Posts with the tag “pastor-michael-hammond”

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

I heard a story several years ago about Christopher Columbus. While he traveled across the Atlantic he daily wrote in his journal. As the journey began there was plenty of exciting news to record. The...  Read More

The Bible often tells us to do things we would likely not do without being told. Being patient in tribulation goes against our normal inclinations. Being constant in prayer requires constant effort. B...  Read More

Today my 7-year-old daughter asked me a question; “How has God always been there?” As we discussed this her response kept coming back to, “But I don’t understand.” We continued to talk, and I explaine...  Read More

Just as a body needs oxygen to survive, a relationship needs communication. Prayer is communicating with God and is more than just a good idea; it is essential in our relationship with Him. Notice tha...  Read More

This verse is great news! When it comes to power, there’s no one who even comes close to the power of God Almighty. Not only is He powerful, but He is also slow to anger. To get an idea of how great t...  Read More

In a perfect world, all would live in peace with each other. It doesn’t take long to be reminded that we do not live in a perfect world. It’s easy to be discouraged by the lack of peace we see on a re...  Read More

     At one time or another we've all had a "gut feeling" about something  We couldn't really put it into words, but we just knew that something "felt" right or wrong. We all know that our stomach doe...  Read More

John the Baptist had a ministry before Jesus. When Jesus came on the scene, John’s influence started to diminish. In John 3:26 some of John’s followers point out, “Rabbi, he who was with you across th...  Read More

What would you be willing to do to get wisdom?  In the New Testament, James teaches that we can ask God for wisdom and he will give it to us generously and without reproach (James 1:5).  But that does...  Read More

Like most proverbs, this verse is sometimes easier to put into practice than other times. There are certainly instances when we hear advice and know we should immediately put it into practice, but the...  Read More

Before the death of King Saul, David was at a place called Ziklag for 16 months. While he was there, many came to support him instead of Saul to be king of Israel. 1 Chronicles 12 is essentially a lis...  Read More

We’re all familiar with the childhood game of “hide and seek.” It’s a great game because it requires no extra items to play, needs nothing to be setup ahead of time, and is relatively simple to explai...  Read More

Some may look at James’ words here and think they are little nihilistic, but when read in context they are a reminder of how relatively short our lives on earth are, and how foolish it is for us to ma...  Read More

The commissioning of Isaiah is such an inspiring section of Scripture to me. God asks a simple question, “Whom shall I send…?” and Isaiah promptly responds, “Me!” When I was in college, I had a profes...  Read More

The little book of Joel is an interesting read. An unprecedented event happened in Judah that affected all levels of society; a plague of locusts has destroyed all the crops. In any ancient culture th...  Read More