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The love of God! - John 15:9-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 25, 2015 Selena Gomez sings about how she is sick of the same old love, but the words in her hit song have to deal with how people mistreat one another in relationships. The artist Weeknd sings about being so deep in love his face goes numb. There must be literally hundreds if not thousands of songs that deal with love in some way or another. Love is such a frustrating and baffling thing for some of us that we sometimes misunderstand what real love is like. Here in John's gospel we discover the love of God displayed in the life of Jesus and now we learn what that loves is all about and just how truly wonderful it is. The love of God is complete, true, and open. When we see Jesus we see the love of God. Let's discover what this means for us… READ: John 15:9-17 If we say we love someone they expect certain things from us. Our words and actions should display what we say concerning our love for them, and our relationship...

The vine! - John 15:1-8 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 18, 2015 When I grew up in the orchards of Leavenworth, Washington they were mainly older trees that were quite tall, but now many of the orchards have gone to a newer style of tree where they are a lot smaller and pruned to be more one dimensional and they look more like a vine. Here in John's gospel when Jesus teaches about being the vine he is of course referring to grape vines but being raised in one of the largest apple growing areas in the world, I think of apples. The vine Jesus is referring to of course is him and the importance of remaining in him is likened to being cultivated on a vine. Jesus' followers are to be correctly connected to Jesus; no false claims can be tolerated and must be cut off and discarded. Jesus' disciples are entrusted with three duties: 1) to remain in Jesus, 2) to love God and one another, and 3) to witness concerning who he is. He is the vine, let's see what this means for our lives… ...

Isaiah 30:21-- This is the way, walk in it! By Pastor Lee Hemen July 19, 2015 During the time of Isaiah the Prophet, the Israelites had continually turned from following God. When they did, they suffered the consequences of their disobedience. God reminded them through Isaiah that if they would remain in him, he would stay close to them. In our world today we have the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives when we trust Jesus as our Savior and Lord. He remains with us no matter what, and because of this we often take following God for granted. We begin to think that it does not matter what we do in our lives since God loves us there will be no consequences. Nothing could be further from the truth. LifeWay's VBS 2015, Journey Off The Map™, is based on Isaiah 30:21. Children will explore uncharted territory where they will begin to understand that obedience to God can lead them beyond the expected. So, toss the map, stick close to your guide, and prepare to listen for God's dir...