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"I didn't feel the Holy Spirit there." Or "That moved me." Or what about, "That church is very spirit-filled." What does that mean? What was the Holy Spirit promised for? Is it to build an emotional space for believers? Or what did Jesus say? There's also a ditch on both sides. Perhaps when people "rejoice in the Holy Spirit," this doesn't mean believers will be cold, rigid and stoic. Dean Kalmukos brings this 4th entry to the Cross Correction Series.

Christ DID commission us to be sharing Him with those around us. How do we do it if we're not moving about the country like the Disciples did? One such way to think about it is to B.L.E.S.S. people. Be Prayerful. Listen to others. Eat and develop social relationships. Serve them, and then Share with them. Asst. Supt. of the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Alan Weinacht shares this message.

Nobody should look at the Cross and say, “Wow. That’s brutal. Well, how much do I owe God to get saved?!” That’s not just stupid, that’s offensive! That’s absolutely offensive! Paul's logic in Galatians 3 is “If you profess Christ to save you, why not profess Christ to continue to save you?!”

Right? Where does Christ say, where does Jesus say, “Accept my Son for salvation, but once you’re saved, start up that self-propelled Law engine so we can make sure you get into heaven.” No!

God made image bearers, not workers. We don’t generate, we reflect. We show God’s grace. It goes back to love, more than fear. It goes back to reflection not generation. It goes back to a fruitful garden, not a mechanical manufacturing plant.

If we take this reality that Christ did this for us! Once and for all! Salvation! And we put it up alongside the reality that somehow, some way, some people die in their sickness… we must ask, “Why?” We must ask, does this contribute to the “Should I go up to the altar again to see if I’m really saved?"

Sometimes bad odors get acclimated to our senses when our body takes over and utilizes "nose blindness." It's our body's way of considering a threatening smell non-threatening, and thus telling our brains to forget it. False teaching creeps in that way, and what happens when false teachings have persisted subtly for generations so much so our spiritual noses have developed its own nose blindness to it?

The Bible is about Jesus. And despite Jonah's glaring faults, Jesus voiced the ministry of Jonah only positively. That should color our interpretation of the prophet, and point us - as always - back to Jesus.

“Punishment? What’s that? You still believe that, Pastor? That there will be a judgment? A day of reckoning?” The people of Nineveh, firstly unaware of Yahweh, believe this man Jonah upon his entrance! We are, of course, materialists. That is, we tend to believe what we subjectively see, what can be detected with our five senses… So maybe it was easier and more in common for these ancient people to believe, interact and worship gods and spirits of all kinds. Perhaps they were more quick to believe Jonah about this God and His threat of punishment. But IT IS as Jesus called His own hearers out in Israel hundreds of years after Jonah: “This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign…" “You expect us to believe that You, flesh. Blood. Homely. Before our eyes… is all powerful? Has authority? Has bearing on our lives? Prove it!” They demanded a sign “but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”

NWYM Supt. Jim LeShana joined Woodland Friends Church this morning in person to encourage us to be building together! (Audio was not captured first few minutes, look at Woodland Friends Church YouTube Page for this sermon if interested).

Is disobedience worth it? “Well. I don’t have to answer to God, so.” Yeah, now. And if He isn’t sending a fish after you that isn’t lucky-you. You’re missing out on so much more if He’s not reeling you in anyways. It’s telling God no to adventure. It’s telling God no to something both hard, and so totally worth it when you’re in the center of God’s will, plan and purposes. It’s telling God no to the fullness of joy. Listen: you can be in the most comfortable, lively, vibrant, distracting place ever with a million things at your fingertips, and inside you’ll still hear the screaming about the void in your life. Because you’ve maybe gone down, down, down to Joppa so as to go to Tarshish, instead of choosing Nineveh. And no matter how inviting Tarshish seems or how ominous Nineveh is, God has ways of making Nineveh your joy anyways, right?

Reading the text I was supposed to be preaching on - and even beginning a sermon - maybe felt less than accomplished. I was distracted. When I finally brought those distractions to God and asked, "So what does a smelly bunch of sailors on a boat in a storm have to do with anything? Why is this even in the Bible, period?!" God told me why!

I want to share with you a tale of three storms. Because as we compare these very similar storms in the Bible, we get a glimpse of the Gospel actually. Jonah says his life is required to calm the storm. For the storm to be calmed in Jesus’ story? His Word was all that’s required. And in Paul’s storm? It requires faith. “Believe me, God said I and the entire boat will be saved. Just the boat will be lost.” Life was required. Christ’s Word was required. Faith is required. This is the Gospel.

Jonah is not lukewarm. In other words there’s still a passion. He’s not lazy. He’s not indecisive or struggling with unbelief. It’s simply that he’s adamantly against what God wants him to do. And while he’s not willing to travel 550 miles to a city, rather he’d board a ship and sail 2500 miles away from everything and everyone he’s ever known to just disappear. All because God has told him to arise, and I don’t know about you, but unlike me, Jonah is at least rising, right?

Several-year congregant, Todd Metzger, gives his testimony at Woodland Friends Church, July 19th 2026.

There are some recurring mentions in Revelation of an enemy "who spilled the blood of the saints and prophets." It seems like Jesus was speaking to similar enemies in His times (the Gospel accounts). Perhaps they are one and the same, and if so, it opens up our understanding of Revelation a little bit more.

First Peter 1:23 says we have born again of incorruptible seed through the Word of God? What is the Word of God? Jesus, who is the Word become flesh? The prophetic word more fully confirmed delivered to us by the Apostles? Yes, and more. Much more. More than ink and words on pages, it has power, and the latter epistles in our Bibles unpack this for us.