Andy Talks

In our Combined worship service from December 24, 2023, Andy shares with us from Luke 1: 26-38.  Jesus is love.  But Mary had a part to play in God's plan of us knowing that. There are folks out there who need to know that God is love. We have a job to do in telling others this truth!

In our Christmas Eve message, Andy shares with us from Luke 2: 1-20.  The Gospel is Good News!  For unto us a child is born!  That is Good News!  That is the Gospel. God responds to all our human brokenness and needs with Love!

Today’s passage is one that we have heard read a million times. We know it. We’ve heard it.  We’ve experienced it.  This story reminds us of our parents and grandparents, it reminds us of our home, of Christmases of old. Remember those times. Remember those stories. Remember God’s goodness in the original story, but also in the retelling, over and over again, of this story. And today, take time to make new memories. This passage has the flesh of memories. Today, take time to make new memories for the days that are to come. Remember, and make new ones.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570272399You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

We look at Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story.  We see how, from the very beginning, Matthew is tying everything into the Old Testament.  Jesus is not a new thing, but He is the very fulfillment of what God was doing from the start.  He was the plan all along. He wasn’t God’s last option. He was what God was doing before the foundation of the world. We read all the Bible looking for Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the promise that God made in the Garden, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, and to all of Israel. Jesus Christ is the very fulfillment of what God said He was going to do.  He was God’s plan all along.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570101330You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Over the next three days, we will look at the Christmas story as found in the Gospels. Today, we look at John’s.  This is my personal favorite.  Now, when we read John’s Gospel, we don’t see the normal things we are used to seeing in a Christmas story. We don’t see sheep or Wise Men or Mary, or anything. We see a Christmas story that is cosmic, the very God of creation coming to undo the cosmic effects of the Fall. As we sing in this season, “he comes to make His blessings known, far as the curse is found.”  John shows us what that means.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=570102287You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsToday, We read how their hearts burned when Jesus opened the scriptures to them. Fire is a common thing in scripture; sometimes, it is seen as bad (James and the tongue), but it is often seen as a purification tool.  We need to stoke the fire of God’s love and God’s spirit in our lives. Stoke it daily. Feed it. Our faith should be the fire that consumes all things in our lives. It should be the foundation of all things upon which all our life is based.  We cannot seek to contain the fire of faith in our lives; we must let it burn. Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsPsalm 130 is a psalm of ascent. It is a psalm that is given to be sung as worshipers walk up to Mt. Zion, to the temple. Yet, it starts off not with a note of joy but of sadness. Out of the depths, we cry to God.  We hope in God. I think this psalm tells us that it is not until we realize that life is imperfect, that we are imperfect that we have reason to hope.  This world can fool us into falling into the trap of false perfection, yet everyone is hurting and imperfect. When we cry from depths, when realize the imperfection around us and in us, it is then that we can begin to have hope.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receiv

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsJesus tells us to keep awake.  Keep awake, keep watch. We are called to be active in these things.  Keep watch, looking for His soon return. Keep watch, looking for where He will come to us each day. Keep watch, looking for the places where sin and temptation can come.  Let us keep awake, allowing the Spirit to search us and be at work within us.  Jesus calls us daily to faithfulness. May we keep awake. May we keep watch.   Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569821789You can watch this in

In our Blue Christmas Service, Andy shares from Psalm 130 and Lamentations 3: 22-26.  Lament is a Christian virtue. We wait upon the Lord. We hope in the Lord. But there are times when all we can do is lament our pain, our loss, our hurt. And know that our Lord is with us, in the midst of all of our hurt. 

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsWe see a beautiful picture today of what things will be like one day.  All things will be restored. Because of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all things are disordered. All things are corrupted. That is not God’s perfect will or desire. But one day, in God’s time, He will make all things right. The lion will lay with the lamb. The child will play with the snake. All will be restored, and the effect of sin will be no more. One day.  So, we wait with hope in what God will do. And we live, faithful, that vision of His will done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflecti

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsToday, we are told to wait on the Lord.  We have confidence, not in ourselves, but we have confidence in the Lord. We wait upon Him, and we know that we will see His goodness here in the land of the living.  Now, there are times when we will be tired of waiting. We can want to give up, give up hope. In those moments, recount to yourself when you have seen His goodness. When He has not failed you. When He has been faithful.  When we remember when He was faithful in the past, we can wait, with hope, towards what He will do and is doing! Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 8

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsCS Lewis once said, “All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”  Today in the prophet, we read that God will renew us, or as I’ve read it in the ESV, He will quiet us in His love. We are looking for peace, we are looking for comfort, we are looking for joy, and hope.  We will never find it in this world, we will only find it in Jesus.  Today, rest in Him.  Find His love.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsPaul gives us repeated passages from the Old Testament today and tells us this. God has been at work, in all this, to bring the Good News to all the world. The Gospel is good news to all who hear it.  God has always been at work, to bring the Good News of Jesus to all.  We have faith in that, and because of that, we have peace, no matter what.  We trust in Him. And that trust is our peace.  Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=569306951You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsToday, we see Jesus’ sermon to His hometown folks.  He reads from Isaiah and shares that the Lord has anointed Him to bring good news to the poor.  This is fulfilled at that moment because Jesus is the fulfillment of that.  He is good news. As I’ve heard it said, if it’s not good news to the poor, it’s not good news.  The temptation of Christmas is to make it about us and not about Jesus.  There is a world all around in need that He has called us to serve. Let’s have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hands and feet to serve.  That is what Christmas calls us to. Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your

Today, we look at Mark 1: 1-8. What does a Christian look like?  We see in our Confirmation Sunday, as these young persons confess and confirm their hope, what a Christian looks like.  Where Jesus is, there is peace.  Peace is found in the person of Jesus Christ.    

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsIn our reading today, we are reminded that Jesus preached peace to those who are near and those who are far. And through the cross, he has ended the division, that is the hostility between us. He doesn't end the disagreements and or the differences, but through the work of Jesus, has ended the hostility. He has come to bring us peace. And He has come that we may be a means of peace, a gift of peace in a world of hostile division.Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage,  Ephesians 2: 13-2, here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readingsToday, the prophet asks us a question. Why are you spending money on that which is not bread and laboring for that which does not satisfy?  We are busy, we are thirsty. But we are not thirsty for one more activity.  We are not thirsty for one more thing to do. We are not thirsty for all the things that we have on our schedule. We are thirsty for the living waters of Jesus. Today, with all the season demands of us, let’s make sure that we are truly living for the right thing this Christmas. Let’s keep our eyes, and our lives focused on Jesus today and each day. Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on yo

Throughout the season of Advent, we’ll have a weekday reflection based on suggested scriptures from a great resource entitled The Common Rule. You can find a calendar of the daily readings here - https://www.thecommonrule.org/advent-readings.  Today, we hear the words of Isaiah, “Comfort.”  I recount how, as I kid I was always puzzled by Mr. Rogers putting on comfortable clothes at the beginning of each episode, but now I find myself doing the exact same thing each day. I put on something comfortable.  Today, God is telling us that His glory has been revealed to us, in Jesus, and that He provides comfort to us.  Today, comfort is found for us all, in Jesus. Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can read today’s passage, Isaiah 40: 1-5, here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568785670You can

Advent teaches us so very much.  It teaches us hope. And peace. And joy.  And love. But above all else, it teaches us trust. Advent, at its core, is about waiting and it is about trust. It is about trusting in God to make all things wait. Advent is about when we remember the waiting of the people of God for Jesus’ first coming. And it is where we wait now for His second coming. Today, we’ll talk a little more about the symbols, what they mean, and what they can teach us. Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. Read Isaiah 9: 2-7 here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=568733641You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. What does that mean?  For some of us, we may be familiar with Advent, but we aren’t sure what it is really about. For others, we may have no idea. Advent is the first season of the church year, and while we talk about it (more tomorrow), today we talk about the church year. What are the seasons?  How do they work? What are they about?  Why should we even care?  I think you’ll find looking more in-depth at the seasons of the church year to be a rewarding spiritual exercise! Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.If you'd like to receive this daily reflection on your phone, text @39110 to 81010 to sign up. You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/