March 1, 2026
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from Genesis 4:1-4.
God calls Abram and Sarai to leave their home and their homeland for an undisclosed location.
Jesus calls his first disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John to leave their boats, their home, and their families and to follow him. What I often think about is how all of them it seems packed up what they could carry and followed with no question.
I think too of our ancestors who emigrated here from distant lands. They left home and family and all that was familiar to them. They took what few possessions they had and boarded a sailing ship bound for America. It was a long sometimes dangerous journey. They traveled to a place they had never seen before with the hope of beginning a new and better life. They settled in this area and found it important enough to built churches as places to gather, give thanks and to worship a God who had guided them to this land.
Abram had lived in the land of Ur all of his life. His father before him had settled on that land. And now God calls Abram to “leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Abram did as he was called to do and went with only a promise of a great nation and a name that future generations would know and honor for centuries to come. God promised to bless Abram and to make him great with just one condition: Abram had to do what God wanted him to do.
Many of us are asked to follow Jesus, and many of us want to follow Jesus. But I wonder, are we willing to follow Jesus with the conditions he sets for us. Are we willing to follow in total obedience to what Jesus is calling us to do? Are we more apt to follow Jesus when the path goes the way we want it to? Are we willing to follow Jesus when following is demanding of us and our time and the way is unfamiliar to us? Abram and the first disciples went where they were led. That’s not to say that they didn’t stray or question from time to time because they did. Each time that happened they were forgiven for their mistakes and redirected to their calling. God had a grand plan for Abram. Whether we chose to see it or not, God has a grand plan for each of us too. God calls us sometimes to leave what is familiar to us and to challenge us to move into unfamiliar territory in order for us to grow in faith.
Abram and the first disciples walked away from their homes for God’s promise of even greater blessings in the future. As we journey through this Lenten season it is a time to listen for the voice of God nudging us to leave what we know and what is comfortable to move to the unfamiliar and the sometimes uncomfortable. God has his reasons for calling us to follow him. They are not always readily apparent. Our goal as followers of Jesus is to not be so stuck in the familiar and the comfortable that we miss God’s greater plan for us.
May the peace of God be with all of you as you listen for God’s calling for you.
Michael Isaacson
February 22, 2026
Dear friends in Christ grace and peace to you. The text for this week’s message comes from Genesis 3:1-7.
In the previous chapter from Genesis the new couple Adam and Eve, are turned loose into the Garden of Eden by the Lord. They are free to roam, explore and enjoy the garden. They are left with one simple command, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Scripture says that the Lord gave this command to the man. But it doesn’t take long before the couple is tempted. “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” God gives the command to the man but it is the woman who is approached by the serpent. It is the woman who takes the first bite. It is the woman who confirms that this fruit is indeed good. It is the woman who encourages the man to eat of the fruit as well. The serpent told the woman that they would not die as the Lord had said; and they didn’t; at least not in the sense that we view death. The serpent told the woman that their eyes would be opened; and they were. Ironically the only thing their eyes were opened to was the fact that they were naked.
We know this story well. We know too, that the Lord finds the new couple hiding in the bushes because they were naked. Adam is quick to point his finger at Eve for giving the fruit to him to eat. Clearly both Adam and Eve were involved deeply in their disobedience to God. This is a story about temptation and the human weakness to give into temptation. Temptation in itself is not a sin. It does not become a sin until we give in to it. Each of us in tempted in many ways from many different angles every single day of our lives. We might be tempted to stay in bed and let the world pass us by. But we know we have responsibilities to our families and to our neighbors to get up and get moving to serve as we have been created to serve.
Adam and Eve got what they wanted; the knowledge of good and evil. In other words they wanted to be like God. Adam and Eve got what they wanted, but it came at a cost. All too often whether we really think about it or not, we want to be like God. We want to be free to do what we want. But God says that true freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do. We might have the freedom to step out into a busy street in front of a speeding car but we don’t have to be hit to know that it probably won’t end well for us.
Because we believe in the redemption of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection we can ignore the temptations of Satan. We don’t need to do evil to become wise to the world around us. We can look to the cross and the life of Jesus to lead us through this life to a life in eternity.
May the peace of God be with all of you as you look to the cross for strength to fight off temptation.
Michael Isaacson
