Peace Seymour Weekly Messages

It's easy to become lost in this world. Whether we intentionally stray from God, seeking to run from him, or we find ourselves slowly drifting and tempted from him, we all can feel lost. When the things we hope give us purpose and freedom are taken from us, that is when we are lost. We seek other things to rescue us, strengthen us, give us freedom, give us what we desire, but these all fall flat a...

In our world, there is much brokenness. Much is damaged, destroyed, hurt, and killed. Things that can go wrong, often do go wrong. We have worries, fears, and worst case scenarios that often become realized. When they do, we wonder, what next? What are we to do? How do we recover? What's our next step? What now? We do not need to fear what will come next. We know that our God has come, that Jesus...

We can often feel as though we are alone. We are broken people, unlovable, outside the love and affections of others, our friends, family, and even God's love. We despair that we are on our own, attempting to make it through life without the love, support, and help of others. Yet in the church, in God's family, we are never alone. Rather we are invited to the table, that is, to God's table. We are...

Our lives are full of pain. We can easily become bitter about this. Where is God? Why won't he act? What did I do to deserve this? Why am I being punished? We feel a sense of injustice, just as Job did. We feel abandoned by God even. As if he has left us and is nowhere to be found. We do deserve suffering in this world, because we have brought sin into it. Yet, we know that God does not punish us...

We often think that faith is a personal, static thing. Once we get confirmed, we can coast in our church life and community for the rest of our lives. We know all the stuff we need to, we've 'arrived' or 'graduated' church, and now we simply punch our 'church card' once a week (or month, or year). Yet, we are called to grow not only in faith and knowledge of God and his word, but in our practice a...

We often desire to prove and argue our faith with others. This can be a great practice and skill as people learn about our faith. Yet in our world and culture today, people cannot be argued into faith. Many have tried and failed to use 'traditional apologetics' to prove that Jesus lived, died, rose again, and is coming back soon. Still, many disbelieve, make excuses to not believe, and they simply...

Style, practice, and form of worship often is given too much emphasis in our world today. We church shop, have preferences, and pick apart good and salutary worship, both in a 'contemporary' and 'traditional' style. Rather than seek what is best for the community and for those in worship, we argue, debate, and resent those who practice the faith a certain way. All things are lawful for us as peopl...

The church is supposed to be a caring community. Yet, we often come off callous, uncaring, and ambivalent to the needs of each other and our neighbors. People come expecting a caring community, and yet no one greets them or shows them hospitality. People need help, but feel they cannot ask for it, and no one asks them if they need it. Our individualism and self-centeredness outweighs Jesus' call t...

In life, there is much that we base our lives on. We are driven and motivated by money, ambition, necessity, pleasure, etc. We make decisions and act based on earthly motives and we make these things the most important thing, or we at least act as if they are most important. How often do we live on the basis of these things rather than on the basis of the saving action of Jesus Christ? Christ is t...