On Sunday, September 8, 2024, VLC gathered in person and also broadcasted online via YouTube. Pastor Stuart Nice shared a message about when Jesus was teaching his disciples, with the crowds listening in, about current events and how to make sense of them and walk through them. From this Pastor Stuart encouraged us to not get lost in theology (figuring it out), but rather to adopt an eternal perspective of life and use the bad to cultivate the good.

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.
Luke 13:1-8 (NIV)