Isaac Watts is known as “the father of English hymnody.” As a young man he became increasingly disturbed by the uninspiring psalm singing in the English churches. They only sang songs that came directly from the book of Psalms in the Bible. Concerning that type of singing he said, “The singing of God’s praise is the part of worship most closely related to heaven; but its performance among us is the worst on earth.” During his life, Isaac Watts wrote over 600 hymns. He was one of the first people to write songs that had lyrics other than just verses out of the Bible. He was vilified … [Read more...]

Many, if not most, churchgoers struggle reading the Old Testament (OT). It has all kind of strange places, people, customs, rules, worship, etc. While it takes a lot of study to really grasp the OT, one of the things that will help you is to understand the perspective of OT writers. About 2/3 of the OT is written in poetry. While Hebrew poetry was very different from our own, one thing they both have in common is imagery. Poetry is all about creating images with words. When you read the OT, look for the image the writer was trying to describe. That’s why the OT doesn’t tell us God is big, firm, … [Read more...]

Many, if not most, churchgoers struggle reading the Old Testament. It has all kind of strange places, people, customs, rules, worship, etc. While it takes a lot of study to really grasp the Old Testament, one of the things that will help you is to understand the perspective of Old Testament writers. About 2/3 of the Old Testament is written in poetry. While Hebrew poetry was very different from our own, one thing they both have in common is imagery. Poetry is all about creating images with words. When you read the Old Testament, look for the image the writer was trying to describe. That’s … [Read more...]

I can still remember all the scare of Y2K and people stocking up on food, water, and other essentials. Many feared the world would come crashing down due to computer codes only using 2 digits for the year and when it turned over to 00 anything with a computer chip would freak out thinking it was 1900. Now here we are 10 years later and no one is scared of a world-wide computer crash bringing everything down. Now we are concerned about a weak economy, a government that has no answers except more government, and most of all international problems – Iran and N. Korea becoming nuclear powers, Afghanistan, … [Read more...]

Those two words bring lots of different images to people’s minds. For some it conjures up warm memories of a particular teacher when you were young. For others it reminds you of a boring hour spent every Sunday with a dry, dull teacher. Still others think of children learning the Bible but don’t connect Sunday School with adults. Perhaps for you the words Sunday School connect you with a difficult time in your life when your class rallied to your aid. Whatever you may think of, Sunday School is a great ministry in our church. It is a place where the Bible is studied, friendships develop, needs … [Read more...]