First Presbyterian Church, Rochelle, Illinois

06/03/2026

God Is Not Slow

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV)
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Devotion:
Peter’s words in 2 Peter 3:8–9 invite us to step out of our narrow sense of time and into the vastness of God’s eternal perspective. He reminds us that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” not to confuse us, but to comfort us. We often measure God’s faithfulness by the speed with which He answers our prayers or resolves our struggles. We feel the weight of waiting, the ache of longing, the tension of promises not yet fulfilled. But Peter gently lifts our eyes to see that God’s timing is not slow, careless, or inattentive. It is purposeful, patient, and rooted in a love far deeper than our impatience can comprehend.

The early Christians longed for Christ’s return, just as many believers do today. Some began to wonder why God delayed. Peter answers by revealing the heart of God: the delay is not neglect but mercy. God is “not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.” These words reveal a God who is not in a hurry to judge but eager to save. His patience is not weakness; it is compassion. Every moment He withholds final judgment is another moment of grace extended to the world.

This truth reshapes how we understand our own seasons of waiting. When God seems slow, He is often working in ways we cannot yet see. His delays are not denials but invitations—inviting us to trust Him more deeply, to grow in holiness, to intercede for others, and to align our hearts with His mission. His patience toward the world becomes a model for our patience in the world. If God waits in love, then we can wait in hope.

These verses also remind us that God’s promises are certain even when they are not immediate. The God who stands outside of time is never late. He fulfills every word He speaks, not according to our schedule but according to His perfect wisdom. And in the meantime, His patience is a gift—an expression of His desire that more people come to know Him, experience His grace, and find life in Christ.

Prayer:
Holy God, ours is a microwave culture. If we can’t have it fast, we don’t want it at all. Lord, help our hurry sickness and teach us to wait on your timing for everything. Help us to admit to ourselves and others that you are in charge of this universe and in all things, we must submit to your will and timing. In Jesus’ holy name we pray, Amen.

06/01/2026

05/31/2026

Deuteronomy 6:4 and Revelation 3:20
https://storage1.snappages.site/DBQJGT/assets/files/May-31-Bulletin.pdf

05/29/2026

A fun and yummy fundraiser!
Please see Nan Good or Tessa Stouffer for more information!

05/27/2026

Speak the Truth in Love

Scripture: Ephesians 4:15 (NIV) Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Devotion:
Ephesians 4:15 calls us to “speak the truth in love,” a phrase so familiar that it can slip past us without its full weight. Yet Paul is describing nothing less than the way Christ forms His people into maturity. Truth without love becomes harsh, cold, or self righteous. Love without truth becomes sentimental, evasive, or permissive.

But when truth and love are joined, something uniquely Christlike emerges: a way of speaking and living that actually helps others grow into the fullness of Jesus.
Paul places this command in the middle of a passage about the church becoming a mature body. Immaturity, he says, is like being tossed around by waves or carried off by every new idea. The alternative is a community where people are anchored in Christ and anchored to one another. Speaking the truth in love is not merely about correcting others; it is about contributing to the steady growth of the whole body. It is a way of relating that builds up rather than tears down, that heals rather than harms, that strengthens rather than shames.

To speak the truth in love requires a heart shaped by Christ’s own posture toward us. He never lies to us, but He never crushes us either. His truth exposes what is false in us, yet His love draws us near rather than pushing us away. When we speak to others with that same spirit, our words become instruments of grace. They can convict without condemning, encourage without flattering, and guide without controlling. This kind of speech is slow, patient, and prayerful. It listens before it speaks. It seeks the other person’s good rather than the satisfaction of being right.

At the same time, speaking the truth in love is not optional. Paul presents it as the means by which the church “grows up into Christ.” Without truth, we cannot grow. Without love, we cannot grow together. The maturity Paul envisions is communal, not individual. We become more like Christ as we help one another become more like Christ. Our words, when shaped by His Spirit, become part of His work in the
lives of others.

Today, this verse invites you to consider how Christ might use your voice to build up someone around you. It may be a word of encouragement, a gentle correction, a reminder of God’s promises, or a quiet assurance of His presence. Whatever form it takes, truth spoken in love becomes a small but real expression of Christ’s life within His people. And as we practice it, we find ourselves growing—slowly, steadily—into Him who is the head of the body, the One who speaks truth and love perfectly.

Prayer:
Lord, help us always to be thoughtful when we speak. We must ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it loving? Only then should we open our mouths. Help us to do this for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

05/26/2026

VBS is coming SOON to 1st Pres!!

It's FREE, but please sign up so we have enough supplies for everyone!! https://forms.gle/TJWm3BGwY3GVrAda8

05/24/2026

John 14:26-27; Galatians 5:22-26; Ephesians 5:18
https://storage1.snappages.site/DBQJGT/assets/files/May-24-Bulletin.pdf

05/20/2026

What Comes Next

Scripture: "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.'" — John 11:25–26

Devotion:
Nobody likes to talk about death. We soften it with euphemisms. We say people pass away, or we lose them, or they are gone. We do everything we can to keep the reality of it at arm's length. And yet it comes for every one of us. The mortality rate, as someone once observed, remains stubbornly fixed at 100%.

So what happens next?

The world has plenty of opinions. Reincarnation. Soul sleep. Nothingness. A vague, comforting sense that everyone ends up somewhere pleasant. But Jesus does not traffic in vague comfort. He makes a claim so staggering that it leaves no room for middle ground. He does not say he knows the way to life after death. He says he is the resurrection and the life. The distinction matters enormously. A guide can show you a road. Only Christ can be the road.

Martha had just buried her brother. Her grief was real, and her confusion was honest. She believed in a future resurrection — someday, at the last day, things would be made right. Jesus gently but firmly reorients her. The resurrection is not just a future event on a distant calendar. It is a present person standing right in front of her. This changes everything about how we face death — our own and the deaths of those we love.

For the believer, death is not a wall. It is a door. The body goes into the ground, yes. But the person — the real person, known and loved by God — passes immediately into the presence of the Lord. Paul does not hedge on this. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Not eventually. Not after some period of waiting or purging. Present. Immediately. Fully.

And the body itself is not abandoned. The resurrection of Jesus is not just a miracle — it is a preview. What happened to him on that Sunday morning is what will happen to every believer at the last day. These bodies, worn out and laid in the ground, will be raised imperishable. Death does not get the final word. It never did. So here is the question Jesus asked Martha, and he asks it of you, too. Do you believe this?

Not do you find it intellectually interesting. Not do you appreciate it as a theological concept. Do you believe it — enough to live differently, grieve differently, face the future differently?

He is the resurrection and the life. That is either everything or nothing.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you that you have conquered death and hold our lives in your hands. Help us to live — and to face death — with confidence in your resurrection promise. You are enough. Amen.

05/17/2026

Genesis 2:5-7, Exodus 30:23-25https://storage1.snappages.site/DBQJGT/assets/files/May-17-Bulletin.pdf

05/13/2026

Thirst for God
Scripture: "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." — Psalm 42:1–2

Devotion:
You know what thirst feels like. Not the casual kind where you think about grabbing a glass of water sometime soon. Real thirst. The kind that crowds out every other thought until it gets satisfied. The kind that makes everything else irrelevant.

That is the image the psalmist reaches for. A deer that has been running — hunted, exhausted, desperate — panting for water with everything it has. This is not a polite religious interest. This is need. Raw, urgent, consuming need.

Here is the hard question. Does that describe you?

Most of us would have to admit that we go long stretches without truly thirsting for God. We fit him into our schedule. We give him our leftovers — the tired minutes at the end of the day, the distracted half-attention during a Sunday sermon. We are not panting. We are not desperate. We are comfortable. And comfort is one of the most effective thirst-killers there is.

The problem is not that we want too much. It is that we keep drinking from the wrong streams. We fill ourselves with noise, entertainment, approval, ambition — and then wonder why we feel empty. Those streams do not satisfy. They never have. They never will. Jesus told the woman at the well the same thing. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

Only one stream actually quenches. The living God — not a concept, not a religious routine, not a vague spiritual feeling, but the personal, present, speaking God of Scripture who calls you by name and invites you to come.

So how do you get there? How do you recover a thirst that comfort and distraction have dulled?

You start by being honest. You tell God exactly where you are, the way the psalmist does. He does not pretend. He does not dress up his desperation in tidy religious language. He lays it bare. My soul thirsts for you. That kind of honesty is itself a form of seeking.

Then you go to where the water is. The Word. Prayer. The gathered people of God. You put yourself in the place where God has promised to meet his people, and you come expectantly, not mechanically.

The thirst will grow as you drink. That is the surprising grace of it. The more you pursue God, the more you want him. The more you want him, the more you find him.

Stop settling for puddles. Come to the stream.

Prayer:
Father, forgive us for filling ourselves with everything except you. Stir in us a genuine thirst — not for religion, but for you. Draw us to your Word, to your presence, to yourself. You alone satisfy. In Jesus' name, Amen.