Biblically Based, Christ Centered, Caring Community in Annapolis, MD
There is a famous moment in the winter of 1619 when the philosopher Rene Descartes retreated alone to a small, stove-heated cabin and decided he would rebuild all of human knowledge from scratch, entirely by himself, entirely from within. Out of that solitary exercise came his celebrated phrase: “I think, […]
There is a verse many of us learned as children, one so familiar it might slip past us without much thought. Proverbs 3:5 calls us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and to not lean on our own understanding. Simple enough, right? But familiarity has a way […]
Words are everywhere. They flood our screens, fill our ears, and shape our relationships in ways we rarely stop to consider. We live in an age of unprecedented communication, and yet by nearly every measure, human relationships are not flourishing. Conflict is rising. Trust is eroding. Families are fracturing. Something […]
We live in an era unlike any other in human history. Information surrounds us at every turn. News feeds refresh by the second, search engines answer questions before we finish typing them, and artificial intelligence can generate entire essays in moments. We were promised that access to information would solve […]
There is a passage in C.S. Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters” that should stop every Christian cold. In it, the senior demon Screwtape coaches his apprentice nephew Wormwood on the most effective strategy for pulling a person away from faith. His advice is not to tempt someone into a dramatic, catastrophic […]
What do you do when you do not feel joyful? It sounds like a simple question, but for most of us, it cuts right to the heart of something we quietly wrestle with. We read words like “rejoice always” in Scripture and feel a strange mixture of conviction and confusion. […]
There is a version of church that looks polished from the outside. Everyone smiles at the right moments, the music lands well, and the service ends on time. But beneath that surface, the real work of being a community of believers is something far messier, far more demanding, and far […]
There is a strange irony at the heart of modern wedding culture. Couples will spend tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours planning a single ceremony, pouring meticulous attention into flowers, venues, and seating charts, while giving almost no thought to the decades of marriage that follow. The ceremony, […]
The word “sin” is making a comeback. You can find it popping up in secular news articles, cultural commentary, and everyday conversation. There is just one problem: most of the time, the people using it have quietly emptied it of its actual meaning and refilled it with something far more […]
There is a technique that experienced wedding photographers learn early in their craft. When the music begins and every guest rises to catch the first glimpse of the bride, the photographer does not turn with the crowd. Instead, the camera swings in the opposite direction, toward the groom. Because the […]
Death has a way of stopping us in our tracks. Whether it arrives suddenly or after a long season of suffering, it confronts us with questions that no amount of distraction, achievement, or comfort can ultimately silence. What happens to the people we love when they die? Is there anything […]
What does it mean to be successful? Ask that question to almost anyone shaped by modern culture, and the answers will sound remarkably similar. Fame. Recognition. A platform. Followers. The ability to walk into a room and have people know your name. We live in a world where algorithms reward […]
There’s a peculiar paradox at the heart of Christian faith: the promise of abundant joy coexisting with the guarantee of suffering. We’d much rather line up for glory than for affliction, yet Scripture consistently tells us that both are integral to the authentic Christian experience. This tension between joy and […]
There’s something profoundly unsettling about standing before a mirror that tells the truth. We can adjust the lighting, change the angle, or simply walk away—but the reflection remains honest. The Word of God functions much like that truthful mirror, revealing not just who we are, but who we’re becoming with […]
The Christian church has weathered many storms throughout its history, but perhaps none more damaging than leadership scandals. From the excesses and corruption that sparked the Protestant Reformation to the modern-day falls of prominent pastors, the pattern repeats itself with troubling regularity. Greed, abuse of power, sexual sin, compromise with […]
The world is vast, and humanity is diverse. Yet one thing unites every person on earth: our desperate search for hope—the kind of hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. But here’s a sobering reality: out of the 8.3 billion people alive today, approximately 3 billion have never […]
What defines you? In a world obsessed with identity labels—your ethnicity, political affiliation, career, or personal preferences—there’s a deeper truth that transcends all these surface markers. Long before you took your first breath, before you made any choice or decision, God loved you and chose you. This isn’t just encouraging […]
The air crackles with possibility on Pentecost Sunday. It’s the day we remember when God poured out His Spirit on all flesh—a moment that changed everything. What happened on that ancient day in Jerusalem wasn’t just a historical event to commemorate; it’s a living reality that defines who we are […]
Prayer. For many Christians, the word itself brings a familiar wave of guilt. We know we should pray more. We feel inadequate about our prayer lives. We compare ourselves to spiritual giants and come up short. But what if we’ve been missing the entire point? The Early Church and the […]
A summary of the teaching from Acts 2:42 | Devoted Series For years, I didn’t think much about the Lord’s Supper. That’s the honest confession by Bret at the beginning of Sunday’s teaching — and it’s one that many Christians would quietly recognize in themselves. We come to faith, and […]
A summary of the teaching from Acts 2:42-47 | Devoted Series There is a scene in the film Cast Away that is almost unbearable to watch. Chuck Noland, stranded alone on a deserted island, paints a face on a volleyball, names it Wilson, and begins talking to it as though it were […]
There’s a profound ceremony that takes place whenever a new monarch is crowned in the United Kingdom. At a crucial moment during the coronation, the head of the Church of Scotland presents the Bible to the sovereign with these weighty words: “The Bible is the most valuable thing this world […]
There’s something haunting about the story of Christopher McCandless, the young man who ventured into the Alaskan wilderness seeking ultimate freedom and self-discovery. Adopting the alias “Alexander Supertramp,” he pursued increasing isolation from society, believing he could find meaning in radical independence. His story ended in tragedy. Most of us […]
There’s a fundamental truth that changes everything about how we approach our spiritual lives: we are not Old Covenant believers. We are New Covenant people, and that distinction matters more than we often realize. The Promise That Changes Everything In Acts 1, Jesus gives his disciples a clear instruction: “Wait […]
There’s something powerful about vivid memories—those moments frozen in time that we can recall with crystal clarity. The way a particular song transports us back to a specific moment. The first time we truly saw someone who would change our lives forever. These memories aren’t just mental photographs; they’re experiences […]