Andy Talks

Today, we continue looking at the Gospel passages for recent Sundays. Today, we’ll look at the passage for this coming Sunday, John 15: 1-8. This is a well-known passage where Jesus tells us that He is the vine, and we are branches. He is our life; apart from Him, we can do nothing. How do we remain in Him?  Jesus tells us that we must abide in Him.  We have tools that God has given us, such as prayer, scripture, communion, worship, and other things.  When we do such things, we remain deeply rooted in the love of Jesus. When we abide in Him, we find our very life and bear much fruit! 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=580537420You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

For the next two days, I’m going to look at the Gospel passages for last Sunday and next Sunday. I’ll go a couple of Sundays without preaching, so I thought it may be interesting to look at these passages. Yesterday was John 10: 11-18. We see Jesus tell us that He is the good shepherd. What does the Good Shepherd do?  He lays down His life for His sheep. That’s how loved you are. Jesus’ life was not taken; he laid it down for you and for me.  Because He loves us. That’s how much value you have. The Good Shepherd gave it all for us.  Never forget that. 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=580537396You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Amos 9 once again tells us of the judgment that is coming. But Amos, like almost every one of the prophets, ends this way - grace. God tells the people that He will restore, He will rebuild, He will replant. He loves them. If you read Amos, you will see this love is not because they are perfect and they get it right, we see this love is because God is good.  He loves His people. He will not give up on His people. He will not forsake His people.  He loves His people.  He loves you today, no matter what.  Today, you are loved.  That is the great hope of the prophets, this reminder that no matter what, God loves 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. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=580378560You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

God continues His rebuke of the people. We see that they have lost their way. Instead of placing God first, instead of placing their faith and religion first in their lives, have have placed the accumulation of wealth first. They are complaining about their faith because they cannot steal from the poor on the Sabbath because they cannot sell.  They have lost their way.  Because of this, there will be a famine.  Not a famine of food, but of hearing the Word of the Lord. They have hardened their hearts so that they cannot hear from the Lord. Let us be careful not to make the same mistake.  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=580378560You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Amos is rebuked by one of the King’s priests today. He is told, you should not be a prophet here.  Go back to your home and prophecy there. However, Amos responds that he is not a prophet. He doesn’t come from a line of prophets.  He was simply called by God to go and speak, so that is what he did. Today, you don’t have to be a preacher to speak. You just need to go where it is that God has called you. Go. Be faithful.  Follow His voice, follow His lead. Go where He sends.  In doing that, you are being faithful.  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=580303526You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Two of the major parts of our walk with God are the notions of forgiveness and grace and of accountability.  We see both of these parts displayed in Amos 7.  We see God relent from punishing the sins of His people. But then we see God take a plumb line, a tool that shows how vertical or straight something is, and measure His people against it. Are they being faithful?  Are they being true?  Are they keeping the covenant? We need to give the Spirit room in our lives to convict us, to show us our sins so that we can repent. We need God’s plumb line, pointing us to righteousness.  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=580213791You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Today, in our reading, God continues His rebuke of Israel. He points to their pride, how they lay on beds of ivory and show no concern for the needs around them. They have even begun to use His call for justice as a tool to harm others. They are seeking more and more and more. They are focused on more wealth, more stuff, and more ways to inflate their pride instead of what God calls them to, more love of Him and more love of their neighbors. We, especially those of us who are middle class, face the same temptation, seeking to gain more instead of love more. 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=579934019You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

In our Sunday sermon from INTERSECTION from April 14, 2024, Andy shares with us from Luke 24: 28-39. In the life of Jesus, we have seen beauty, we have seen grace, mercy, and redemption.  We know it. But now, now we must show it!  

In our reading today, we see one of those famous verses from the prophets - let justice flow down like water and righteousness like an everflowing stream.  God tells us today through Amos that He does not desire the worship or the festivals, but He desires justice.  He desires for us to live out what we pray on Sundays - thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Worship matters, community matters, these things are important. But what God desires most of all is for us to live out that truth of His reign for all the world to know.  It should bother us that God’s kingdom is not being lived out.  We should seek to live in this truth.  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=579697067You can watch this in video form here - https:/

Today, in Amos 5, we see the pain of lament and the hope of grace. The Lord tells the people that judgment is coming.  Because of their sin, their idolatry, and their treatment of the poor, judgment is coming, and it will not be fun. There will be great lament and cries of pain over the powerful and strong judgment of the Lord. But we also see in the same way that there is grace.  If they turn from evil and do good, the Lord will spare them, and the Lord will be gracious. The Lord will show mercy. That is who God is. He will always show grace. Lament and grace.  These are powerful parts of our walk with God! 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=579607466You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

In our April 7, 2024 sermon, Andy shares with us from John 20: 19-31. There is much to unpack and understand here. But in the end, we see here that we have a beautiful story, a story of grace, that the world needs to hear. But before the world can know it, we have to see it.

God today tells the people that He has tried, over and over again, through different methods, to call them back. To correct them from their sin. He uses the “stick and carrot” approach.  He has used the carrot of blessing and the stick of pain, all in hopes of calling His people back home. That’s what He wants, that’s what He desires, for us to return home, for us to be saved, for us to be restored.  As painful as correction can be, it is one of the greatest blessings that we can ever find.  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=579346902You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Today, Amos shares with the people what it is that God rebukes them for. They are not worshiping in the manner and in the way that God desires. They are not going to Jerusalem. They are not giving the sacrifice; they are going to the false high places in the northern kingdom. They also do not take care of the poor among them. Today, we struggle with the same things. When we worship, do we realize that we are not the audience; we are the participants? We give worship, we do not receive.  And do we take time to truly care for the poor?  We struggle, just as they did. May we be faithful in all things! 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=579260320You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Amos continues to pronounce judgment today.  First, we see an additional nation (Moab) that will be judged. But then God turns His judgment to His people. First, Judah has not kept the covenant in the same way that their ancestors did not. And then Israel, the northern kingdom, has done so much (oppressed the poor, immorality, incorrect worship) that God rebukes. God is not trying to scare us in these passages today. He is simply telling us that our actions will have consequences.  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=579154851You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

As we dig into Amos these next few days, we are going to spend some time today first unpacking who he is. He was a shepherd. He was not trained. He was not powerful. He was not from the right place. He was a shepherd whom God laid a word upon.  God called him, and he spoke. God doesn’t just use who we think He will; God will use all of us. God can use you today for amazing things. For great things. For powerful thing.  He wants to use you today, no matter what. We see in Amos who God uses—all of 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. You can read today’s passage here - https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=579098671You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Joel, the prophets, and all of the scripture point us to God’s restoration.  We see in Joel that God will bring judgment against the ones who have persecuted His people. Justice will come. But for Judah, for Jerusalem, restoration will come. The streambeds will flow with water.  The Lord dwells in Zion, and He will bring forth life for all His people. Rejoice, for restoration will come. But we are not the ones who have to do it. God is the one who will do it. God is the one who will bring life. God is the one who will restore. It is His life. We are recipients of it. Not the earners. God is the giver of all good things. 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=579001161You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blo

After following Jesus during Holy Week, today we resume with Joel. When we were last here, we saw God promise a pouring out of His Spirit upon all. This is the passage that Peter used for Pentecost. In today’s passage, we see God remind the people that judgment will come. God sees how His people have been mistreated and abused; He sees how His people have been oppressed by the nations. One day, in God’s time, there will be a day of judgment, where God will bring righteousness upon those who have harmed His people. Today, we can have hope. God sees.  God is aware. God will protect and will intercede for His people.  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=578738658You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

In our Easter message from our Traditional service, Andy shares with us from Mark 16: 1-8. Easter is the dividing point between the old and the next. We have to imagine who God has called us to be and live remembering who that is.

Today, we see the cross and what our Lord endured for us out of His great love.  We see the ugliness, the brutality, the pain of the cross. We see sin placed upon our Lord and what He endured for our sake and for the sake of the world. Yes, Sunday is coming. But let us not be in such a rush to get to the empty grave that we do not stop and ponder what sin has done. He stretched out His arms of love on the cross so that we could come into His saving embrace.  Let us ponder the depth of His mercy today. Mercy for me. And mercy for you.  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=578654852You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/

Jesus gives us two very hard things today.  He models for us how are are to serve. And not just generic service, but service that is hard. Service that is dehumanizing. More than holding open a door, but deeply hard service. Then He tells us how folks will know that we are HIs - that we love. To service and to love. Those are hard. Those are difficult. We can’t do them on our own, but it is only the Spirit working through us. Today, we have our marching orders. We know what we are to do.  We are to serve and to love.  We can only do this through the gift of His Holy Spirit.  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=578574746You can watch this in video form here - https://revandy.org/blog/