A Fisherman & His catch

09/01/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘The Name of Jesus’ and the text was from last part of Acts 3 and chapter 4 to verse 18. Today’s focus is chapter 4 verses 5 thru 7 which says, “5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

Jesus made a habit of going to the synagogue when He went somewhere. Why? Instant audience. Why is that important? People are the most important resource there is period. And as far as talking to people it doesn’t get any better than when you get an instant audience with people who have ‘influence’ in this world. The religious leaders at this time were the influencers of their day. John and Peter knew that and were surely encouraged that they had such a big stage on which to share Jesus. It’s tempting to think hey I don’t really have that big of a stage. Listen, God has each of us right where He needs us to be and around the people that we need to be around. We just need to people of prayer so that we are asking God to open our eyes and ears to the opportunities that He has given us to speak truth and see God move in people’s lives. Thank you Lord for using people like us to share Your perfect plan with a lost and dying world.

09/01/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘The Name of Jesus’ and the text was from last part of Acts 3 and chapter 4 to verse 18. Today’s focus is chapter 4 verses 1 thru 4 which says, “4 Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”

In the last part of chapter 3 right before this, Peter and John were pretty direct with their proclomation of Who Jesus is. As a result these religious leaders feel pretty threatened at the time so they take them into custody. It’s pretty easy to be in awe of the apostles. I mean Peter is preaching and people are getting saved, he has a supernatural boldness here. But go back a little further and Peter is warming himself around the enemies fire and denying Jesus. To me personally this has always been encouraging. Odd as that is, let me explain. We have a tendency to think God’s love for us as believers is like the love other humans can have for us, while similar not really accurate. Peter denied Jesus and humanly speaking Jesus would have every right to be like Peter who and step back and let what happens happen. God’s love for us as believers is something that can’t fluctuate. We can choose poorly and feel dirty and distant but truth is, He never leaves us or forsakes us. When we have things happen that make us feel shelved or unusable God sees a chance to proclaim His Message right in our mess. Life is messy and it will get on us from time to time. The question is will we trust HIm to push past our own feelings of inadequacy and instead into His limitless Spirit that He has left us with?

08/26/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Overwhelmed by the love of Jesus’ and the text was from 1 John 4:7-16. Today’s focus is verses 7 and 8 of that passage which say, “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Verses 7,8-Love is mentioned a lot here, so bearing that in mind it’s safe to say that’s a very important element in this chapter but not just here but overall in the Bible. Love is the evidence of a heart changed by God and a life that is living to follow after God. Does that mean you will be perfect? No we are going to miss it as believers no doubt. The disciples sure did and we are no different. But what do we do when we miss it? Do we give up? Prayerfully not. If we don’t love it’s safe to say that we don’t know (truly) God. We don’t need to be a door mat but at the same time we should always weigh on the side of grace and be ready to get messy with people because life at it’s simplest is well, messy. Jesus said to leave the 99 for the one. He didn’t come for the healthy but for the sick. So for us, that means yes we will have healthy friends but we NEED to have ‘sick’ friends because those are the ones Jesus came for. Thank you Lord for coming for me, even when I thought I wasn’t worth coming after.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God,…

08/21/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Shame vs. Grace’ and the text was from John 8:3-12. Today’s focus is verses 4 and 5 of that passage which say, “This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.”

Verse 6-They wanted Him to deny the Law and then they could claim blasphemy. But as so many other times in Scripture we see that trying to outsmart Jesus doesn’t go well. They are trying to quote Leviticus to Jesus like He doesn’t know?! What did He write on the ground? We can’t know but my opinion is that He was writing those guys sins who were wanting to stone this woman. Another school of thought even says that He could have been writing the dates those men had been with this woman, but either way the lesson here is that Jesus knows. He knows our good and He knows our bad and He loves us anyway when we choose to surrender our lives to Him. What He knows isn’t affected by what other people think, reflected right here when He kept writing ‘as though He did not hear’. It’s hard to shut off what people say but honestly as important and insightful as that can be the final Word is the Lord. Seek the Kingdom first and all the other stuff is going to work out, that’s a paraphrase but the truth is solid. Thank you Lord for loving us in spite of us.

08/20/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Shame vs. Grace’ and the text was from John 8:3-12. Today’s focus is verses 4 and 5 of that passage which say, “4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

So many people are familiar with this passage of the Bible but when you pull it apart a bit it really shows who God is. Much like the picture below our lives from the outside looking in can look like the path, just wandering out into the middle of nowhere and maybe even with a dumpster fire at the end just for good measure. This woman right here is caught in the ‘very act’ of adultery. First problem here is if we are honest how did these religious leaders catch her? Maybe there was some peeping or voyeurism going on? They bring this woman to Jesus like she is a game animal and they just got the biggest prize ever. Problem: she’s a person who has junk just like the rest of us. If you don’t know the story read the whole of John 8. Jesus doesn’t respond by stoning her, He does the opposite. He deals with the people who are accusing her with completely jacked motives. In the end none of them were qualified to throw the first stone because they had junk too. At the end it’s just Him and her. Does he justify her sin? Not at all. He tells her to go and sin no more. Listen if we come to the Lord with our mess He is able to turn it around into His message. But without ‘mess’ there is no word ‘message’. Does that mean we just run amuck? No it doesn’t but it does mean when we run off that all we need to do is turn around and run towards Him, He isn’t throwing stones, He is waiting to show His glory in and through you.

08/18/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Shame vs. Grace’ and the text was from John 8:3-12. Today’s focus is verse 1 of that passage which says, “Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,”.

This is one of my favorite portions in the entire Bible. My reasoning for that is simple: you can hear the grace and mercy that personified Jesus right here. As a receipient of that mercy and grace I am amazed each time I read this and reminded how much Jesus loves me and everyone else who chooses to follow Him as Lord and Savior. The scribes and Pharisees weren’t looking out for Jesus. They were seeking to entrap Him and they think they have him. They don’t just catch a woman in adultery, no they catch her and bring her to the Temple which is completely out of the normal of the time. They should have took her to the Sanhedrin but they skip that and try and catch Jesus off guard but like you see so many times it’s never good to think that you can outsmart the Lord. He knows the end from the beginning and we don’t. Check it out tomorrow for the next verse (or two).

08/12/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Our Faith Family’ and the text was from Ephesians 4:1-6. Today’s focus is verse 2 of that passage which says, “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,”.

Verse 2-How are we to walk (live our Christian lives out)? Here it is: with all lowliness and gentleness. This refers to meekness, not to be confused with weakness. This flies contrary to our current world situation which says, it’s all about me and what I want to do. This lowliness and gentleness involves a great deal of caring about others. Poeple need to be heard and not just pushed aside. We overschedule ourselves too much, I want to underschedule that way I have time to talk to people when they may need it. The next word: longsuffering and bearing with one another in love. The Lord is long suffering with us, He loves us in spite of us. We won’t get along with everybody in the Lord but we can love everybody that shares our faith in Him. The Spirit enables us to love those people that are harder to love. He loved us and continues to love us so we can love even when it’s not easy. Thank You Lord for loving me, especially on the ‘not easy’ days.

08/11/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was titled ‘Our Faith Family’ and the text was from Ephesians 4:1-6. Today’s focus is verse 1 of that passage which says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,”.

Verse 1-It’s easy to understand that Paul was literally a prisoner of the Roman government. They arrested him and imprisoned him. But he doesn’t mention that here. He says he is a ‘prisoner of the Lord’. Like it or not, those who name the Name of Christ and have put their trust in Him, are indeed also prisoners of the Lord. I’m reminded of Psalm 84:10 that says ‘For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.’ The challenge to this is do we actually live our lives like this? It’s super easy to get distracted by the cares of this life. God has provided those things for us to enjoy but not to completely dominate who we are and what we do. In fact the phrase in this verse that says “to walk worthy” is really saying to be more balanced in how we live our lives. If we are honest we probably (sometimes or most of the time) enjoy the gifts and forget about the Giver. Thank you Lord for Your mercies and grace that are new each and every day so that in spite of us You love us and truly are ‘long suffering’ for us. Help my life to be balanced in the way that You see fit for Your plan.

08/09/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was a part 2 of ‘Christ Centered Living’ and the text was from Galatians 2:20. Today’s focus is Philippians 2:8 which was a reference mentioned during that sermon which says, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

Verse 8-The point of this verse is simple. This clearly states that Jesus became a Man in order to be obedient to the point of death on the Cross to pay a fine for a crime He didn’t commit. Simple yet life changing. We do the crime and Jesus pays the fine in His blood. Will we daily be obedient to the point of death? The death to ourselves that we so desperately need so that we can clearly hear what God has for us daily. That’s easy to think about or even talk about but in practice it’s hard. We have this flesh that fights us every step of the way. Thank God He gave us His Spirit so that through that Spirit we can truly ‘die daily’ and submit ourselves to His will for our lives. Thank You Lord for making that possible.

08/06/2026

Every Day is A ‘Sunday’ Reflection

This past Sunday’s sermon was a part 2 of ‘Christ Centered Living’ and the text was from Galatians 2:20. Today’s focus is John 14:10 which was a reference mentioned during that sermon which says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

Verse 10-If we believe the very first verse of the Bible, In the beginning God created then everything else is a lot easier to grasp. God does the work of saving us in our lives. God speaks through His Word, we take that on faith and choose to freely trust and obey. That is simple to state but on the daily we must come back to it and continue to submit ourselves to what God has trusting that since He can see the end from the beginning then He is worthy of our trust, even or maybe especially in the things that we can’t understand. God is sovereign over ALL or over NONE. We must wrestle that to the ground and know that we know that He is Who He says He is.