Sunday Services at 10:00am
1155 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield
One of the mysteries of the gospel of John is that one of the disciples is referred to as “the disciple Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). According to church history, this disciple is none other than John himself, the author of the book. Consider what you would be like if you saw “the one that Jesus loves” as your primary identity, the way you viewed yourself....Keep Reading
Last week I went to our town high school’s open house in order to meet some of my children’s teachers. One thing I was struck by as I toured the school was what felt to me like an insane number of posters lining the walls that were designed to boost the students’ self-esteem. Wall after wall was plastered with phrases like “Instead of saying ‘this is too hard’ say ‘I can do hard things!’” and “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think.” With all the affirmation and positivity everywhere a student looks, you would think the school would be filled with confident, high-achieving children! So why are the rates of anxiety and depression higher than ever?...Keep Reading
One of the mysteries of the gospel of John is that one of the disciples is referred to as “the disciple Jesus loved.” According to church history, this disciple is none other than John himself, the author of the book. Consider what you would be like if you saw that as your primary identity, the way you viewed yourself. ...Keep Reading
Lately I have found that when I am accused of wrongdoing, I have two potential responses competing in my mind. The first is to defend myself, to give all the reasons the accuser is wrong, and to point out all the way my accuser is just as guilty as I am. My second response is to not only agree with my accuser but to add to my accuser’s list all the other ways that I am guilty which they neglected to mention. The first response feels like the right way to go. After all, I am standing up for myself and declaring that I am not such a bad person after all, nor am I alone in being imperfect. The second response, however, is both humble and brutally honest about who I am....Keep Reading
This past Sunday, during my sermon on overcoming guilt and shame, I discussed the importance of finding our identity and self-worth in who God says we are. I am fairly certain that we have all been the victims of individuals who have shamed us at some point in our lives and told us terrible things about us (or done terrible things to us) that have shaped the way we see ourselves. And for many of us, we are our own worst enemies, berating and belittling ourselves in ways that we would never do to another person. But the more we come to believe the things that God says about us, the more we can reject the insults, scorn the shame, and walk in the humble confidence that comes from knowing who we are in Christ. And who does He say that we are? Read below:...Keep Reading
One of the mysteries of the gospel of John is that one of the disciples is referred to as “the disciple Jesus loved.” According to church history, this disciple is none other than John himself, the author of the book. Consider what you would be like if you saw that as your primary identity, the way you viewed yourself....Keep Reading
One of the mysteries of the gospel of John is that one of the disciples is referred to as “the disciple Jesus loved.” According to church history, this disciple is none other than John himself, the author of the book. Consider what you would be like if you saw that as your primary identity, the way you viewed yourself. Not a mother or father. Not a husband or wife. Not a teacher or carpenter. Not an athlete or an artist. Not a good person or a screw-up. Not even a Christian, or one who loves God. I am the one that Jesus loves....Keep Reading
Bright and early this morning, I was standing on one of the top rungs of my extension ladder, leaned up against a branch of a pine tree in my neighbor’s yard, trying to pull my cat out of the tree without losing my balance. We had heard Pumpkin’s cries throughout the night, but he was too high to reach without a ladder, and we dared not frighten our neighbors by bringing a ladder on to their property in the middle of the night. But once dawn broke, Michele and I were there with our ladder, and there I was, climbing through the pine tree to reach our cat. One ripped shirt and many scars later, I managed to unhinge our wide-eyed feline from the branch where he spent the night, and to bring him safely down to solid ground. This past month, I have been preaching through a sermon series that examines the implications of the gospel for various areas of our life. One of the repeated themes is that the gospel teaches us to find our identity and our self-worth in God’s great love for us instead of rooting it in anything else....Keep Reading
This past Sunday, Eric Hesselbach preached from Philippians 1 on the subject of identity. In Philippians 1:21, Paul utters the famous line, ‘œFor to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.‘ From Paul‘s perspective, the only things that really mattered were knowing Jesus and seeing more people come to know Him. Because his joy and purpose was found in Jesus, he could rejoice even in prison, when others unfairly maligned his reputation, and even when facing death, as long as more people were being transformed by the gospel. It was clear that Paul‘s identity was not found in anything else ‘" not his freedom, his fame, his health, his reputation ‘" it was only found in who He was in Jesus....Keep Reading