Pain and Loss In the Kingdom (Matthew 14:1-12)

Thank you for praying! As most of you know by now, our daughter Rebecca delivered her firstborn son, George, three months early last Sunday. George is a teeny-tiny 1 lb, 6 oz, but he's doing well; as is Rebecca. The words I've heard used to describe George this week are "spunky," "scrappy," and "a real fighter" -- which leads me to believe Rebecca may need a lot more prayer in the future. But again, thank you for praying ... and please don't stop!

This week we're starting Matthew 14, which starts with the difficult story of the death of John the Baptist. This is one of those passages that looks pretty straightforward at first glance, but as we've seen with much of Matthew, there's more to the story than first meets the eye. I'm excited to be back in the pulpit, so please come Sunday to hear more.

We are having our annual congregational meeting Sunday morning at 9:30 to present the budget for 2014 and vote on Pastor's Calls (for Dave Dorst and myself). This is an important meeting, so please make every effort to be there!

Looking forward to another great day! See you then, Dr. Dave