Church Family,

This past Sunday, in our series in Acts, we continued to follow the path of Philip as he went out spreading the Gospel. Philip was called by the Spirit to speak to an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading aloud from the book of Isaiah and struggling to understand what he was reading. On one hand, the Old Testament was in a way impenetrable to him as his status as a eunuch limited his ability to participate in Old Testament temple worship. On the other hand, something about the figure of the suffering servant in Isaiah intrigued him. In a sense the eunuch himself was a suffering servant, mutilated and bound in service to his queen. Philip taught the eunuch that this suffering servant was in fact Jesus, who had made a way even for this eunuch to enter the presence of God. The eunuch received this teaching eagerly and immediately sought to be baptized. By all accounts this man was disqualified from being part of the people of God, yet the Spirit specifically called Philip to him and the Gospel made him whole in a way that was impossible in any earthly sense. The question is, do we act like we believe the Spirit and the Gospel have this kind of power today? Or do we disqualify people from Christianity because for some reason or another we think they are too far gone? Let us be convicted by this passage to minister to anyone to whom the Spirit leads us, and let us be encouraged by this passage that the Gospel is powerful enough to bring anyone into the people of God.

Elder Candidacy

One of our convictions as a church is that the biblical model for the church involves being led by a plurality of elders, multiple godly men who can provide diverse perspectives and insights necessary for the overseeing of the church. In pursuit of that ideal we have had a few men in the process of prospective eldership. This past Sunday, our current elders formally announced one of those men, Brian Murphy, as an elder candidate to be voted on by the church members on October 20th. While our bylaws only require a two week notice before a vote, we are taking a much longer lead into this vote so we have time to do two things. First, of course, be praying about this vote. It would be a tremendous mistake to not make sure that such a decision is informed by lots of prayer. Second, pursue Brian in the time leading up to this decision. If you have concerns about his qualifications to be an elder, questions about his beliefs, or even just don’t feel like you know him well enough to make a decision then this is your time to talk to him and figure these kinds of things out. Catch him after service on a Sunday, find a time to call him, or even meet up with him for coffee or a meal. It’s not a bother; this is part of what he has volunteered himself for in pursuing eldership.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday as we looked at Acts 8 we saw the early church scattered by rising persecution. However this scattering by no means hindered the spread of the Gospel. Instead, the momentum of the Gospel only grew as faithful preachers of the Word, like Philip, were sent out from Jerusalem. It certainly would have been easy for the Gospel message to twist and distort as it spread out, but the purity of the Gospel was essential for the early church. When a man who heard Philip’s preaching offered money in exchange for receiving the Holy Spirit, not only did Philip not accept the money, he was careful to correct this man’s misunderstanding. While he certainly aimed to be winsome in his preaching, Philip was not willing to let the Gospel be compromised, even with just one man, because the Gospel is simply that important. Let us consider if we are also this serious about the purity of the Gospel as we preach it to others, and even as we preach it to ourselves, or if we are willing to deform the Gospel in an effort to broaden its appeal.

Wednesdays Are Back

Our regular Wednesday activities return next week on September 11th. This includes the third semester of our four semester rotation of Disciple Makers (though this is just as good a time to join in as any if you have not participated in Disciple Makers before), a women’s study in the book of judges, and a men’s study in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The women’s study will also be available on Wednesday mornings. Childcare will be available for the evening activities, but not for the morning women’s study.

Church Game Night

We will be having a church-wide game night on Friday, September 20th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Bring your own dinner and your favorite game or two and come enjoy a couple wonderful hours of fellowship.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday we tackled a considerable chuck of Acts spanning 6:8-8:3. In this passage Stephen, one of the newly appointed servants of the church, faced false accusations that he was a threat to the Law of Moses and to the Temple. But Stephen sure does know his scripture and lays out an incredible historical summary of the Old Testament to make two irrefutable points. First, God’s presence is not and has never been bound to the physical location of the earthly temple. Rather, his presence is all consuming and so He is with His people in all places at all times. Second, the Jesus about whom Stephen has been preaching is not a threat to the Law of Moses but its fulfillment. At the center of the Law is a promise of a righteous one to come and make atonement for the people of God, that righteous one being Jesus whom Stephen’s accusers rejected and killed. The accusers cannot refute Stephen’s words, but they also refuse to accept them so they plugged their ears and killed him so they would no longer have to contend with what he was saying. Let us pray this week that we would not be like Stephen’s accusers. Let us pray that God would pull our fingers from our ears so we might hear his words that confront our stubborn hearts and selfish agendas, for it is such words that bring us the joy of drawing near to God.

Youth Retreat

Our youth will be going on a camping retreat this upcoming Labor Day weekend. Our hope is that this retreat would help build a stronger sense of community within our youth group, and more importantly that it would ground our youth in a desire to seek God and honor him as they start a new school year. In particular, we will be considering why it is important to study the Bible and answering questions like “how can such an old book be relevant today?” or “how can something written by so many people over such a long time have a cohesive main idea?” We ask that you would be praying for this trip, not only for safe travels, but especially that it would be a fruitful time that leads our youth to a greater sense of amazement at God and His Word.

A Bible-Believing Church

While we are still in our slower summer days, it seems worthwhile to use some of the space in the news blog to consider some of the convictions of Light in the Desert Church. Coinciding with the focus of the youth retreat, we wanted to take a second to highlight what it means that we are a Bible-believing church. While we believe that the Bible was written by human hands and contains clear markers of its human authors, like stylistic decisions and grammatical particularities, we also believe that every word of the Bible was directly inspired by God. This means that the Bible contains no falsehoods and so should be the measuring stick for everything we believe and do. This also means that the Bible is necessary for us as the means by which God has chosen to reveal himself to us, and especially to reveal the Gospel, the work of Christ for our sake, which is the central focus of the Bible. If you would like to read more about what we believe about the Bible or other convictions of Light in the Desert Church you can do so here.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday, as we continued in the book of Acts, we learned something that may be shocking to some: the early church wasn’t perfect. While there were tremendous generous efforts to meet the needs of those in the church, it turns out that some people were being overlooked, namely the widows among the Hellenists. It should not be surprising that there were issues in the early church; people were sinful then just as they are now. But the early church did not let the inevitability of problems become an excuse to let those problems continue. They dedicated a few godly men, seemingly Hellenists, to oversee the distribution and ensure that everyone received what they needed. This is a wonderful model of what it means to be serious about obedience to God. This week as we reflect on this passage, let us pray that our eyes would be opened to issues that exist in our church and in our individual lives, and let us take real steps to address those issues rather than excusing them and letting them persist and fester.

Christian Challenge

This week marks the start of the semester for ASU and so also marks the start of our efforts to undertake the Christian Challenge ministry at the Polytech campus. As a reminder, Christian Challenge is an organization that focuses on bringing the Gospel to college campuses and bringing college students into the local church. You can read more about the organization here. We ask that you would pray for our efforts during this first week of ministry. Pray that God would give energy to our volunteers, especially Kyle Villa who is taking on much of the responsibility for this ministry. Pray that we would make connections with students and establish ourselves as a presence on campus. Pray that we would be effective ministers of the word both to believers and non-believers at Polytech. Also pray that God would keep you open to serving in this ministry should your efforts and abilities be needed in some capacity or another.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday we worked our way through Acts 5:12-42. Upset by the tremendous growth of the early church, Jewish leaders had the apostles imprisoned for their public teaching. Yet that night an angel set the apostles free and they immediately returned to their teaching the next morning. Though they were beaten and threatened with further punishment, the apostles refused to stop their preaching because in light of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit given to them, they must obey God and not man. Are we ready to have the same mindset as the apostles, even in seemingly mundane circumstances? Do we fall in line with the cultural expectation that we should always maximize our income, or are we prepared to decline a promotion to have more time to minister to our families? Do we buy into the culture of vanity and curate our social media posts to present the facade of a perfect life, or are we prepared to humble ourselves to those around us by being honest about our difficulties and shortcomings? Let us ask ourselves questions like these regularly as we reflect on this past Sunday’s sermon.

Prayer Gathering

This upcoming Sunday, at 8 a.m., we will be having a prayer gathering in the Sunday Studies room. This is part of an effort to saturate the life of the church more and more with corporate prayer as this is very clearly something the Bible calls churches to do. Especially as we are working through the book of Acts right now, it is apparent that prayer is essential for fruitfulness as a church and results in greater glorification of God. In light of this call for the church to be praying together, we strongly encourage you to make time Sunday morning to join us for this prayer gathering.

Thinking About Sunday Morning

In light of our current Sunday Studies series on the purpose and characteristics of the church gathering, it seems worthwhile to give some brief encouragements on how we can all be preparing for Sunday morning each week. Surprising as this may be, it is more than just the preacher and the teachers who should be preparing for Sunday morning. If we are to see to our convictions about the gathering, like that it is entirely about God and should be saturated with the person and work of Christ, we must come into Sunday morning with our hearts and minds focused on God. Prayer is, of course, a large part of getting into the right mindset, even prayer on Saturday night and throughout the week that our time of worship and time in the Word would be fruitful. We would also benefit greatly from reading passage for the sermon ahead of time. Coming into Sunday morning with a basic understanding of the text helps us follow the direction of the sermon and pick up on the finer points that emerge. Think of it like re-reading a book or re-watching a movie and noticing new details or instances of foreshadowing that were not as apparent the first time through. If this isn’t a regular practice of yours, perhaps try it this week as we get ready to work through Acts 6:1-7 this upcoming Sunday.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday we returned to our series through Acts. For the second time in Acts we were told of the profound generosity that marked the early church. They met every need as those needs arose, not because of rigid obligation but because they had been transformed by the grace of God. However, one couple sought to take advantage of this situation to bolster their reputation. They sold a plot of land, giving a portion of the proceeds to the church while claiming what they gave was the entirety of the proceeds. These two could have kept the land or sold it. They could have given all the proceeds, part, or none. Their failure was their dishonesty, and dishonesty has no place in the life of the church as it disrupts the very unity that defined the early church.

Members’ Meeting

We will have our quarterly member’s meeting this upcoming Sunday, August 11 immediately after service. We will be taking care of important and exciting functions of the church, including sharing testimonies and bringing in new members. If you are a member of Light in the Desert please be sure to set aside time in your calendar to be part of this meeting.

Women’s Brunch

The Fall Women’s Bible Reading will kick off with a brunch this upcoming Saturday, August 10 at 9:30 a.m. All ladies in their teenage years and older are invited. The brunch will be potluck style and sign-up for the potluck will be posted in the church lobby.

Grace be with you

Logan Murphy,

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday we looked at the last of our Psalms for the Summer, Psalm 36. This psalm speaks with intensity on the wickedness of those who do not fear God, then jumps suddenly to a brilliant description of the steadfast love of God. This creates an extraordinary contrast. On one hand, the brilliant light of God’s love makes it abundantly clear how cruel and dark human sin is. On the other hand, the darkness of sin provides a point of contrast that helps us to understand just how incredible the steadfast love of God is. We are also reminded that God continues his love in spite of our rejection of Him in our sin; He always has and He always will. In light of this truth we can have an overwhelming confidence that he will hold us close to him, seeing us through even the direst of circumstances.

Members’ Meeting

We will have our quarterly member’s meeting on Sunday, August 11 at 4:00 p.m. We will be taking care of important and exciting functions of the church, including sharing testimonies and bringing in new members. If you are a member of Light in the Desert please be sure to set aside time in your calendar to be part of this meeting.

Sunday Studies

This upcoming Sunday we will be starting a new Sunday Studies series on the church gathering. It will be taking an in-depth look at the purposes of the Sunday gathering, then walk through our regular practices in the Sunday gathering to see how those purposes are fulfilled. The goal is that we would develop a greater appreciation for the church gathering and become more intentional in engaging with our regular practices so their purposes might be better served.

Women’s Brunch

The Fall Women’s Bible Reading will kick off with a brunch on Saturday, August 10 at 9:30 a.m. All ladies in their teenage years and older are invited. The brunch will be potluck style and sign-up for the potluck will be posted in the church lobby.

Grace be with you

Logan Murphy,

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

Continuing our Psalms for the Summer, this past Sunday we looked at Psalm 35, a rich and robust imprecatory psalm. Here David shows us that God cares greatly for justice. Not only does He care for justice, His righteousness makes him uniquely qualified to declare what is just and his power makes him uniquely capable of administering justice. God’s justice is seen in its fullest in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus alone lived a life undeserving of death, and though death struck out against Him on the cross, He overcame death in his resurrection, putting death itself to death. Let us, like David, respond to this glorious display of God’s justice with shouts of joy and gladness, praising God and telling of his righteousness all the day long.

Fall Schedule

The weather may still feel like summer for a while longer, but according to the calendar we’re coming up on fall and so we’re returning to our fall schedule. This upcoming Sunday will be the last of our Psalms for the Summer, so starting August 4th we’ll be picking back up where we left off before summer with Acts 4:32-5:11. The next week-and-a-half would be a great time to look back and remember where we’ve been in Acts and even to read ahead to see where we’re going. Our Wednesday night ministries are still a little further out, but will be starting back up on September 11th.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday guest preacher Brandon Reimus walked us through Psalm 34. This psalm highlights God’s persistent goodness as seen in his love towards his people. It does not claim that God’s people will not face hardship, in fact it argues the exact opposite. Still, God will meet the needs of his people in those hardships. We can be certain of this by looking back at how God has provided for us and others in the past. Even if hardship persists to our deathbed, we can trust in the ultimate provision that is eternal life in the coming Kingdom of God.

Christian Challenge

Starting in the Fall semester, Light in the Desert will be leading the Christian Challenge ministry on ASU’s Polytech campus. Christian Challenge is a ministry organization focused on bringing the Gospel to Arizona’s college campuses and connecting students to local churches for discipleship and service. We plan to establish a consistent on-campus presence at Polytech by tabling to spark Gospel conversations and having regular Bible studies on campus. We also plan to connect the students we reach back to Light in the Desert so they would reap the benefits of the church gathering and of discipling relationships. This past Sunday Brandon Reimus, the director of Christian Challenge at the Tempe ASU campus, took a few minutes to tell us about why this ministry is so valuable to both students and churches. If you weren’t there to hear it we would highly recommend you check out our sermon feed to at least listen to that portion of Brandon’s time with us. We would also strongly encourage everyone to be regularly praying that this new ministry effort would be fruitful and life-giving.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern

Church Family,

This past Sunday we looked at Psalm 33. This psalm clearly establishes that the Lord alone is our rescue. The laws and structures of even the greatest nations cannot be our rescue; they are subject to the will of God which alone stands forever. The might of armies cannot be our rescue; they all pale in comparison to the might of our Lord. We are called, then, to be glad in the Lord and to sing songs of praise to him who alone is enthroned over all. Let us rejoice in the fact that our hope is not in the fading things of this world but in the sure and steadfast love of the Lord.

Christian Challenge

Starting in the Fall semester, Light in the Desert will be leading the Christian Challenge ministry on ASU’s Polytech campus. Christian Challenge is a ministry organization focused on bringing the Gospel to Arizona’s college campuses and connecting students to local churches for discipleship and service. We plan to establish a consistent on-campus presence at Polytech by tabling to spark Gospel conversations and having regular Bible studies on campus. We also plan to connect the students we reach back to Light in the Desert so they would reap the benefits of the church gathering and of discipling relationships. Even as someone who was a believer long before college, being part of a college ministry that was closely tied to a local church played a vital role in keeping me grounded in a church and in the Gospel both while I was in college and afterwards, so I have no doubt that this is a valuable ministry. As we approach the start of the semester we ask that you would be praying regularly for this new ministry effort, not only that it would be fruitful but also for guidance in how you might come alongside us in reaching the students at Polytech.

Grace be with you,

Logan Murphy

Pastoral Intern