Bridges Pastor's Study

11/30/2023

ON HOLD

As may be obvious, FirstLight is pretty much a one-person operation. I record them, and then edit them, and then they post them. That means, unfortunately, they are subject to my ability and availability. I am certainly available. But, having lost my voice on Monday, I had thought, "Surely by Thursday evening I'll be back. No problem."

As anyone who has interacted with me in the last day or two knows, that is not the case. I've made arrangements for this coming Sunday. But, since it is Thursday evening, I'm going to need your patience.

I have the twenty-five devotions that accompany the Jesse Tree's plan and progression. I will not be able to have the video component.

Pastor Tom

11/14/2023

This reflection confronts the unavoidable connection between being saved and being sent. It's a connection in which going to church, although important, is only a small part of learning to be the church.

11/10/2023

Sometimes the only way to fix a thing begins by breaking it.

Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

11/09/2023

Most good news is just OK news unless it appears at a time of bad news. Being told you're not sick is nice news. But being told it six months after being diagnosed with a severe and life-threatening disease is fantastic news. And so it is the good news we find in the Old Testament prophets, which includes passages when the news is the opposite of good. And so it is with the call of Isaiah.

11/02/2023

10/31/2023

The first prayer we find in the story of Jesus comes from the Virgin Mary when she visit's her older relative, Elizabeth, in the hill country of Judea.

10/30/2023

It one of the images, even if largely fictional, of what we imagine life was like back in the era of the Great Depression. An out-of-work man standing on a side and holding up a sign that says, "The End of Near."

There's a good deal more truth in that sign than most people seem to realize.

1 Peter 4:7 (NIV)
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.

10/27/2023

There are many ways people can pray. But there's only approach commanded by Jesus — only a regular basis we need to talk to God alone.

Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.