Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV)

13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

At our Ash Wednesday service I gave everyone a Lenten pocket reminder in the shape of a nail. We sang “How Deep the Father’s …

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Joel 2:12

O Lord,
No day of my life has passed
that has not proved me guilty in Your sight,
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a hiding place in Your appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven Your merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Your righteousness exalts me to Your throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in You plead for my acceptance.
I appeal from …

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost seven years since we started the music school at Abbott. For some of you reading this, you may be thinking, “I haven’t heard much about the Abbott Center for the Arts lately,” and I’m sure that there are those who are unaware that we even have a Center for the Arts at Abbott.The Abbott Center for the Arts had a humble beginning. We started with 2 piano teachers and 8 students, most of whom were either Warrens or Leiningers, and we’ve grown from there. Two factors have dictated …

It is no secret that many students in America’s schools test consistently below grade level. When this failure to succeed in school is combined with the broken families, drug availability, and gang presence that are ever present in our nation’s urban culture, it is not hard to understand why many children are making decisions that will ultimately handicap them the rest of their life.Situated in Highlandtown, Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church is no stranger to the issues that confront the population in the area. Programs such as We Care have flourished for decades as a result of its members’ …

Today begins my first intentional journey through Lent. For me, even the road leading up to this Lenten season has been both tremendously encouraging and spiritually challenging. My study of the history and practice of Lent has opened my eyes to many aspects of our Christian faith and spiritual disciplines, which, I, personally, and we, as a church, have too often neglected. So this morning I begin in faith, and with a little fear, a time of self-examination, fasting and repentance. I hope to be able, as much as possible, to share my personal Lenten journey …