Blog
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Triumphant Suffering
By Larry Young : God answered our prayers and relocated my family to Oregon City, Oregon in the early 1980’s. We had just rescued two girls from an evil orphanage operation, and God had opened doors for us that we could have never imagined. I learned that trusting God and following His guidance was the…
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Righteousness by Faith: Ask Yourself “Why?”
By Jon Beaty : The Dunning-Kruger effect describes how individuals with limited experience often overestimate their abilities, while experts may underestimate theirs. Since we often fail to know what we don’t know, we do ourselves a huge favor by heeding biblical wisdom that counsels us to stay humble and warns us that God opposes the…
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Now Is The Time
By Larry Young : Ever since my high school typing class, we used this test message: “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country”. It was devised by Charles E. Weller in the early 1900’s as a skill test for typewriters. One hundred years later, this test…
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The Danger of Losing Our “Why”
By Jon Beaty : It’s both amusing and sometimes irritating when a child nears age 3 and starts endlessly asking “Why?” If you’ve spent much time around little people, you know what I mean
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Another Turning Point
By Larry Young : The last two weeks have indeed been a “turning point” following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder and CEO of “Turning Point USA”, when he was at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on September 10th. The memorial service for Charlie Kirk was held at a totally packed State Farm Stadium in…
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What Your Aura Says About You (and Why It Matters)
By Jon Beaty : Last week’s assassination of young political influencer and religious-liberty advocate Charlie Kirk is causing people around the world to reflect on their own influence and how they steward their religious freedom.
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The Good Fight
By Larry Young : Near the end of his life Paul wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4: 7) My sincere hope and prayer is that every one of us will be able to triumphantly point to Paul’s testimony at the end…
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The Lost Sheep: Restoring Broken Connections
By Jon Beaty : Our Deep Need for Connection :: We were created for connection—isolation is spiritual death. .. Humans possess a natural hunger for connection. This becomes starkly evident in solitary confinement used to punish and torture prisoners of war. Isolated prisoners experience hallucinations and severe anxiety within days. The mind, created for companionship,…
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Expiration Dates
By: Larry Young : Pretty much all food products have an expiration date printed on their packaging. But what about you and me? Like it or not, every one of us also has an “expiration date”, or a “Best if used by….” date. One of our concerned members recently looked out across our congregation and…
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Breaking Free from Spiritual Narcissism: Behaviors That Destroy Our Relationships
By Jon Beaty : The argument started over something trivial—whose turn it was to take out the trash. But within minutes, voices were raised, past grievances surfaced, and someone stormed out. Whether it’s tension with your spouse, conflict with your teenagers, or that uncomfortable standoff with a fellow church member, we’ve all experienced how quickly…
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So Many Coincidences?
By Larry Young : The longer I live and the older I get, the more convinced I am that there may not be such a thing as a true coincidence. The ways that things happen can be incredible and unplanned, but that may not make them coincidences. Think about it for a moment: when you…
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Which Worshiper are You?
By Jon Beaty : I’ve noticed this about myself. Maybe this is true for you, too. :: When I hear a preacher in the pulpit call out the faults of people (people other than me), I give a strong “Amen!”
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God and Electric Guitars?
By: Larry Young : This is a true story, but 75% less serious and 100% funnier than usual. Cheryl and I managed an apartment complex on Cuyamaca Street in El Cajon, California long ago. A wide dirt path separated our bedroom window from the bedroom window of an adjacent apartment in the next complex. ‘Lucky…
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How Great Thou Art
By Larry Young : I am always amazed how mere human beings somehow think they share some kind of equality with God or Jesus. Of course, there’s plenty of certifiable “whackos” who think that they ARE God. However, the really scary ones are those who have a huge following and claim that they are indeed…
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Buried in Truth
By Larry Young : The Seventh Day Adventist Christian denomination for me is undeniably far in front of other Christian denominations when it comes to biblical doctrine and truth. Being raised in the Methodist church, critical elements of biblical doctrine and truth were either ignored or buried in language that ended up supporting some other…
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The Double Door: Christ’s call to our hearts and his church
By Jon Beaty : Many European buildings that once housed Protestant churches are now largely empty or transformed into museums, skateboard parks, gyms, supermarkets and dance clubs. Repurposed for secular pursuits, these structures stand as monuments to a once-thriving Protestant movement that gradually lost its mission. These houses of worship whose doors once opened each…
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Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It
By Larry Young : I hated History class in high school, mainly because my teacher made it incredibly boring… just a collection of names and dates that I was forced to memorize to get a passing grade. But after I came to God and opened the Bible, only then did I realize through my thick…
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Don’t Bury Heaven’s Gold: Why Spiritual Treasure Demands Investment
By Jon Beaty : When I was a young boy, my father became captivated by the legend of the Lost Dutchman and his hidden gold. According to legend, the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine lies hidden somewhere in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, named after German immigrant Jacob Waltz—”The Dutchman”—who took his secret to the grave in 1891.…
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Complacency in the face of Change
By Larry Young : Doesn’t it feel like the world is trying to destroy itself more than ever? Russia is pushing hard to take Ukraine, to be followed by taking NATO countries and waging war with the US to get it. China is pushing for absolute control of all world economies and is willing to…
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Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
By Jon Beaty : Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus is often misunderstood. Many Christians read it as a lesson about what happens after death. Instead, it’s a lesson about the life God’s people, and His church, should live before it’s too late.