Posts with the tag “pastor-michael-hammond”

Before we moved to Fresno, we lived in house that had a lot of interesting quirks. There was a closet that was converted to a bathroom, a bathroom that was converted to a laundry room, and a laundry s...  Read More

I once heard a comedian tell a story about an interaction he had with his friend that went something like this:Comedian: Do you want to get a donut?Friend: No, I’m not hungry.Comedian: What does that ...  Read More

80% of drivers say they are above average drivers. Stop for a minute and think about that. It’s statistically impossible for 80% of people to be above average at something. Even though 94% of people s...  Read More

We can look at a verse like this and think it’s too harsh. ONE failing makes you guilty of breaking the whole law? How is that fair?! At first read, it may seem unfair, but I think if we shift our per...  Read More

Have you ever wondered about how you’re doing at something? I know I have. How am I doing as a husband? How am I doing as a father? How am I doing as a friend, brother, pastor, neighbor? How am I doin...  Read More

When I was 20 years old a friend and I decided to go backpacking through Europe. We had grown up together and often figured things out on a moment’s notice with little or no planning. We thought that ...  Read More

A verse like this is one of the reasons I really like James; he gives it to us straight. James doesn’t sugarcoat it; he flat out says that if your faith doesn’t work then it’s worthless. We can do “re...  Read More

In 1314, a huge threat to the national security of England was discovered. This threat was leading the nation’s youth down a bad path and was causing adults to completely shirk their responsibilities....  Read More

I’m naturally more of a listener than a talker. That always catches people by surprise because a big part of what I do is talk. I love teaching and teaching equals talking but when it comes to hanging...  Read More

Everything good comes from God. That’s a pretty amazing thought. That means that there is nothing that is not truly good that is not also from God. ...  Read More

Every one of us faces temptation and trials. While trials may come from God, temptation never does. God may send us trials to test us, but He will never send us temptation. When we are tested by God t...  Read More

These verses contain some of the upside-down logic of the Kingdom of Jesus. What does someone who is “lowly” have to boast about? Why would someone who seems to have it all boast about being humiliate...  Read More

The book of James is my favorite book of the Bible (if we’re allowed to pick favorites). It is full of such practical and applicable wisdom and I gain something new every time I read it. James of cour...  Read More

How would you like to be defined by one moment? You live an entire life full of moments both good and bad, but you’re forever immortalized by ONE moment…one moment of doubt. That’s the story for Thoma...  Read More

Each day this week we are releasing a video devotional from one of our pastors related to the Passion Experience - an online, interactive experience designed to help you meditate on the events of Jesu...  Read More

Yesterday in his sermon Pastor Jim reminded us of the need we all have for intimate relationships. He reminded us that many things can fill our time but no matter how busy we are, we need to make time...  Read More

We as humans don’t really like change. When everything is going great, we wonder why we would ever want to risk changing. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” is often the mantra. Even if things are bad,...  Read More

I’m currently teaching through the book of Philippians with the students at the Maple campus. This book is full of great content and what makes that content even more powerful is the context under whi...  Read More

Everyone has their "thing." It's that thing that they're really into that is a little more unique or perhaps not popular with everyone. I have a friend who is totally into socks. Every time I see him ...  Read More

It was in sixth grade when I first remember someone asking me, “Do you think Jesus is coming back soon?” This is undoubtedly one of the questions I’ve been asked the most over the years and my answer ...  Read More

Ecclesiastes 3 begins by stating that there is a time for everything. When we look at the list that follows, we’d probably only want half the things that it says there is a time for. I know I’d much r...  Read More

Studies show that between 50-60% of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions. 25% of those who make resolutions drop them before even making it a week. Another 11% drop off before making it a month. Afte...  Read More

On this very day 78 years ago, a British ship named the SS Benlomond sunk in the South Atlantic. At 2:10pm the Benlomond was spotted by the German submarine U-172. The U-boat fired two torpedoes at th...  Read More

When I think of this verse, I think of chocolate covered pretzels. Trust me, it makes sense…I love chocolate covered pretzels. I don’t really know why (other than the fact that they are simply amazing...  Read More

I’ve never been in a fight. I’ve “fought” with others, but never a real, true come-to-blows fight. I have been punched in the face, but the punch was delivered by my best friend. It wasn’t supposed to...  Read More

Though this verse is talking about finances, I think there is a greater inheritance that God’s people can leave behind than just a financial one. We can leave behind an inheritance of a life lived in ...  Read More

Today my son Micaiah turns 3 years old. He is our youngest child; we also have a daughter named Mikayla who is 5 and a daughter named Melina who is 7. My children all continue to grow (despite my clea...  Read More

I’ve always loved history. Growing up I genuinely thought becoming a knight someday was a viable possibility. If I’m honest, there’s still a little part of me that wonders if there’s any way to make t...  Read More

Throughout high school and college, I took several communications, speech, and writing classes. I figured they were things I already enjoyed doing, so taking a class on them would not only meet a requ...  Read More

My wife and I love to read. The natural consequence of this is that we have a lot of books. Having a lot of books means that we need a lot of shelf space to display them all and this is why our books ...  Read More

In February of 2015 a single question took the internet by storm…“Is the dress blue and black and or white and gold?” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a picture… If you’re like me, you...  Read More

Growing up I attended Hume Lake summer camp every year. There were lots of things I looked forward to when summer camp approached. I got to hang out with my friends for a week, play awesome recreation...  Read More

We serve a great God. He is great in might, in power, in love, in wisdom; in every way we can imagine. Not only is God great, but His greatness is unsearchable. Unsearchable literally means “not capab...  Read More

We truly don’t know the long-term impact of the things that happen today. Every choice we make, every interaction we have, every conversation that takes place can have ripple effects that we couldn’t ...  Read More

My spiritual life is impacted in many ways. I’m impacted by time in the Bible, by time in prayer, by time talking with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and also by time spent in worship. I was re...  Read More

Right now, Pastor Wil and I are co-teaching the students a series about the questions and doubts that we all have at one time or another. In our most recent video, we talked about the fact that God do...  Read More

Right now, I’m reading through the four Gospels in a way that is called a “Harmony” of the Gospels. The idea is to take the four Gospel accounts and divide them up so that they are all compiled togeth...  Read More

Change is something that is completely normal. Every 12 month period that we call a year has some amount of change in it. We’re only 7 months into 2020 and we’ve seen tremendous change on a daily, som...  Read More

English is the only language I can speak. I’ve taken classes in Spanish and Greek, but I didn’t leave those classes fluent (or even conversational). Since I’ve always been surrounded by others who als...  Read More

On November 20, 1980, a drill rig was doing some exploratory drilling in a 10-foot deep lake in Louisiana. A few moments later the very large (and expensive) drill rig mysteriously disappeared complet...  Read More