God, investigate my life; get all the facts first hand. I’m an open book to You; even from a distance you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can't take it all in! Is there any place I

Beginnings Start with Endings I love to travel. I count myself incredibly fortunate to have had amazing opportunities over the years to journey to beautiful places, meet extraordinary people, and immerse myself in new experiences. I often say that I absolutely love going places, but I dislike leaving. Of course, I realize these actions happen at the same time. One cannot go anywhere without also leaving someplace behind. Still, there is grief in packing the suitcase to leav

We know what the disciples were doing in those ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost. Luke tells us they were huddled together in an upper room, praying, waiting, bewildered but obedient. A hundred and twenty of them, watching the door, watching the sky, watching each other. Waiting for something Jesus called "the promise of the Father" without quite knowing what that meant. But I have spent years turning a different question over in my mind. In doctoral seminars, in q

“How long was it,” I asked Dom as we considered continuing to blog after writing about the Jesus’ resurrection, “how long was it between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension?” “Forty days,” he replied 40 days? WOW! That’s nearly 6 weeks! “So,” I asked Jesus, “what were You doing during those 40 days?” Nearly a third of each Gospel focuses on the week leading up to Jesus’ death, underscoring how central the cross is to our Christian faith. But it raises a question: why the fo

Seven miles is an agonizing walk when your world collapses. The disciples on the Emmaus road simply put one foot in front of the other, moving away from where everything went wrong. They spoke in the hushed tones of people unsure they would survive the recent trauma. We had hoped he was the one. An ocean of loss exists in those six words. They mourned a future they believed God authored. This was a promised redemption they staked their lives upon, destined to end in glory unt

Our post today is written by Barbara Esselink, a fan of Simon Peter. Peter is my most favorite person in the Bible. Of all the people in the Bible, I relate the most to who I imagine Peter to be. Passionate, hotheaded, speaking and reacting to emotion before thinking, loyal, determined, persistent—- these are all things I understand well. He loved Jesus so much, but still his humanity got the better of him. In his sin and weakness, Peter turned away from Jesus at one of his d

It was still dark-- a darkness that seemed to be never ending. Only a few days before, these brave women who had followed Jesus from Galilee had stood near the cross watching in anguish and dismay as their beloved friend hung, apparently helpless against the powers of both Rome and the Jewish religious leaders. The sky had darkened as they watched. And then, a sword was thrust in his side and he was pronounced dead. The impossible had happened. With him, their hope for a diff

The air on this Friday feels different. It is thick with a silence that demands our full attention. I often speak of the importance of leaning into the quiet but today that quiet is not just a practice. It is a reality. The world has reached a terrifying pause. The light has flickered and gone out. We stand at the edge of a mystery so deep and so heavy that words almost feel like an intrusion. Today is about the God who loved us enough to stop being distant. It is about the K

(This week's post is written by Pastor Michael Smith) What comes to mind when you think of the Last Supper? Perhaps it’s the narrative of Passion week: the triumphal entry, cleansing the temple, then celebrating Passover with the disciples. Or is it Davinci’s famous painting, with all its mystery and tension and symbolism? Perhaps it’s not so much a thought as a feeling: that ominous sense that Friday’s coming . Jesus will be betrayed and arrested. He’ll leave his discipl

Our blog today was written by talented story-teller, high school Junior, Maia Miller. The twelve disciples. Twelve men who were Jesus's companions as he walked this earth. These twelve men were not what would have been expected to be close companions of the mighty king and messiah. They were not religious leaders, nor were they from the Roman court. No, these twelve men were from the lowest and some of the most hated people in society. They were the fishermen and tax collecto

Our blog today was written by high school senior Paul Bangsund. I invite you to walk with me alongside one of Jesus’ disciples. One who went through some of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Walk with him, walk with me, and walk with Jesus, towards Jerusalem. Simon is listed first in the calling of the disciples in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Furthermore, Jesus actually gives him the name Peter. “ Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called

I am sitting quietly in my chair, my dog curled up beside me, thinking of Judas Iscariot with whom I have been “journeying” for several weeks as I try to understand his actions—chosen, beloved, part of the ‘in-crowd” around Jesus—and yet somehow not committed to the purpose of Jesus. Well, it seems none of them really were. The first time Jesus spoke of his journey to Jerusalem, to suffer many things at the hands of the Jewish leaders, and to be killed, Peter rose to rebuke h

Our blog today comes from our beloved Laurie Kemhus. Have you ever been so focused on something so small that you missed the most important point? Tunnel vision? Things to do? A one-track mind? Boxes to check? Rules to obey? People to keep on schedule? Duties to fulfill? The ruling Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had the same problems but on a much bigger scale. The religious elite from those days were collectively known as the Sanhedrin: Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elder

Our blog today comes courtesy of Kristyn Kidney, a lover of words and of Jesus! COME Come. You are invited out of your hurry, out of your content-saturated day, out of your to-do-list that never runs out of urgency. Ready yourself to slow down. Come. Recline comfortably as one who belongs here. I mean get really comfortable. Set down your awkwardness, your uncertainty, and all the noisy expectations for you. Come in and rest assured you belong here at this table and in this

My view from The Mt. of Beatitudes It was eight days into my trip. A trip that had been cancelled two years prior due to Covid. As the travel restrictions had been lifted, we were among the first groups allowed into Israel. I was awestruck as we traveled from city to city and through the countryside. These were places I had only read about in Bible Stories. Joppa, Caesarea, Capernaum, Mt. Carmel, a Nazareth village. The list goes on and on. Ahh! But to sit on what’s now

The physical sensation is always grittier than I expect. Every year on Ash Wednesday, I walk toward the front of the sanctuary and join the line of the faithful. I stand before a minister and close my eyes. I feel a thumb dip into a bowl of burnt palm branches mixed with oil. Then I feel the pressure of the cross being traced onto my forehead. It is not a polite smudge. It is a dark and jarring mark. I hear the words that our modern culture is terrified to whisper to one anot

This weeks blog was written by Laurence Dunn Over the past 3 weeks, I have been reading through the Psalms sequentially with my wife, starting with Psalm 1. I invite you to take this reading journey with me. Having reached probably the best-known Psalm, #23, I am having a Selah(pause) moment to reflect on what we have been reading and observing about the life of David and his relationship with God. One of the challenges we have faced is putting each Psalm into a time framewo

Several years ago, I spent a day on a prayer retreat at a home in the West Hills of Portland. The owners had created a labyrinth on their property, using small evergreen bushes to provide the walls of the pathway. Walking labyrinths has always been a delight to me—the invitation to walk slowly with God—there is a destination at the center, but the path winds back and forth—and reaching the center becomes less important than the chance to be present to God and listen to him. T

The dark of night seems to linger so long these mornings as January unfolds day by day and the times for sunrise and sunset seems to remain constant, while I long for more light. But then it begins-- black gives way to grey shadows; even the bare trees take on their own beauty as they stand out naked against the brightening sky; and then almost imperceptibly, color begins to show-- pale yellow that slowly turns to orange and then to red, more and more brilliant as it fills th

{Our post today was written by an amazing high school Junior, Maia Miller.} As the spring of 2020 hit the world, I was beginning the transformation out of elementary school. Through that next year of 6th grade I really truly felt the isolation and the confusion of change but without any connection besides my family and a few friends. Though that year was really hard for me and many others, I was really blessed to still have community and a hobby through ballet. I have been da