Today’s message is inspired in part by the new movie HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, based on the well known book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. Todd is Pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska. He is the father of Colton Burpo, who during an emergency appendectomy and miraculous recovery, recalls in detail his trip to heaven and back. Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital during his operation. Colton talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told him by people he met there—people whom he had never met in his life—sharing events that happened even before he was born and giving astonishing descriptions and obscure details about heaven that match the Bible exactly. When young Colton Burpo was asked by the book editor, “What do you want people to know from your story?” Colton,

We live in a world that is obsessed with being "special." Everyone wants to stand out, and rise above others. We want to wear clothes that are better than what others are wearing, and we want to achieve success that outshines the rest. But how can everyone be special? And who is truly special? Actually, the Bible does talk about being special ... but not in terms that you might suspect. We're told that we're special, not by what we achieve, but by who we are and how we live. Today we'll hear Jesus

All people have a past! Sometimes that past is something they’re not proud of. They want to change it, but it seems to call them – either in an attempt to avoiding changing their ways, or to fill them with guilt and shame. Truly, all of us have things in our past we wish to free ourselves from to some degree or another. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil; and God banished them from the Garden – into a world full of toil and pain. And today, in the midst of a world full of hurt and regret, God says, “you can leave your past and start fresh and new with me!” Come to Him. He never left you. Your past does not define you. Rather, your

The movie Alone Yet Not Alone opened in theaters last Sunday. It is based on the true story taken of Barbara and Regina Leininger, daughters of German-Lutheran immigrants, who, in 1755, were taken captive by the Delaware tribe during the Seven Years (French & Indian) War. Barbara and three others made a daring escape, while Regina stayed as a captive until the end of the war in 1765. The family reunited with Regina with the help of their pastor, Henry Muhlenberg, often regarded as the father of American Lutheranism. At its core, the film is a moving reminder of the foundational