Woodland Friends Church

In the pioneering days of the Old West, one Quaker from Honey Creek Monthly Meeting in Iowa Yearly Meeting heads out west, envisioning a Friends Yearly Meeting in Oregon. Fifteen years after he arrived, already 7 churches were established and the Oregon Yearly Meeting began. In 1900, another settlement in the remote hills of Idaho began it's own meeting of Friends.

From Pendle Hill, to the Americas, Quakers took off. However, after the movement settled, an institution took over. It went from a lived-out theology, to humanitarian aid. When the Great Awakening came, it took some Quakers back to its roots, and others to imagined roots.

In the middle of the English Civil war in the 1640s, one lonely, young traveler learns from the Bible that He has a present teacher, counselor, and comforter, and most of all Savior, who resides in Him. When he knew it, his heart leapt for joy!

We come to the end of Ruth to find that it has not been about solely about two widows and a righteous redeemer, but so much more. We find that it's been always pointing to the greater Redeemer, the Son of David: Jesus Christ!

For the only time in the book of Ruth, main characters Naomi and Ruth are nowhere to be seen, but their redemption is the main point. Boaz is redeeming them through the Law. It reminds us of another Redeemer...

Nearing the end of the harvest seasons, Ruth and Naomi could be put back to square one if their plan doesn't work with Boaz. Could it have been though, all along, that Boaz's generosity and grace towards Ruth (and Naomi) came from a heart of love, and no heart of selfishness?

Ruth brings to both the physical and spiritual table absolutely nothing... yet she is accepted whole-heartedly, and blessed abundantly. So it is with every sinner who comes to the Kingdom of God.

Ruth has left all she ever knew to the Kingdom of God. What can she expect? Is it bitter judgment as Naomi thinks, or is it abundance and refuge? Do YOU think that God's hand is against you, when it is really stayed by Jesus?

Have you ever wanted a clean slate? To start again? Has life ever felt so messy, and you saw no way out?! The God of the Bible is the God of redemption and love and HOPE! This is what Naomi hears in the middle of pagan, godless Moab, and perhaps it's what YOU need to hear today!

We open up the book of Ruth to find a sinner, sinning, in response to God's judgment for sinning. His sin leaves disaster in his wake and disobedience leads to death and tragedy. Where is the Redeemer?!

The idea that Jesus bodily resurrected was just as hard to believe, and hard to overcome for His contemporaries as it is for us. No one resurrects! BUT... Jesus did. And if He did, what does that mean?

The morning the women came to anoint Jesus, they found that they were too late! He was already risen! But we also see that these women were expecting to do THEIR act of devotion, and instead were commanded to go above and beyond their original intentions... Were they faithful?

In the parable of the prodigal son, there were two lost people. In this sermon we examine the second of two; the religious lost person. This is easily the easiest sin that "veteran Christians" can get. Have you forgotten and forsaken the sweet Gospel?

Many of us have prodigal relatives... and perhaps we bathe in the hope found in the parable of the prodigal son. What does this parable really say? And where is our hope firmly placed?

Philosopher Bertrand Russell calls Jesus a False Prophet, basing it off of Jesus's statements about His coming on the clouds before His generation passed. What Russell right? Since Jesus did not return in the Second Coming, IS He a false prophet?

Jesus says that He's coming on the clouds, and sending out angels to gather His elect. What does that look like? How do we couple this with the fact that Jesus said He will come before His contemporary generation passes.

The Abomination of Desolation, the Great Tribulation, are these end time events? Why does Jesus say all these things will pass "within this generation"? Study in Mark 13 to hear that Jesus saves His people!

Part 2 through Mark 13; Jesus gives His disciples on the Mount of Olives, prophecy, a prediction of events to come in 70 AD, that the rest of the Scriptures speak to in terms of fulfillment. We find that the church's persecution goes back to its roots, yay, even it's founder.

On the mount of olives, Jesus gave His easily longest dialogue of prophecy to His disciples. What was He referring to? Is of things yet to come, or things already passed for us? "When will these things be?"