Palm Sunday stands out in my mind as a signpost pointing to the following week’s celebration of the heart of the Gospel; the resurrection. But it also holds its own place of great excitement and deepest reverence for us as it reminds us of the settled fact of Christ’s return.

How the crowds must have thrilled that day as He sat astride the little donkey fulfilling scripture coming into Jerusalem being hailed with cries of “Hosanna!”

Although they were a couple of thousand years early the cries were well placed recognizing Him as the only hope for our little sin-cursed planet. They couldn’t know the horrors that awaited the Lord of Glory submitting to the beating that paid for our healing. Nor could they grasp the savage death He would die for our sins. They just recognized the majesty and divinity of God’s Messiah cloaked in the trappings of the common man.

The Church stands on spiritual tip toe looking and longing for the return of the loving and gentle Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, son of David, son of Abraham, Son of God.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout!”

Look up! For your redemption draweth nigh!

In anticipation of Christ’s return,

Pastor Richard Orrell

Jeremiah 7: 7-8 NLT

⁷ “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  ⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat."

Scripture says that we WILL have troubles in this world, but we're not to be bothered by them.  We are to put our faith in Him.

Just as a tree with roots sunk deeply into the riverbank, if we have our faith roots sunk deeply in the Lord, He has promised he will take care of our every need.  

Human nature is to fret and worry, but He says we should NOT worry, but only trust in Him.   Jesus is my Savior I shall NOT be moved.

Be at peace with God as your Source today!

Love ya, 

Pastor Phil      

The warnings on labels these days often border on the ludicrous.  Reading them might well lead to the conclusion that if the purchaser needs such warnings he or she shouldn’t be out in public unattended.

However, there are things in our world one might well avoid like the plague: potassium cyanide, sulphuric acid, electric shock, king cobras and brown recluse spiders, just to name a few. There are valid reasons any information about these will certainly contain words like, caution, deadly, corrosive, or aggressive. Some things are programed to be destructive. If they are allowed into proximity to anyone, they remorselessly function to the extreme detriment of their unfortunate victim.

One must wonder if there shouldn’t be warning labels on certain personalities: “Caution! Anything shared will show up on social media!”

Another might be: “Danger! This personality is highly critical and can be very corrosive to one’s sense of self-worth!”

Or: “Prolonged exposure to the culture of sin contained in this character can result in a severe infection of unrighteousness!”

Isolation has been tried to no avail by well-meaning ascetics from time immemorial. Not only is it non-productive for believers to stay aloof from the ordinary world around us. It is also a violation of the spirit of Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17. It seems rather clear that He sees us as His emissaries to the world; certainly not a part of it but Heaven’s representatives to it.

Thankfully we are left with the choice of whom we let into our inner circle. It is imperative that we screen those closest to us and make choices not to allow the patently corrosive nor the clearly contaminant to infect us with their nature.

Choose the inner circle well. It is the base from which compassionate inroads may be made into the community of the hurting.

Serving the God of the Bible as revealed by His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ,

Richard Orrell, Pastor