June 2, 2023
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Just For Fun
This coming week we welcome Eddie Mercado as Harvest’s full-time, summer pastoral intern. Eddie and his wife Hilary have 4 children: Calvin (9), Ezekiel (7), David (5) and Amelia (3). He was raised in a Christian home in the greater Chicago area, but did not become convicted of his sin and trust in Christ until he was 12-13 years old. In 2016, he and his family began at...
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May 5, 2023
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
Why are we taking on this new task of offering English as a Second Language classes? The purpose of ESL ministry is to share the Good News of Christ in word and deed. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes some of the characteristics of his people. These good deeds are not the basis of their salvation, but the evidence or demonstration of it:
“The King will say to those on hi...
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March 24, 2023
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
Have you ever dialed 9-1-1? I will always remember, in vivid detail, the night our middle daughter had a febrile seizure. She had a spiking fever, convulsions shook her little body, and her eyes went blank as she dribbled saliva and vomit out of her mouth. Our world fell apart. We thought for sure we were losing our baby girl. ...
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February 24, 2023
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Love
| Tags: Love
Three beautiful truths from Ephesians 3:14-21 enable us to rekindle lost love. First, love flows from all three persons of the trinity. Second, we lack power, in ourselves, to see and enjoy the majesty of God’s love. Third, when we cry out in desperation to to see God’s love for us in Christ again, we are asking the one who is actually able to answer our prayers “abu...
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January 27, 2023
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Suffering
As Christians, we are often uncertain how to grieve. Oftentimes, when death or other tragedy strikes, we often feel we are going “off the map” into unrecognized territory. Part of this is the way it should be. Death and sin are against the way God created the world. Grief disorients us because we are perceiving a tear in God’s good created design. But as a child, I r...
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December 30, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Theology
Judgment is an appropriate theme for the end of one year and beginning of the next, because we often put ourselves on scales (both physical and metaphorical!) at this time and figure out how we are measuring up. How is my marriage? How am I doing at my job? Where is my relationship with my children? The year end is often a time of measuring ourselves. But we also should as...
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December 5, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Christmas
This season, which Christians have called advent, is a time of longing and expectation. We put ourselves in the shoes of ancient Israel, knowing that their promised king would one day arrive. But we are patiently waiting, not for his first coming, but his last. I want to write about (1) the importance, (2) lack and (3) worth of waiting for Jesus’ second coming, as we cou...
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November 18, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
| Tags: Evangelism, gospel
Sharing the Gospel depends heavily on three priorities in a church: speaking, praying, and eating. These things can seem so common to us (perhaps with the exception of prayer) that we can underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit......
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September 23, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Faith
| Tags: Anxiety, Gift
Paul can describe anxiousness, or concern, as a good thing when directed toward what God desires. Therefore, we become free from anxiety, not by simply making it stop, but by directing our anxiety toward a focused care to know the grace, acceptance, and love of the Father towards us in Christ....
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August 12, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Suffering
| Tags: suffering, affliction, joy, Eternity, trial, sadness, sorrow, cry out
Perspective is so hard to come by when you’re walking through a trial. Sickness, sin, and all kinds of misery can seem eternal, and heaven can become microscopic in our heart and imagination. In my last sermon from James 1, I was very moved by our confidence that “various trials” should be counted as “all joy” because of what they are producing in us: endurance....
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July 22, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Sacrifice
| Tags: Sacrifice, Service, Compassion, Grace, Love
Sacrificing for others is hard... almost impossible. Serving the needs of others is like a summer road trip. We pull our car out on the road of interest and compassion for others but immediately something falls......
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June 24, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
In one of the most captivating stories in the Bible, a prophet is held up, not as an example of the faithful messenger and mouthpiece of God, but as one who opposed the mercy of God to sinful rebels. In Jonah 4:1-4, the prophet explains why he ran from God when told to preach to Nineveh and call them to repentance. “I knew you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to an...
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May 27, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
It’s striking that one important preparation for being a compelling witness to the world is gratitude. In Philippians 2, Paul connects putting away our grumbling with becoming a compelling, shining light of the Gospel to the world. Christians are contented people who joyfully thank God in all circumstances and, because of this, present a striking contrast against the lan...
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May 13, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
In case you missed it, this previous Sunday we hosted four different outreach ministries during our Sunday School presentation. The vision driving this is simple -- a desire to connect Harvest members to outreach efforts that are already happening in our community and beyond. Paul explains to the Ephesians in chapter 4, verses 5-6, that there is only one Lord, and this one...
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April 22, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Christianity
After making a six-hour road trip down to Louisville, Kentucky, here is a sampling of the topics we heard: Kevin DeYoung urged and reminded us to cling to the reality that we are justified by faith, H.B. Charles called us to never forget to marvel at the beauty of our salvation, Greg Gilbert explained the reality that pride and division dies at the foot of the cross, ...
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March 19, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
In a recent conversation, we got to talking about reasons people in our churches have mentioned it’s hard to speak about Christ with people who don’t yet know him. People have a number of reasons why they hesitate to share the gospel. I don’t want you to have the impression that I don’t flounder and fail in these areas myself as well. I’ve felt these obstacles a...
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January 21, 2022
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Love
Raised in a Presbyterian and Reformed congregation in Mexico, I grew up singing many praise and worship songs written by English speaking Christians artists and translated into Spanish. We sang songs by Keith and Kristin Getty, Chris Tomlin, and others....
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December 16, 2021
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Children
| Tags: Children, serving
Children can feel like a real problem, can’t they? They are often hungry and remind us to feed them. They’re dangerous to themselves and others, and have to be continually protected and trained. When they’re very small, they can do almost nothing on their own. If you think about it, their bathroom, transportation, and food are taken care of completely by others. Tota...
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November 24, 2021
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Thanksgiving
| Tags: thanksgiving, contentment
For many of us, 2020 was a year of confinement. One person described it as “living more inside the news than in our own homes.” It was as if we were paralyzed, and month after month, taken places where we didn’t want to go. As we sit around our tables this year, hopefully learning lessons from last, let’s look at what contentment is, why we need it, and how to get ...
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October 29, 2021
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
| Tags: Evangelism
“I like Jesus. He was a good teacher. I appreciate the sacrifice he made and that the Father gave his Son for me. But I also like my culture. I follow the seven traditions of the fathers.” This was the tail end of a conversation that I recently had during an Anchored youth outing with a gentleman (I’ll call Mark). Twenty of us went down to Moline to invite people to ...
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September 10, 2021
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Christianity
What do you want? When difficult decisions come up, like whether or not to commit to marry someone, once we’ve clarified the appropriate first question asking if the Bible allows something, oftentimes the even more difficult question to answer is, “Do I want this?” And if so, “Why do I want this?”...
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August 6, 2021
by Adrian Crum
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Category:
Evangelism
| Tags: introductions
I love introductions. This is probably a little weird. Most people pull toward the familiar and are unsettled by meeting people, making small talk, and trying to move a conversation along with someone with whom they're not sure how much they share in common. So I recognize I'm the odd one out....
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