Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Hunter Camp.

To be passionately committed to our calling as Christians means that we put time and effort into whatever it is that God has called us to do. I know that we are busy people. But my experience suggests that too often we offer God what is left of our time and our talents, our money, and our hope. 

God wants your passion. Find a way to serve God and other people. Your service to God and your place of worship does not have to be large or grand or public. 

In the first church I served there was a very elderly woman named Jewel. Jewel was passionately committed to writing cards to people who were sick or hurting. One day I asked Jewel why she wrote so many notes to so many people, some of whom she did not even know. Jewel replied, “At my age, it’s about the only thing I can do for God and other people. But I figure God wants me to do something. And this is something I can still do.”

May you find a way to use your passion for God. And may you know that God has a great passion for you.

Let us pray: God of grace and Giver of passion, may you strengthen our resolve to work for you and to your glory. And may we, your humble servants, find our faith, hope, and love renewed as we serve Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today’s message was written by my friend, Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

A great British preacher of a generation ago told the story of a young servant girl who had no formal education yet was deeply spiritual. She had a strong sense of compassion, a concern for people. When this minister visited her one day and asked how she spent her days, she said, “My work is very demanding, and I don’t get much time off, so I can’t serve the church as much as I would like. But I have come up with a plan that lets me do what I can,” “What is that?” asked the minister. She replied, “Well, I always take the daily paper to bed with me at night.” He was puzzled. “Tell me about that. I don’t understand.” “Well,” she said, “l read the page with the birth notices, and I pray for the babies that have been born; then I read the marriages, and I pray that they may be happy and true, and next I read the deaths, and I pray that God’s comfort may come to those sorrowing homes.” 

That young girl was not far from the Kingdom. Why? Because she had discovered the spirit of loving compassion. Loving compassion, Jesus called it the most significant sign of discipleship. In John’s Gospel, he said it like this: “l give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35). As deftly as a magnetic needle points to the north, so the heart of Jesus immediately zeroed in on the neediest person in the crowd. 

The poet put it this way: 

Love in your heart isn’t put there to stay; 
Love isn’t love till you give it away. 

Let us pray: God of love, you who have the whole world in your hands, we claim to be one nation, under you, and that you are the One in whom we trust. We are aware that you have called us to love you and one another, and we pray that you will remind us anew that love, to be love, must be expressed in action. Give us hearts of loving compassion. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Hunter Camp.

Some time ago, I was visiting one of my church members. She was recovering at home after a brief stay at the hospital. I was visiting with her and she said to me, “Hunter, God is always with me. There are miracles around me and in me. If it weren’t for the Lord, I don’t know what would have become of my life.” 

I suspect that each of us can say something similar, more or less. In our own ways, we, too, can look back upon our lives and pinpoint times when the Lord plucked us up from the bottom of the heap. 

Had the Lord not been on our side, the illness, the alcohol, the bad relationship, the tragedy would have overwhelmed us. Had the Lord not been on our side, the depression, anxiety, or financial worries would have engulfed us. That is the truth of our lives.

Let us pray: Gracious God, thank you for calling us your sons and your daughters. Thank you for showing us your character in Jesus. Help us to follow where he leads. Help us to rely upon you at all times, and not just during the crises of our lives. Amen.

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Hunter Camp.

It is so easy for us to forget who our master is, and who our master is not. Our master is not found in a political party, the stock market, Hollywood, or any other cultural power or icon. We belong to Jesus Christ—and he is our master.  

Here’s the beautiful but challenging thing: Christ our king welcomes us to trade in the values of the kingdoms of this world, values like jealousy, greed, and fear of those who are different from us. Christ our King invites us to embrace his life-giving ways of peace, gentleness, simplicity, generosity, love, and hope. 

Our job, sisters and brothers, is to attune ourselves to the kingdom of Jesus and to its values. Our job is to imagine a different way of life that promotes the values of Jesus and his rule. Our job is to live as subjects of Christ and according to his values. And when we do live as a subject of Christ our King, we discover a freedom that no king of this world will ever know. We discover a hope that is found nowhere else.

Let us pray: Christ our King, may you help us to trust more fully in you that we might embrace your values and remember that we belong to you, body, mind, and soul. Help us to discover the hope that you bring to the world. Amen. 

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Hunter Camp.

You can almost always tell when the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon someone. In St. Paul’s letters to the Galatians, we read that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A life steeped in God’s Holy Spirit will demonstrate some or all these qualities. In many cases, the more of these qualities you see in a person, the more Spirit.

In addition to these qualities and gifts of God, the Spirit gives us hope, even as it pushes us to stand up for Jesus-values, which are often contrary to the values of our culture. In a society that thrives on division, the Spirit leads us to offer hope and to embody the fruits of the Spirit. 

May God use you, today, to be a hope-bearer, even as God’s Spirit gives you hope.

Let us pray: Holy Spirit, may you visit us with your presence that we might embody Jesus-values, and may You give us hope, that we might share hope with others. Amen.