Sisters, Brothers, Friends,

I’m so glad it’s September!  This has been a fantastic summer, but I’m so excited for what God has in store this fall.  Just this month, we’ll be taking pictures for our new photo directory (Sept. 10^th), inviting our friends and neighbors to a Fall Kickoff Barbecue (Sept. 18^th), and beginning our year-long journey through The Story, exploring the Bible as one continuing narrative of God and His people.

We read that the Scriptures are powerful (Matt 22:29), God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16), and meant to be fulfilled (Mark 14:49).  And we have experienced the power of the Word of God at work in our own lives, as we read it and do what it says.  Scripture is meant to be opened and explained (Luke 24:27-32), but Scripture is also meant to be applied and lived out.

In Luke 24, two men were traveling to the village of Emmaus, and Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.  Beginning with the first books of the Old Testament, Jesus explained to them everything that the Scriptures said about him, and how it had all been fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection.  For a while, the travelers did not recognize Jesus, but when they did, they asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Something amazing happened on that walk to Emmaus.  These two travelers not only heard about the story, they became a part of the story.  They realized that God’s story was their story, and that from Moses to Jesus and on into the present day, God is at work redeeming, restoring, and re-creating.

God’s story is our story because our God is the great I AM!  He is not confined to the pages of history, nor is he waiting to reveal himself in the future.  God has been, God is going to be, and God is here now.

My prayer is that you may encounter God more deeply this year, and be shaped by the experience.

Love, peace, and holy discomfort,

Pastor Zack