Pastor Tom's Community

“… All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.   Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even…

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. – Psalm 27:4 The Greeks had a curious concept of beauty. It had…

"A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not sufficient."– Purported epitaph on the tomb of Alexander the Great It is uncanny how one's world can shrink from the spacious opulence we consider our birthright to the minuscule confines of a grave. If it was true that Alexander wept because there were no…

  “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”– Acts 2:3   The tongue holds a prominent place in scripture – sometimes for the evil it can do and other times as a tremendous force for good. In the New Testament, it is the purveyor…

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  – Matthew 28:5 An empty tomb greeted all who came that day. There were plenty of empty tombs in the vicinity. They had never been filled. More than that, they had never been sealed. They had…

A little effort is like eating a potato chip. Once you start, the next one just seems natural and then the next and the next and the next. The difference is that the potato chip saps you and leads to lethargy and obesity while effort energizes and brings rewards. You don't fill your plate with…

“I gave my life to ransom thee; surrender thine all today.”

Up to the neck in mire, no place to stand, no place to grab hold, deep waters, dry mouth, weary eyes, and constant waiting for God – this is what it means to be spiritual? This is sometimes what it means to be spiritual. " Save me, O God! For the waters have come up…

Incarnation is/was hard …seeing from everyone's point of view, feeling the pain of all sides, calling forth intercession, glimpsing divine/eternal perspective, knowing that others do not and cannot know and feel what you know and feel. God did it and does it and invites us to share a piece of the action … which depolarizes…

One day God did something new, dramatic, and explainable. That means, there was not a box to put it in with a neat little definition to label it. The response divided the onlookers into amazed gawkers and name-callers. Now, the gawkers had all sorts of possibilities going forward, with a full range of options, choices,…