Here are the top 5 searched and viewed posts in 2018 from our www.crosshopechapel.org website. That means that people searched the internet for a specific topic or question and our website post came up on that search so with our #1 post there were close to 1000 people and the other posts were all around 100 people. I would never … Continue reading →
If you are looking to change up your usual Christmas songs, here are 10 of my favorites that are part of my 50+ songs Spotify Christmas playlist… Father Christmas by The Kinks Christmas by The Who Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley Merry Christmas From The Family by Robert Earl Keen Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer … Continue reading →
While the majority of my radio listening time is talk radio I periodically listen to my Spotify playlists, especially when I am down by the beach because of reception issues. This isn’t all I have in my playlists but the app says this it is the top 25 most listened to songs from my personal Spotify, counting down… 25. … Continue reading →
We share the same mom, at birth anyway, but her influence was just as intentional upon my life as with yours. You experienced her influence through the awesome privilege of knowing her, loving her, holding her, building a bond with her, while I have only had gratitude for her. That gratitude is all I carried with me for 54 years … Continue reading →
God made, Adam ate, Noah arked, Egypt plaqued, Water parted, Law gave, Saul freaked, David peeked, Kingdom divided, Messiah came, Sacrifice made, Christ arose, And Jesus is on the way!
Continue reading →While working with Hurricane Katrina victims, as a hospital chaplain, I was struck by the quick turn-around one patient took, when he suddenly found something to laugh about. He lost everything he owned, including his house, his pets, and his brand new 5-day old F150 Ford pick-up truck. His adult children and his wife were safe, but like most Mississippi … Continue reading →
Pastor Steve Durkac’s Personal Testimony… I grew up as one of five adopted children and it was my story of adoption that most influenced my faith in Jesus as my personal Savior and here is how… As a teenager in the cold snowy, over-cast, small Northeast Ohio town of Rossford, during the heavy metal punk-rock era of the late 70’s, … Continue reading →
When I left my pastorate with a church an Adventist church in Aiken, South Carolina in the 90’s, I was given a small gift of a marble and gold metal sailboat that read “A man that walks with God always gets to his destination.” It sat in my study on a shelf, from move to move, about 10 inches long … Continue reading →
I am happy to be back in Mobile today after being in San Antonio, Texas this week. Memorial Service… The memorial service for Frank Wehrly went well and it was well attended as we celebrated and honored his life and family. Frank had fought lung cancer for 9 years until he passed last week just a week beyond his … Continue reading →
Lately, my social media feed has been full with video clips of live church worship music and something has struck me as an oddity regarding these numerous church worship programs — light shows. I’ve noticed that there appears to be a trend for light shows as part of the worship music and I’ve noticed this on video clips of both … Continue reading →
The solution to unprovoked firearm violence in our society is not gun control, but self-control. Galatians 5:23 tells us that self-control is the result of the indwelling Spirit of God in one’s life, and without the Holy Spirit there is no control over one’s unbridled sinful behavior. The angry expressions of violence are easily acted upon when the Holy Spirit … Continue reading →
Yesterday, May 23, 2017 would have been my birth mother’s 79th birthday, had she not died in 1990. I was thinking earlier today that when I get to heaven I will have two mothers – the mother that adopted me and the mother that birthed me. Interestingly, the mom who raised me is named Irene and the mom who birthed me … Continue reading →
I have been out of the Seventh-day Adventist church almost as long as I was in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Since I have been among and ministering within non-Adventist churches, I have observed some things that I have always thought would be worth sharing with my Adventist friends. These are observations that I wish were shared with me when I … Continue reading →
I finally got my baby feet. What I mean is, I just received the card stock paper where the nurses at St. John’s Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota inked my feet, shortly after being born on October 1, 1962 and made an impression of my baby feet with ink. As I looked at the paper with the impression of my new … Continue reading →
I am an adoptee, and you can read my personal testimony to learn how that impacted my conversion and sustaining faith in Jesus Christ and His word. Here I wish to share 3 Scripture verses that I believe speak to the real significance of every individual who may be wrestling with their identity because of being an adopted child. Jeremiah … Continue reading →
This morning in our gathering at CrossHope Chapel, my wife made mention of a dream that I had recently where she woke me because I was repeating the name Jesus. She joked that she actually thought it was some kind of near-death experience, but the reason I was repeating the name Jesus was because I was confronted with a demon … Continue reading →
Last night at our Midweek Fellowship we were talking about the topic of joy, and afterwards I remembered two other important Bible verses that we could have looked at: • Nehemiah 8:10 – “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” • Proverbs 17:22 – “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” Also, here … Continue reading →
At the end of 1999 I walked away from my pulpit as a Seventh-day Adventist minister, having spent 18 years of my adult life in the denomination, including serving as a pastor in both the Carolina Conference of SDA and the Gulf States Conference of SDA. At the time that I left the Adventist denomination I was going through an unwanted … Continue reading →