God's Presence

Pastor Bill Bush · Mar 29, 2026

Good Friday — the day Jesus was tortured, bore the full weight of human sin, and died on the cross — is called 'good' because in that darkness God accomplished the deepest possible good: He absorbed His own judgment so we would not have to, and He tore the curtain separating us from His presence. Pastor Bill argues that this same logic applies to every dark day in our lives: when we remember the cross, cry out honestly like Jesus did, and walk through the torn curtain into relationship with God rather than staying in the rubble of our circumstances, the darkest days can do the deepest good in us.

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 8, 2025

In Matthew 6, Jesus expects His followers to fast — not as a performance to impress others or pressure God — but as a deliberate act of stepping away from good, necessary, or neutral things in order to enter His presence honestly. Fasting exposes the coping mechanisms and comfort idols we trust more than God, reveals the gap between believing in Jesus and actually believing Jesus, and creates the space for Him to exchange our self-reliance for God-reliance, producing the peace and transformation that no spiritual activity done for show can ever deliver.

Pastor Bill Bush · May 26, 2025

In this closing message of the 'Rhythms of Peace' series, Pastor Bill argues that reading the Bible is not about mastering a rule book or wielding scripture like a magic incantation. Using the story of Elijah's burnout and restoration in 1 Kings 19, he shows that spiritual knowledge alone does not guarantee peace. Real, lasting peace flows from an ongoing, honest, relational encounter with the God who meets us with grace, speaks to us in a whisper, and reminds us that we are never alone — so that we can effectively wield the sword of the Spirit and fulfill the legacy He has planned for us.

Pastor Pat McCalla · Feb 14, 2021

From the Garden of Eden to the tabernacle in the wilderness, from the incarnation of Jesus to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and all the way to the new creation described in Revelation, the entire Bible tells one story: an ineffable God who needs nothing and no one has always desired to dwell with — and ultimately within — His people. The Hebrew word mishkan (tabernacle) is the thread that ties this whole story together, revealing that God's deepest longing is not just to be near us but to be in us.

Pastor Bill Bush · Jan 19, 2021

When life's hardest moments close in on us — like Pharaoh's army closing in on the Israelites at the Red Sea — our instinct is to escape back to what felt safe and familiar. But Pastor Bill Bush argues from Exodus 14 that God's purpose in those moments is never merely to rescue us from pain; it is to invite us into deeper trust and engagement with Him. Using the principles Moses gave the Israelites — stay calm, stand still, and get moving — the sermon calls us to stop reacting in fear, fix our eyes on where God is working, and then move boldly in the direction He is leading.