

Today is “Ash Wednesday”, which is the first day of the season of Lent (the season of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter). So today we begin our Lenten journey of preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter. Typically (or maybe traditionally) people give something up for Lent as a way of preparing themselves to celebrate Easter - chocolate, sugar, coffee, extra things that are ‘unnecessary’, etc. The act of giving something up is an act of sacrifice meant to help prepare to celebrate Easter. However, in the Reformed tradition it’s common, instead of giving something up...