Hi folks - I finally booked my trip to the Philippines to meet up with my family. Leaving on Thursday morning (getting there Friday night - it's literally on the other side of the earth). The plan is for me to stay until about July 7th, and it looks like I'll finally get my vacation! If all goes well, we might all get to come back together. But we still don't know if we'll have a place to live when we get back, because I have not heard yet how long it's going to take to fix up our place. They are still in the process of tearing it apart before they can put it back together.
So the bottom line is that I expect to be back here in the community, and resume our weekly Saturday Bible Study - The Journey - on July 13th (a week later than I had planned, but not too bad considering all the drama).
Thanks everyone - especially our new community members - for your patience while I've been out of the country and dealing with other responsibilities. As our long time members know, I hate to take such a break from the regular gatherings, but I expect to be back in full swing in mid-July. I do hope you all will keep the conversation going over the next few weeks, but in any case, I'm looking forward to getting back to our in-depth journey through the gospels.
I hope you're having a great summer & I'll see you in July!
- Jim
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
This is Michael Knowles' commentary on the murder of Charlie Kirk, and directly on the press conference about the arrest - In the middle is a great speech by the governor of Utah - overall excellent stuff if you have 1.5 hr to spend on it
with some Florida colleagues - all of them Protestant, but with varying traditions on the Eucharist - it was encouraging to hear how there are some Protestant denominations that have a real respect for the Sacrament (and I'm not talking about Anglicans or even Lutherans):
