Dear Saints of Valley Church, In John Bunyan’s classic allegory of the Christian life, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and his companion Hopeful are captured by Giant Despair and imprisoned in the dark dungeon of Doubting Castle. Bunyan writes, “Here, then, they lay from Wednesday morning till Saturday night, without one bit of bread, or drop…
Church Blog
Dear Saints of Valley Church, One of our family’s favorite activities for passing the time on long car rides is to play guessing games. When our kids were little, we played “I spy with my little eye” and recently we’ve been playing “Real Life Guess Who,” where one person picks any person alive today (with…
When was the last time you asked your phone for directions? Chances are, it wasn’t that long ago, and you definitely weren’t the only one! Over a billion people use Google Maps every month. I found myself relying on it quite a bit during my sabbatical. It’s amazing how helpful it is just about anywhere…
Dear Saints of Valley Church, One of the great hopes of secular progress was that the demise of religious influence would free civilization from the unwanted feelings of guilt. Moving beyond the antiquated beliefs of a holy God or human sinfulness would allow society to adopt values without the guilt associated with Christian morality. But…
Dear Valley Church Family, This summer our high school and middle school ministries took 58 students to Hume Lake Summer Camp from July 6-12. Hume hosts over 1000 high schoolers and more than 300 middle schoolers each week throughout the summer, and on our final night there, we stood outside under the stars for worship.…
Dear Saints of Valley Church, One of my Christian heroes is C.S. Lewis. From being handed a copy of Mere Christianity as a young believer to reading his later reflections on suffering and pain, to my reading of The Chronicles of Narnia to my children, I believe that the writings of Lewis are among God’s…
Dear Saints of Valley Church, In the corner of the Palatine Museum in Rome hangs an etching on part of a plaster slab discovered as part of the Roman school on the Palatine Hill. This etched graffiti, dating back to around A.D. 200, known as the Alexamenos Graffito, is one of the earliest artistic representations…
We live in a world captivated by survival. Shows like Survivor echo a deep truth: we all face challenges that test our limits—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But while reality TV focuses on alliances, eliminations, and endurance, Psalm 30 points to a deeper narrative: the movement of the heart from independence to dependence, from pride to…
Dear Saints of Valley Church, For most of my life, I’ve lived in California. Our family has been evacuated due to quickly moving fires, I’ve felt my chair rocking back and forth during an earthquake, and we’ve all experienced years of droughts. However, it wasn’t until I was flying back and forth to my seminary…
Dear Valley Family, Thank you for your prayers for a safe return of my wife Grace and my younger son Daniel. They finally flew back from China last Friday after a 5-month separation due to a huge delay of their Visa processing. It is always challenging or sometimes even frustrating to wait “patiently” for God’s…