Pastor Craig Carter It’s fairly common for us to embark on an undertaking without fully understanding what is going to be involved. For example, some of us once envisioned ourselves as star athletes only to discover that it required two gut-wrenching workouts a day. Others of us sought the glamorous military lifestyle pictured in TV…
Pastor Craig Carter The disciples had been traveling with Jesus for more than three years when He made the astonishing declarations we looked at last week. First of all, Christ informed them, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,…
Pastor Craig Carter Today is the first Sunday in Lent, a 40-day period that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Lent is a time set apart annually for Christians to return to the Lord through repentance and reflection so we can reorient our lives to God and His…
Pastor Craig Carter In our current sermon series, we’ve gained insights from Pete Greig’s book, How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People. In the book, Pete suggests the Lord’s Prayer is structured around four basic steps captured by the acrostic, P.R.A.Y. – Pause, Rejoice, Ask, Yield. First, we pause in prayer by remembering…
Pastor Craig Carter In his book, How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, Pete Greig suggests the Lord’s Prayer is structured around four basic steps captured by the acrostic, P.R.A.Y. So far in our current sermon series, we have investigated the first three steps of pause, rejoice, and ask. Beginning today, we will…
Pastor Craig Carter In our current series we are learning how to pray based on a prayer Jesus taught us called the Lord’s Prayer. Last week Pastor Terry addressed how we need to ask in prayer. He said that in our prayers of petition and intercession we should give God a chance, be bold and…
Pastor Craig Carter During our current sermon series we are learning how to pray based on a prayer Jesus taught us called the Lord’s Prayer. It is found in Matthew chapter six and Luke chapter eleven. Last week we observed that in order to start praying we actually need to stop praying. We learned how…
Pastor Craig Carter The start of a new year gives individuals and organizations an opportunity to review past performance, consider the present state of affairs, and make plans for the future. As a pastor, I tend to see the start of a new year as an opportunity to realign our priorities and make sure we’re…
Pastor Craig Carter During this Advent season, the Sundays leading up to Christmas, we have been listening to the Songs of Christmas. Not the ones we normally associate with the holiday, like Jingle Bells or Joy to the World. Instead, we’ve focused on the ones contained in Luke’s gospel. In his account of the birth…
Pastor Craig Carter Last week we observed that music plays a big role in our Christmas celebrations. The reason we’re putting so much emphasis on the Songs of Christmas during this Advent season (the four Sundays prior to Christmas), is because they’ve been front and center since the Nativity itself. Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth…