Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

In 1934, Walt Disney wanted to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, his first full-length animated movie, perfect. They worked on it for almost 4 years, spending $1.5 million, and the 750 artists drew over a million drawings for the film. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, worked 240 days on a 4 1/2 minute sequence for the movie in which the dwarfs made soup for Snow White and almost destroyed the kitchen in the process. It was a funny scene! After seeing the sequence, Walk Disney also thought…continue reading →

[Video of Jordan Peterson] Jordan Peterson: If your gonna make your kids tough, which they better be if they’re gonna survive in the world, you can’t interfere when they’re doing dangerous things carefully. Interviewer: Think about it, that specifically. Dangerous things carefully. That’s such a place where kids learn. Jordan Peterson: That is the only place they learn. That’s where everyone learns everything. When you’re doing dangerous things carefully. That’s where you learn. And so [if] you interfere with that, you interfere with the process by which your children expand their competence. And…continue reading →

In the parable of the unforgiving servant, a king forgave one of his servants a huge debt. But upon being forgiven, the servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount, grabbed him, choked him, and demanded to be paid back. When the king heard about this, the king called his first servant back to him, and said to him: You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy…continue reading →

God invites us to rest and rejoice in Jesus!continue reading →

[Aladdin clip: Genie’s 3 Rules] ALADDIN: You're gonna grant me any three wishes I want? GENIE: Ah, almost. There are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos ALADDIN: Like? GENIE: Ah, rule number one: I can't kill anybody. So don't ask. Rule two: I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone else. You little punim, there. Rule three: I can't bring people back from the dead. It's not a pretty picture, I don't like doing it! Other than that, you got it! ALADDIN: Ah, provisos? You mean limitations? On wishes?…continue reading →

We've talked many times over the years about how one of the most crucial things that we can do as a church is to be united. Jesus prayed that we would be one, just as He and the Father are one, and that our unity would be a testimony to the whole world so that they would also believe in Jesus. And Micah reminded us in his sermon last week that it's ok to disagree, and how even when we disagree about many things, we can still be united in our faith in…continue reading →

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I read a story about a Christian family, the Courtney family who lived in Iraq, where many people have been persecuted, jailed, or even killed simply for being Christian. But after seeing how there were very few to no qualified heart surgeons living in Iraq, and hearing about how there were thousands of Muslim children in need of heart surgeries, Jeremy Courtney started a nonprofit organization to meet that need and display Christ’s love to them.. And so, over the last decade, his family has raised money to be able to send over…continue reading →

I read a story from 2018 about an exhibit at the Museum of English Rural Life in England. The exhibit showcased a 160 year old humane mousetrap, which was just a simple seesaw mechanism that traps a mouse once they tip the scale. In 1861, the inventor of the trap named it “the perpetual mousetrap,” and claimed that his trap would last a lifetime. Well, apparently, it would last even longer than that, because after the trap had been on display in the museum for some time, someone noticed that the exhibit contained…continue reading →

I think I’ve mentioned this at least a couple times over the years, but the popular Christmas carol, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” contains one of the most theologically rich and confusing statements ever to be written. Let’s sing the first verse together. Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Talking about Jesus being born on…continue reading →