Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 reminds us that Jesus doesn’t want to just visit our lives, He wants to live there. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…” That word dwell means to “inhabit and make Himself at home.” Jesus isn’t looking for a weekend stay-cation 🙂 He desires to inhabit and be...
This Sunday, November 2, I’m stirred in my heart to teach from Matthew 18. As I was thinking about this message, these three words dropped into my mind: Clarity. Purity. Unity. In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches about relationships—how to handle offenses, forgive others, and walk humbly before God and people. The disciples asked Jesus who...
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!”2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT I’m so human … what about you? I remember as a non-Christian being so adamantly opposed to Christians—but not necessarily...
“But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. . . . The seed that fell on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”Matthew 13:16, 23 NIV How do you feel...
“…for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.”1 Thessalonians 3:7-8 ESV My suffering or distress has been NO WHERE CLOSE to Paul’s. But wowzah! This week’s stomach bug had me sleeping in...
“You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”1 Thessalonians 1:6 NIV This Sunday, I will be teaching about God’s will from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. As we consider the context of the beginning of Paul’s letter to...
“For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ …”Romans 9:3a NIV Like every individual verse in the Bible, Paul’s words need to be read in its context. Who, as a disciple of Jesus, would want to be “cut off from Christ”? At first glance, Paul’s words are intense and...
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36 NIV) Reading verse 36, the red-letter words of Jesus, is easier to obey if I feel sorry for the person. Or if I know that person or have a friendship with them. Let’s consider the context of this passage. In a sermon to His disciples...
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 NIV What does it mean to worship God in...
“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”2 Corinthians 3:2-3 WOWZAH! Imagine...
Pastor Rod has been in ministry for more than 38 years. He has shepherded and overseen a variety of ministries, including children’s, youth, college, community/missions, discipleships/small groups, worship and the arts, as well as assisting and consulting with several church planters. Since moving back to Honolulu from Kansas City in 2000, Rod has served on Pastor Wayne Cordeiro’s executive team at New Hope O‘ahu. He has pastored the New Hope Mānoa ‘ohana since January 2015.
