Peace Seymour Weekly Messages

The last stage of life is one that we fail to look forward to, and that we often dread. We devalue the elderly and old in our world today, rather than valuing their worth, wisdom, and wellbeing. This is stage where we look back on our lives, reflect, have regrets, and begin to become isolated from the people and things that we love. Rather than enjoying this time and finding fulfillment in it, we...

Life doesn't always go how we plan. Often, the worst possible things seem to happen at the worst possible times. Sometimes, we wake up and we question everything that we've done and that we've worked towards. We ask, "How did I get here? Is this really what I want? What if I had done this or that?" We hit a crisis, a crossroads, and we don't know what to do next. Regardless of whatever crisis you...

You have to reach the next level. You want to move up the ladder. You need to get that raise for your family to achieve their goals. You're behind on your life plan and you need to move up, or find a place you can move up. That new house with the pool is calling your name. If you can resonate with that, you're in the achieving stage of your life, and you are striving for the next best thing to rea...

Life as a young family is hard. You may have to struggle just to make it to the next mile. You're life is turned upside down. You're torn in every direction, every which way. You don't know what you're doing or what your next step is, and it feels like everything is on the line! This is the stage of life, you have to grind through. At the same time, this stage of life is a gift. It's a gift from G...

The young life is about adventure. You strike out on your own. You experience everything you can. You become independent. You get the most out of life. Yet you can also stray from your roots. You can get into trouble. You make mistakes. You can even get hurt. You can also stray away from your faith, and who God has made you to be. No matter where you go or what you do, remember your roots. Go with...

Normally bad news is just that. It's bad news. All too often in this world, we get just bad news. Things didn't go how we want. Something tragic happened. Life didn't pan out how we wanted it to. The job went to someone else. We lost the person that we loved the most. Bad news is all around us. Bad news happens often, and yet even though it is rare, good news happens too. Easter Sunday is all abou...

Love is hard to find in this world. Love of a man for his friend. Love in families. Love in relationships that withstands anything. True love is hard to come by. Rather, we often as sinful people, end up loving and serving ourselves or loving things that we place above others. Jesus calls us to love and serve and care for others. We pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, we would love a fraction of...

It's easy to be drawn towards the glorious and attractive things in this world. It's easy to look at spectacles, brilliant displays, and amazing things, and turn away from the ordinary, normal, and mundane. The triumphal entry seems triumphant and glorious! Yet, all those who praised him would soon betray Jesus. We are often more concerned about the world, and what is great in the world, rather th...

Often in this life, things feel hopeless. Happy endings only exist in fairy tales. Life's bumps and pitfalls rock our worlds. Life is tough. Losses cannot be won back. What's gone is gone, and we cannot get it back. Hopes and dreams are just that, hopes and dreams that don't come true. We simply move on, and deal with life as it is. Difficult. Bleak. Yes, even hopeless. Jesus shows that his love e...

Our sin often clouds our faith and our spiritual vision. When we are preoccupied with what matters to us or what God does not desire for us, we start to not see clearly. We become confused, lost, and eventually, we can become spiritually blind. We retain our spiritual vision and faith, by seeing Jesus love for us, and realizing he came to save us. Jesus came to make things clear to those who are w...

All of us are outsiders to God. We do not follow him as well as we should. We do not live as he calls us to. We are outsiders in many ways, to God's love and his calling to live as his people. We walk in the darkness of sin, do what we please, but we also crave something more. Jesus loves even the outsider. He loves the Samaritan woman, though she is undeserving of his love. He takes time to talk...

Some things are difficult to believe. What Jesus offers, can often sound too good to be true. How can water and word in baptism do everything that we claim? The Holy Spirit really works and acts in us? I believe in Jesus, but it's easy to doubt and get confused with some of these teachings. They sound like a fairy tale. Too good to be true. God's power and work is not capped at our earthly, human...

Often in life, we feel like nobodies. We feel as if we are simply another face in a world that does not really care. Most of us are not famous, or well-known, or important. We even feel as if no one cares for us. We feel alone. We feel unimportant. What could God really even want with us? Jesus sees you. He cares about you. He loves you. He calls you to come and follow him. In his calling, Jesus d...

We are sinners. We are born, live, and die, in sin. As enfleshed humans living in the aftermath of the fall of humanity into sin, we are in a condition of sin. This means death. Our flesh will one day break down, fall apart, and we will die. This is the reality of the world. This world is in sin. We are in sin. We will die because of our sin. Jesus came to take away our sin. As John the Baptist sa...

We allow all kinds of things to shape and change us. We are formed and conformed by and to the world. Our sinful hearts look for something to worship, and we end up worshipping all kinds of things around us. This is evident in how we live apart from how God has called us to. We are slaves to our hearts, and we live according to what we love, which is often, not God. By the Holy Spirit, God gives u...

We are to put to death the sin that lives inside of our hearts. Yet, we constantly give into the sins of the world when we allow our phones, or the entertainment industry, or the music we listen to, or the shows we watch, shape and form who we are and what's important. What we hear and listen to influences us. While it's not bad to engage with media and the world around us (as long as we do not gi...

We easily get swept up into playing political games. We follow the news and listen to it every day. We only vote for this party. We argue with each other and make snap judgments about others because of their political leanings. We hate and even fight with others, and slander our leaders that God has appointed. We even look to these political figures as messiahs who will save our country. In other...

We love our traditions, in church and at home. These traditions are good. Yet at times, they can obscure the good news of Jesus. We fail to teach our traditions well to our children and others. We refuse to change our old ways when they no longer convey the same message. We hold on to the things that we like or that we prefer, and we fail to pick up new practices that are more helpful. We do not h...

We think of glory from a human perspective. We want to have glory and power and control in our lives and in the eyes of others. We want to be lifted up, talked up, and looked up to. We want earthly glory. The problem is, earthly glory is not the same as heavenly glory, and we are seeking that which is not life. We don't want to suffer or be 'weak' or experience difficulty for the sake of the Gospe...

We are blessed to own many good things. We have many possessions that we love and cherish and that bring us comfort and joy. Many of these things actually can help us benefit others. Yet, we often value these things more than we should. We are drawn into a consumerism mindset, where we overvalue the stuff we have, we are consumed by it, and we want the next best thing. As a result, our lives revol...

Often the people we associate with shape and change how we live. Good company can point us together towards a good life and behavior that is God pleasing. Yet at the same time, our friends, family, and those closest to us can point us in the wrong direction. They don't have the same values, the same beliefs, or the same priorities. This is significant, because it means we can be shaped by those th...

Merry Christmas! Check out this special message for Christmas Day from Pastor Alarik. Christ is born!

There are bad things that happen in this world. There are frightening things. We don't feel secure or safe in this world, because bad things happen not only to bad people, but to all people. There's wars, violence, storms, disasters, and all kinds of bad things in this world. What we need is safety and security. Our God gives us that safety and security in Jesus. We are his people, and he is our a...

Jesus comes to earth, to join us in the dirt of this world, get dirty in our sin, and show us who our God truly is.