I hope that you had a blessed Easter holiday! This week, we come to Luke 8:18-35. In this passage, we find that John the Baptist has sent messengers to confirm that Jesus is the Messiah. Now, this struck me as somewhat odd since John knows deep down in his soul that Jesus is the one he's been waiting for. But then I realized that I often do exactly what John did whenever m...

A quick reminder that there is an open house/reception at the Rist House tomorrow (Friday, March 15) from 4-6:30pm, with a devotional and prayer time at 5:30pm. I'd encourage you to spend some time with your church family as we grieve together the passing of Iris Dillard. And we grieve not so much for her death, because she is alive and rejoicing with her savior, but for o...

March is upon us already!It's hard to believe, but we're only about a month away from Palm Sunday and Easter!If you haven't already, please mark down that we're going to be having a Good Friday service at 6:30pm on March 29th at Harper Park Middle School.It is a wonderful way to prepare our hearts to rightly celebrate Easter. And as we march our way through Jesus's life, ...

Have you ever had the wonder of something fade in your mind? The first time you kissed your spouse when you were dating was (hopefully) a wonderous experience. But after locking lips for the next 5-10 years, the thrill of the kiss wears off.In some cases, it can be easy to take the wonderful almost for granted. There's a phrase for this: Familiarity breeds contempt. And ou...

As Christmas Day marches toward us, I hope that you've gotten everything squared away so that you can simply enjoy the holiday. From the pastors, staff, elders, and deacons, we wish you a safe and happy Christmas! Just a quick reminder that we will be having Sunday School and worship as usual this Sunday, even though it is Christmas Eve. We will also be having a Christmas ...

It's the Thanksgiving holiday, and I can't help but be thankful for Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church. I am so grateful for all of you. Your care and ministry to my family over the years has been amazing. You've showed us grace and love, even when we didn't deserve it. You've forgiven us of our sins against you, and you've pointed us to Jesus over and over again. Thank you...

While we have been in a season of crises, there have been encouraging signs that perhaps this season is passing. Keep praying for Isaiah and Kelley as they continue to walk through healing and the ups and downs that come with that. Also be praying for Dr. Dave. He's off on study leave this week, and will be visiting family. As we continue in our series on the Timothy's, t...

There has been much to pray for over the last several weeks.A number of families have been facing difficult seasons, and we added two more in the hours after worship this past Sunday with Kelley and a former deacon in the hospital.Be sure to take some time praying for the many ongoing needs in the church.I know that each family covets your prayers. And as we continue our ...

It has been a busy reintroduction to ministry after sabbatical. A church picnic, Modgnik, and now preaching with community groups starting this Sunday as well. On a side note, please sign up for a community group on Realm. If you're having trouble with that, please let me or Andrea know. I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful Sarah and I are for your generosit...

After a few weeks off for Easter and pastors being out of town, we're back in the book of Job with another length chunk of text. We've got 6 chapters this week: 32-37. Again, I encourage you to read the passage ahead of Sunday worship. I won't have the chance to read all of it during the sermon. I also encourage you to flip back a few chapters, read some subheadings, and g...

This week, both Dr. Dave and I will be out of town. He's down with Sam and Jill to help them care for Kaydence, his newest granddaughter who was born several weeks premature. Please pray for them as it has been a difficult road for this set of new parents. As for me, I'll be with a number of the high schoolers at Modgnik. Pray that we would have a profitable time worshipin...

We have another chunk of Job to work through this week as we come to Job 20-24. By this point, you can probably guess what Job's friends and Job will say. Something along the lines of wicked people get whacked, you're wicked Job, and repent Job from the friends. Then for Job, something along the lines of this isn't fair, the wicked prosper while the righteous don't, and my...

We rarely set out to have an argument, a shouting match, a dialogue that brings hard feelings and strong language. We usually have good intentions going in, but things seem to devolve so easily as frustrations mount and inflammatory statements are not met with grace. Such it is with Job's friends. They've come ostensibly to comfort Job. And we know that they're doing a ter...

Another week, another sermon. Another week, another cycle of waking, working, eating, and sleeping. It's all pretty repetitive, and I'm going to bet that our sermons in Job will end up sounding repetitive. And that's somewhat by design. The writer of Job understands that both Job and readers of this book (That's us!) are dense of heart. We need to hear the same stuff over ...

This Sunday is a packed one. We are wrapping up our series on the wanderer, celebrating the Lord's Supper, enjoying a fellowship lunch, and for many of us, attending community group. And since we're wrapping up our series on the wanderer, I hope that this series has caused you to pause and think about the role that you play in the lives of those around you. I hope that it ...

Christmas is upon us, and Advent is drawing to a close. And as we finish up Colossians chapter 1 by looking at verses 24-29, there is this sense that the wait is finally coming to an end. Christmas Day is almost here. But our wait for Christ to come is obviously different from the wait that Mary and Joseph endured so long ago. Now, we know that Christ has come, and that He...

It's hard to believe that Advent is right around the corner. I really encourage you to spend some time this weekend meditating on Advent and to write a devotional to share with the rest of the church family. We did this back in 2016, and it was wonderful to hear from and be pointed to Jesus by the whole body of Christ. Send in your devotionals to Andrea Pogany by this Sund...

Before we hop into talking about how to prepare for the sermon this week, I want to take the time to bring something important to your attention. Hopefully, many of you remember our former pastoral intern, Timo Sazo and his family. They worshipped with us for a number of years while Timo was learning about what ministry looks like at every level of the church, from helping...

I think that the first thing that I should say is, "Thank you!". Thank you for all the prayer, check-in's, and meals while my family was suffering through COVID a few weeks back. We're pretty much back to our pre-COVID health. Thank you so much for your support and care! As we continue to work our way through 1 Peter, I would encourage you to go back through the first 3...

What a week it has been for our Refugee Ministry! We are so excited to meet the Ukranian Family on Saturday, August 13 at 5:30pm at BWI. If you can make it out to greet and welcome Yurii, Nataliia, Sasha, Ivan, and Stefan, please do! So many things have come together for this to happen. If you haven't been following Realm closely, the Lord has provided greatly in the form ...

As we prepare for worship this Sunday, I think that it's appropriate for us to take some time to honor our brother Jerry German. In the several conversations that I've had with Jill this week, she has gushed over Jerry's faith, faithfulness, care, and love for her over 56 years of marriage. What a wonderful testimony of God's goodness and grace in Jerry and to Jill! Please...

When was the last time that you were told that you were a good listener? When was the last time that you really set aside your own responses, solutions, or critiques in order to really listen and connect with whoever you were talking to? So many of the conversations that we see in the news between political groups and on social media don't involve listening to anyone else ...

We have come at long last to the end of Deuteronomy. As with last week, we have 4 chapters to cover this Sunday, Deuteronomy 31-34. In these chapters, we get the plan to transition leadership to Joshua in chapter 31, the Song of Moses in chapter 32, blessings on each of the tribes in chapter 33, and Moses's death in chapter 34. I encourage you to spend time reading it sinc...

What to do about Deuteronomy 24:8-25:4? The range of topics across these 8 laws is quite broad. We get everything from dealing with leprosy to how to lend to your neighbor to limits on corporal punishment. And yet themes of truth and justice weave their way through all of these laws. I encourage you to read the passage for this Sunday ahead of time and meditate on the need...

This week, we have the pleasure of welcoming back our good friend, Timoteo Sazo. Be sure to remind him, Kaitlin, Vera, and Felix that we love and miss them greatly when you see them Sunday. Timo will be continuing our series in Deuteronomy, but he won't be covering the 4th Commandment. Dave asked to keep that passage, so Timo will be skipping to the 5th Commandment, covere...

Well, it's been quite a week. Dr. Dave is home! Praise God that bypass surgery was not needed and that the procedure to insert the stents went well! Please continue to pray for Dave and Joanne as they recover from a stressful and scary ordeal. And as we prepare our hearts for the sermon this Sunday on Deuteronomy 14, I'd like us to meditate on the idea of Christian dist...

What would happen if someone told you that you had to worship in a certain place, at a certain time, and in a certain way? I think we'd all be up in arms about it. We'd hope that we would say that we must obey the Lord first, and then man. But what if it were God telling you where, when, and how you'd worship? Would you still chafe at the command? As Americans living in th...

It occurs to me that Super Bowl Sunday is a day filled with shifting allegiances. While it's a great day for Rams and Bengals fans, the rest of the nation is caught trying to figure out who they should root for. Can you cheer for bitter division rivals simply because a victory might make the division your favorite team plays in look tougher? Or maybe you decide to cheer fo...

Hopefully this finds you prepared for the holidays! As you might have seen on the Facebook group, a number of families in the church are dealing with COVID right now. Please be praying for them, not only for physical healing, but also for comfort for the disappointment of potentially missing out on family gatherings. But if you're healthy and able, we hope to see you at bo...

This Sunday is Reformation Day! It's also the Sunday that we come to the Lord's Table, and it's also the day of the Fall Festival. Lots to pack into a single day, and there's a lot to unpack from our passage this week too. Our passage this week, Philippians 3:1-11, addresses an old issue. Where do we put our confidence for salvation? Do we put our confidence in the flesh? ...

The pursuit of glory is often at the core of our motivations. Even if we don't dream of making it big and becoming a celebrity, we still pursue glory. Maybe it's the praise of your co-workers that you covet. Maybe it's the praise of your parents that you crave. Maybe it's a simple recognition that you are capable, competent, and mature. We often see glory and recognition a...

As we continue in our series in Joshua this week, we're going to get a serious case of dj vu. Just as we saw massive armies being completely wrecked by the Lord and Joshua in chapter 10, we're going to see much of the same this week. This week's passage, all of Joshua 11 and 12, gives us an account of the northern campaign and a summary of all the kings that were defeated ...

How many times have we sinned against the Lord and wondered if we had finally gone too far? That's not the way the Gospel and grace work, but it's still a thought that creeps in to strike at our confidence in Christ. And it feels right and real because it's half-true. It takes a good look at sin, and it correctly judges that sin is a big deal. But it forgets that grace doe...

How many times do we find ourselves laboring through the mundane preparations of life under our own strength? How many times do we find ourselves somewhat grumpy about the daily slog of life being a joyless burden upon our spirits? Most of the time, when we feel that way, it's because we have focused on the tasks at hand while missing the worship that those tasks are meant...

As we prepare for Sunday's worship, let us be praying hard that the weather gets better. After 2 weeks of snow, I'm more than ready to be worshipping in-person again. As we get closer to Sunday, keep a watchful eye out for any updates from us about how we will be worshipping this Sunday. If we do meet in-person, I'm excited to have the children that normally head to Childr...

As we trundle into the 3rd week of 2021, there seems to be a lot of turmoil spilling over from 2020. Things feel chaotic and uncertain. We've still got a pandemic around with months still ahead of us. Our government is kind of dealing with a lot right now, and we've seen divisions within the American church like we haven't seen in a number of years. There's not much to be ...

We are almost to Christmas, and we were this close to having a White Christmas! Oh well. I hope this finds you warm, safe, and digging out from the snow. This week, we will be finishing our advent series in Jonah, tackling all of chapter 4. Hopefully, Jonah's reaction to Nineveh's salvation and God's teaching of him through a plant will teach us to live according to the Go...

We are wrapping up our series on misunderstood stories of the Bible this week. Next week, we'll be jumping into our Advent series in Jonah. It's hard to believe that we're already at Advent. In some ways, this year has dragged on and on due to the pandemic. In other ways, it's flown by. As we enter the holiday season which is full of thankfulness and joy, I think it is fit...

How sure are you that you are a Christian? How sure are you that you are truly a believer? Maybe you're just deceiving yourself. We're pretty good at convincing ourselves of lies. How can you really know that you're a true believer and saved? What if down the road you betray everything that you say you love and cherish now? What if you abandon the faith sometime in the fut...

We've made our way to the book of 2 Kings in our series on the Most Misused Stories of the Bible. This week, we're going to be looking at 2 Kings 5:1-19, the story of Naaman being healed of leprosy. Now many of you might be familiar with this story, but how it's misused is a little bit more obscure. It's not quite as obvious as David and Goliath's siren song to...

As we continue our march through the Bible looking at some of the Most Misused Stories of the Bible, we come this week to the infamous story of Samson and Delilah in Judges 16:4-31. Samson and Delilah. Those names conjure up a lot of thoughts, most of which revolve around temptation and squandered strength. We tend to look at Samson as the quintessential anti-hero. He's re...

It's hard to believe that we're 5 months into the pandemic and that we've been back at in-person worship for 10 weeks. It has felt like both a blur and an eternity. Through it all, the Lord has consistently shown Himself to be faithful to us. Praise God for the many ways we've had to rely on Him and for the many ways that we've seen Him be present in the midst of hard time...

Have you ever realized that you don't actually know as much about a particular subject as you think you do? Have you ever popped off about a particular topic, only to have an expert put you in your place? It's no fun. It's humiliating mostly because we don't like to be wrong, and we especially don't like being exposed in front of others. It makes us feel like frauds, and o...

As we slowly come out of our shells, let us rejoice and be glad that the Lord has brought us through. This will be our second Sunday back from the pandemic hiatus, and we'll be finishing our 2 week series on worship and worshipping together. Next week, we'll be diving back into the Gospel of Mark. Since we've been apart for so long, coming back is a momentous occasion. ...

PastoralLetterfor a Distributed Church June 5, 2020 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As of this writing, we are set to resume worship at Harper Park Middle School on June 14. Obviously, we are mindful that prudence and wisdom will look different for each family. The pastors and the session want you to exercise wisdom when making decisions about attending services and...

If you're not already having a sense of dj vu due to the pandemic, this week's passage should make you think that we're repeating ourselves. We'll be looking at Mark 10:32-45. In this passage, we find the 3rdinstance of Jesus foretelling His death and resurrection. The last time we saw Him do this, we were in chapter 9. And staying true to form, the disciples reacted to Hi...

Dear friends, As the weeks drag on, the purpose of this letter has subtly shifted. Back when this whole thing started, it was a way to get information out to everyone about what we were doing and how things would shift online. We struggled together to adjust to the new normal, and for the most part, we've settled into the new pattern of life. And so, while the pastoral le...

At my community group this past Sunday, I shared that I felt like so much of our time in isolation/social distancing has been spent in survival mode. We've had to adjust, adapt, and persevere through the hardships and stresses of this time. But I don't want to simply persevere. I don't want to simply endure; I want to thrive. The problem that I keep running into is that "...

PastoralLetterfor a Distributed Church April 17, 2020 Dear friends, Since we're now five weeks into life in pandemic-land, Dr. Silvernail thought it would be a nice change of pace for me to put together this week's pastoral letter. This will be a bit different than the previous ones. I figured I would take this chance to share some of what I keep coming back to in ...

Back when we put together the schedule for Mark, this week was supposed to be a communion Sunday. Since Easter is in a few weeks, the plan for this week was to skip forward to the institution of the Lord's Supper in Mark 14. Then next week, we'll be looking at the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, and then the Resurrection on Easter. After that, we'll return to our regularly...

First, a quick thought on the weekly heart prep. Most weeks, I give a quick summary or teaser of what I'm planning on preaching. But this week is a little different. This week, the passage not only has words that point us to the Lord, but its point also is instructive in how we prepare our hearts to come to worship. There's a lot happening this Sunday, and I wanted to prea...

This week, we're in Mark 6:45-56. This is the famous passage of Jesus walking on the water, followed by a completely non-famous passage about his healing work in Gennesaret. And as we come to this passage, we will end up talking a lot about paradigms. Paradigms are funny things. They're wildly important because they control the way in which we understand the world around u...

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that this holiday season has been a blessed one for all of you. I also hope that those of you that have been sick are on the mend! As we look forward to a big 2020, I think it's fitting that we talk about our passage for this week. We've finished our series in the Psalms for Advent, and we're hopping back into our series on Mark this week....

Black and white. Us and Them. We live in an increasingly polarized world. On just about anything, we're asked to pick sides. The contrasts in camps of people are becoming increasingly stark. But contrasts aren't just about segregating into groups. Contrasts often provide color and depth to our understand our world and experience. For instance, contrasts can help throw into...

In preaching, some of the best advice is to keep the main point of the passage as the main point of the sermon. This is great advice because there so such a depth to the Scriptures. There are books galore that go into meticulous and interesting detail about each verse, or even word, of the text. It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees when preparing for a sermon. And ...

This week we are embarking on a new sermon series. We'll be spending the next 3 weeks talking about the mission of the church. As a church, we seem to be in a season of planning, examination, and evaluation. The session has met for several extra meetings as we continue to work through the information that we gathered from those listening sessions at the community groups la...

We’ve made it. After 38 weeks, we’ve come to the end of our series in Jeremiah. Let me tell you that this has been a challenging book for the pastors and elders to preach on. It seems like we’ve spent last 11 months or so looking passages where Jeremiah calls out sin and pronounces judgment. There have been glimpses of grace here and there throughout, but it’s ...

This Sunday we're continuing our series in Jeremiah. But the scene shifts a little bit from what we're used to. For 10 months, we've been hearing about the impending judgment by God of the sinful people of Judah. But now, the judgment has happened. We went over that last week in chapter 39. This week we're looking at the aftermath of the judgment and exile in chapters 40-4...

This week's passage is Jeremiah 27-28. We're getting into the second half of Jeremiah, and the Lord seems to be hammering home the themes of His sovereignty and our submission. As we've seen in past weeks, our submission isn't really a choice. We will submit to the Lord, regardless of if we want to or not. We will either submit to His refining and sanctifying, or we will s...

Between paternity leave and snow days, I feel like I've been away forever. It's great to be back, even though I'm slowly working myself back up to a full schedule. It also feels like so much has happened since I've been gone. I guess that's to be expected when adding a baby to the family dynamic. On that topic, I want to thank all of you for your care and support of my...

We have come to the end of 2018! We've spent our year in 1 Corinthians, James, Jeremiah, and now John. We even fit a topical series on trouble in there somewhere too. Basically, we've spent a lot of time looking at the idolatries of our hearts. But we've also spent a lot of time looking at how the Gospel sets us free from those very idolatries. I hope that our time in ...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you have a blessed Thanksgiving. Be sure to take some time to reflect on the ways that the Lord has blessed you this past year. And speaking of blessings, Jeremiah has been a blessing to us. I hope that all of you have been as impacted by it as your pastors have been. What a rich book that dives deep into the heart of idolaters to call them ...

We are continuing our series on Jeremiah this Sunday, and we've come to Jeremiah 7:1-29. And over the past couple of months, as Jeremiah confronted the people of God with their sin, we also were confronted with ours. And this Sunday is no different. To be honest, this week has been difficult to prepare because it's telling me something that I don't want to hear. Jeremiah ...

This Sunday, we're continuing our trek through the book of Jeremiah. It's been kind of a depressing journey thus far. We have been treated to a tapestry of horrors just in the first 3 chapters of Jeremiah. The faithlessness and sin of God's people is stunning. And here in chapter 4:5-31, we begin to see the consequences of their wicked behavior. The judgment that we expec...

This Sunday, we'll be working our way through James 5:1-12. We've been talking about worldly and heavenly wisdom the past few weeks, highlighting the need for gospel humility in order to live wisely. We've talked about slander (4:11-12) and arrogant planning (13-17). And now, we're getting the most extreme look at where worldly wisdom leads and heavenly wisdom leads. One ...

We've been working our way through the Book of James in our series entitled, "We Walk in Wisdom". This Sunday, we'll be looking at James 4:13-17 on "Wisdom for Humility". This passage, at first glance, seems to be nitpicking. It seems like James takes issue with the way that we announce our plans. That interpretation would even have an appearance of truth since James empha...