Mt. Lassen Community Church

In honor of our own nation’s 250th anniversary celebration this weekend, think of those well–known events of the Revolutionary War, which are so essential in our nation's “origin story”—the Boston Tea Party, Bunker (Breed’s) Hill, Lexington, Concorde, Valley Forge, Crossing the Delaware, Trenton, Cowpens, Saratoga, Yorktown... To our Jewish friends, Exodus 7–15 invite the same patriotism, in the o...

This Sunday, we are going to look at the issue of Pharaoh’s Hard Heart, seen dramatically in Exodus 7–8. Next week, we’ll double back through these chapters and look at the plagues in detail. But for this Sunday, it is all about a “Heart Check”! King David has a good word to mediate on as we prepare for the study on Sunday— Psalm 51 10   Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spi...

The Bible tells the same amazing story over and over: God rescuing folks from impossible and desperate situations. • Job out of a hostage situation and out of the city of Sodom • Jacob out of Laban’s treachery • Joseph out of Potiphar’s home and out of prison • David out of Saul’s maniacal quest to hunt him down • Israel from the clutches of a long train of oppressors in Judges • Hezekiah from def...

Exodus 3 • “Holy" We are going to linger in God’s presence with Moses at the Burning Bush this Sunday. We are going to see God’s Holy… 1 • Fire 2 • Ground 3 • Mission 4 • Name 5 • Grace Ponder this as you prepare for Sunday—a simple, ordinary desert bush was made extraordinary by the presence of God and His holy fire upon it. This is just like the disciples in Acts 2, as the Spirit comes upon thos...

Satan loves the “Moral Dilemma” strategy—where he puts God’s people in impossible situations, where they must choose between obey God and disobeying the Government, which God says we must submit ourselves to. Satan tries to create a “lose–lose” scenario, but God has a way of flipping it around, making it a “win–win.” That is the story we see in Exodus 1&2—Pharaoh tries to institute a genocide, but...

This Sunday we are wrapping up the book of John —unpacking the beautiful chapter 21. The title is “Follow Me!” Jesus says this to Peter in a sweet moment of restoration, after Peter’s tragic denials of his Rabbi on the night of Jesus’ arrest.   The key thing is—this isn’t the first time Jesus told Peter to follow Him! Three years earlier, Jesus told Peter to follow Him, and He’d make Peter a fishe...

GET OFF THE FENCE!!! This is the title of the message for this Sunday. Where am I going with this? We’ve heard some really great messages from Pastor Jeff these past couple of months. How are you doing with the application part? I’ve been asking myself the same question. Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your ways to the Lord; trust Him and He will act.” Do you see where I’m going with this? Are you ready...

The Cross speaks to our greatest needs in life. We have much to unpack in this most critical passage of the entire Bible!

One may almost feel badly for Pontius Pilate. Almost. He faced pressure on all sides. There was no easy solution to the Jesus problem. No matter what he did, he was bound to make a blunder that could cost him his job, or even his life. But he ends up making the worst choice of all in what seemed like a no-win situation—instead of saving Jesus’ life, he turned Him over to His blood–thirsty enemies...

What do we do in a crisis, when our world is falling apart? Quite often, the worst comes out of us. In John 18, as the guards come to arrest Jesus, we see our Savior collected and in control. Everything is unfolding exactly as God planned. Peter, on the other hand, is at his worst. Even after four chapters (John 14–17) of Jesus warning His disciples about what is about to happen and preparing them...

As we’ve been studying Jesus’ words to His disciples in John chapters 14–17, I’m struck by the relevancy of His warning of persecution. Consider John 16:2 • They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. As a Christian teenager, I remember some jokes and mocking about my faith, but never outright persecu...

This week in our midweek Bible study, we considered: John 14:19b • because I live, you will live also! What a fantastic verse to wrap up our Resurrection Sunday week. And this sets up our study for this Sunday: Jesus’ critical exhortation in John 15 to stay connected to Him as the True Vine—the source of life. John 15:1–17 is one of those passages of scripture every Christian should have on their...

Happy Resurrection Sunday, MLCC church family. HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN, INDEED! I’ve been listening to Tim Hughes’ great song, “Happy Day.” Give it a listen. Here are the words— The greatest day in history Death is beaten, You have rescued me Sing it out Jesus is alive The empty cross, the empty grave Life eternal You have won the day Shout it out, Jesus is alive He's alive And oh happy day, happ...

John 13 midweek study

Aloha MLCC family- Coming up with a topic for my last message at MLCC has been a struggle. I wanted it to be an opportunity for some great Bible teaching and a little personal. After a lot of prayer and reflection I realized I had the topic right in front of me. For several weeks before leaving for Hawaii, I had been leading a group of young men through one of my favorite books in the Bible - 1 Ti...