Whispering Pines Church

As we return the Gospel of John after this season of advent, we find Jesus restoring a man’s sight who had been blind from birth. There is a great deal to glean from this passage. Jesus heals this man with a very unique and interesting method. He miraculously heals this man on a Sabbath day, which creates tension with the religious authorities. Finally, Jesus teaches the man he has healed that He...

On Sunday, December 28th, we’ll prepare to head into the New Year with a fresh look at the life and teachings of Jesus – based on Scripture from both Old and New Testaments. Paul describes for us in 1 Corinthians 13, and Jesus would model for us with His life – a still more excellent way. Join us as we seek to follow Jesus’ way heading into 2026! -Pastor Nate Roschen

The advent of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of John 3:16. God so loved the world – and so… Christ came to earth. His advent is the manifestation of God’s love for the world. But we must not allow our understanding of God’s love to remain merely at such a large-scale. God’s love for the world was expressed in many small, private, and personal ways. Over the course of His time among us – Christ lov...

There may be no other time of the year where the difference between happiness and joy is more evident. Happiness, as I’m sure you’ve learned, is circumstantial, derived from our experience. Joy is something else entirely, derived from a knowledge of our relationship with God – and His love. This joy is hard-won. Christ earned an eternal joy for all those who look to Him as Lord and Savior at the c...

The world that God created – and the one He desires – is one of peace. But, as we saw last week, this was not the world that Jesus was born into. Over the course of 400 years, Judea had been under the thumb of six other powers. There was no peace, no stability, no comfort to be found. When God moved into the neighborhood – He brought with Him a peace that can only be found in Him. He was called th...

What happens when God moves into the neighborhood? For us, this question is no longer a hypothetical – Jesus Christ, the Son of God – took on flesh and came to earth. He walked our ground, knew our temptations, felt our vulnerabilities. He moved into the neighborhood. This advent season we will explore the comfort, as well as the challenge of this fact. What are the implications of God coming into...

Join us this Sunday as we read the passage of the adulterous woman in John 8. Jesus is being pressed by the Pharisees to lay judgement on an adulterous woman. In the end, Jesus tells her “Then neither do I condemn you,” Why did He not condemn her? Jesus has a plan for this woman and for you and me. God so desperately wants your presence with him in eternity that Jesus willingly took on the judgeme...

Throughout the world – people are hungry. We are familiar with the heartbreaking stories – and the pictures of people who are starving for food. But that’s not the whole picture. Many of those same poor people - - and many rich people with an abundance of food - - and people who have healthy families – who have experienced great accomplishment and gained power and position and the praise of other...

In the New Testament, Paul exhorts his audience to be thankful approximately 45-50 times. Let that sink in for just a moment. Why? Why do followers of Christ need to be reminded to live a life of gratitude? In this life we live in the “already but not yet.” Somewhere between the pavement and the stars. We have been granted salvation by God, our eternal life with Him has begun, and yet we still exp...

In John 6 the season of Passover is approaching, and as the people of Israel reflect on God’s deliverance from Egypt, the passing through the Red Sea and God’s provision of manna from heaven – Jesus returns to Galilee, feeds people with bread and fish miraculously, and walks upon the water. This is what God does - the sorts of actions that define Him. He feeds, protects, rescues and guides – thoug...

This week we follow Jesus to the pool at Bethesda. Here Jesus encounters a number of people on the fringes of society - the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. Through engaging them in conversation – He learns that one of the men is a paraplegic, an invalid for 38 years. The challenges of a paraplegic in the twenty-first century pale in comparison with a person in the first century. His life would...

Few stories in Scripture share the radical and counter-cultural nature of Jesus like John 4. Here we find the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Responses to this story have been varied. Some are genuinely troubled by the words they exchange, others find radical hope, while many more are confused – such was certainly the case with Jesus’ own disciples. What we have here is a story...

This week, in John 3, we are met with story of Jesus and Nicodemus. This is another story that is exclusive to the gospel of John – Nicodemus is never mentioned outside of this book. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, comes to Jesus in the night, in order to gain understanding. He believes that Jesus is a teacher who has come from God – because no one could perform the signs Jesus d...

In this second chapter of John – Jesus and His disciples (just four of them at this point) are invited to a wedding. Jesus is not separate from the people. He is no celebrity. In attending this wedding, He isn’t leading or officiating the service. He simply attends. And what happens there will be understood as His first miracle. A miracle that would communicate what He had come to the earth to do....

This Sunday, Rachel Ney will be coming to share during service. Rachel grew up in our church and now serves with Unto, the humanitarian ministry of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ). For the past two years, she has been serving as a missionary intern and is now building her ministry partner team in preparation for long-term ministry. Rachel will be sharing with us this Sunday about her next steps as...

The fourth Gospel is the legacy of John’s ministry – and it is no less beloved today than it was in the earliest years of the faith. This week we introduce this book, as well as its author. Immediately, we’re ushered into a very different setting from Matthew, Mark and Luke. John’s Gospel is passionate, definitive, and bursting with literary energy. In the pages of this book, we will be introduced...

Last week we began a discussion around marriage and relationships. We saw Scripture define how and why we are relational creatures. Our relational identity finds its origin in our creation in the image of a relational God. This week we turn to praxis – what do we do with this? How can our relationships reflect our faith? How can our marriages tell of God? And how do we, as a community of faith – u...

The first thing I want to convey in describing this two-week series on marriage & relationships is that nearly everything that I have to say about marriage will be applicable to relationships and friendships. In this two-week series we will be taking a look at God’s desire for Christian relationships and friendships. Our God is a relational God and He has made us to be relational creatures. All pe...

Worship is often used to describe certain parts of our lives, whether it is our daily devotions, our time at church on Sunday, or our time in the car listening to worship music. Psalm 96 explains the life of a believer in light of the God we worship. With the numerous distractions of our day-to-day life and the multiple directions we are so often pulled, this psalm reminds us to remain fixed on ou...

In this final message in our series on prayer – we come to the conclusion of Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17. Here Jesus prays for you. And what He prays for us – is that which we long for. I don’t know that it has ever been fully realized – at least in our eyes and from our perspective – but it’s necessary and vital to our testimony. He prays for our unity. Unity and peace have very differ...

This week, we continue to seek out the heart of Jesus as He prays for us in John 17. What we find Him praying for is fascinating – unexpected. He prays in this chapter for protection for His followers as they serve as His witnesses and ambassadors in this world. But the focal point is always around one thing: Our witness. Christ never guarantees freedom from illness, pain, loneliness, or death. Hi...

The prayers we’ve looked at so far in this series have been both memorable and memorized. These prayers have been given by God for His people to pray. They are instructive, telling us more about who God is and what He desires. This week we begin to look at a prayer that is less familiar, but no less important. In Christ’s high priestly prayer, offered in John 17 – Jesus prays for us. Join us as we...

One of the great blessings of praying a prayer like the Lord’s Prayer is that we join with generations of Christians who have prayed this prayer over the centuries. It is a prayer that looks forward, and acknowledges that history is moving in a direction. This prayer – offered by Jesus in response to a direct question by His disciples as they sought to know how to pray – is loaded with instruction...

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate Community Sunday – a week where our focus is on the fact that the gospel we pin our hopes on is meant to go beyond these walls. This week’s message will take a look at the compelling nature of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it’s the simpler stories of Jesus that convey the most about the depth of Jesus’ love. In Matthew 9, Jesus is in a hurry. He’s rarely in a hurry, n...

“Jesus loves me” is one of the earliest songs about the Christian faith that many of us ever learned. The song is simple and catchy, and reminds us of God's ability to love and care for us. Not long after we learn this song and important concept – we’re taught that we are to, in turn, love God. We’ve grown up with this understanding – we’ve never known teaching about God apart from it. But the con...