Pastor Tom's Journal

  We Must Love! Love fulfills all of God’s law. The song goes, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.’” It is not enough, just not to hate in this hostile world. We must be proactive. To be proactive, we must love. We must love our friends and our adversaries. Love takes initiative. In so doing, it is in charge of itself. Photo by  Annie Spratt  on  Unsplash Nothing can stop it. What is love? The assignment question is tough because love, though simple in its elegance, is complex and multi-layered in its expression. It is too magnificent to reduce to words and too basic to everything to say much about. Furthermore, the best that can be said about love has already been said in scripture and acted upon by Jesus Christ in His life and death. Perhaps it is easier to begin with what love is not. It is not a chemical reaction leading to a sudden attraction which is irresistible in its call or insatiable in its appetite. It is not a warm feeling or a cozy familiar p...

  Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7 Are you homesick? Do you feel disengaged, disoriented, and dispossessed in a world where nothing is familiar? Is there a feeling of hostility from or toward you as you confront the values and cultures around you? There is actually a biblical illustration of a people who experienced what you are experiencing. Listen to this message. SUMMARY from a Third-Party AI. In this meeting, Tom Sims addresses the theme of living in unfamiliar or challenging environments, drawing parallels between the biblical exile in Babylon and contemporary feelings of displacement or homesickness. He explores how individuals can cope when their surroundings and values change, emphasizing three key actions: embrace, engage, and endorse. Sims encourages embracing one’s current reality as an ‘exile,’ engaging fully in life by building relationships and participating in the community, and endorsing the welfare of the city or locality by seeking its well-being through prayer, work, and civic...