1 Peter 2:9-10 Recognizing Who I Am Introduction: Do you remember the fairly tell of Sleeping Beauty. The queen looks into the mirror and asks: Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? You can look at your smartphone and open your camera. You have it turn around to act like a mirror and see yourself. That’s how a lot of us get our self-esteem today. A multitude of studies in the last forty years indicates that... Read more
Rewilding the Way by Todd Wynward Rewilding the Way by Todd Wynward is a book that encourages the reader to (as the subtitle suggests) “break free from an untamed God.” The book is divided into three parts. As a result, I will review this book in three parts as well. PART I: OUR PREDICAMENT, OUR POTENTIAL Wynward states his approach as rewilding spirituality. In conservation biology, where people take the land and bring it back to its wild state. Wynward... Read more
You Are My Hiding Place June 9, 2016 Year C Psalm 32:7 Do you remember your favorite hiding place? Can you think of a place you could go to and feel the most secure? I remember that I could hide from anyone out in the small set of woods at the end of our street. We lived on a dead-end street when I was a kid. Across the street and down a bit were some patches of forest. I would... Read more
Franchising McChurch by Thomas White and John Yeats Franchising McChurch by Thomas White and John Yeats, states as its subtitle thesis: Feeding America’s Obsession with Easy Christianity. White and Yeats look at a variety of trends in the modern church growth movement. They use the term “McDonaldization” as a metaphor to explain how the church has changed. McDonaldization is: processes by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as... Read more
Revelation 11:15-19 Jesus Redeemer of the Cosmos Revelation 11:15-19 Jesus Redeemer of the Cosmos is a sermon in the sermon series on Revelation. Many only see Jesus a certain way. They see the Jesus who came to save. The Jesus who showed His loved. But there is more to Jesus than the fact that He came to die for sin. He came to restore us to God. This process of payment for sin and restoring us to God is called... Read more
Philippians 2:12-13 God’s Part and My Part in Changing Me Philippians 2:12-13 God’s Part and My Part in Changing Me is a sermon in the series on “Matters of the Heart.” Do you feel like you are in a spiritual rut? Do you wonder why you haven’t grown spiritually? Are you covering the same ground in your Christian walk? Do you wonder why though you are learning about Jesus, you are not living like him? Are you saying to yourself,... Read more
Trust in the Compassion of God June 3, 2016 Year C Psalm 146:1-10 God is a God of compassion. One of the best reasons to praise God (Psalm 146:1-2) and hope in Him (Psalm 146:5) is because of His compassion. We don’t need to trust anyone else than God (Psalm 146:3-4). TEN DIFFERENT REASONS TO TRUST IN THE COMPASSION OF GOD There are ten different reasons to trust in the compassion of God. The first five reasons relate to the... Read more
Dismissing God’s Promises With a Laugh June 2, 2016 Genesis 18:9-15 Someone comes to your door and promises that next year you will come into a million dollars. Do you believe them? Or do you dismiss it with a laugh – “Nah, that won’t ever happen to me. I’ll have to work until I die.” Replace the word “money” with “child” and “work” with “be barren” and now you have Sarah’s dilemma. But considering all that she has gone through,... Read more
My House of Prayer June 1, 2016 Year C Isaiah 56:1-8 God wants people in His house to live a life of love. He wants us to preserve justice, do what is right, reveal righteousness (Isaiah 56:1). Living this way brings happiness (Isaiah 56:2). We learn to take a day of rest and to not do evil (Isaiah 56:2). God wants unity. He wants people from all walks of life. He loves the foreigner (Isaiah 56:3). No matter if I... Read more
The Jihad of Jesus by Dave Andrews The Jihad of Jesus by Dave Andrews makes the case for the sacred nonviolent struggle for justice. He opens with the following thesis (xiii): For many people jihad and Jesus are totally contradictory, mutually exclusive options. You must choose the one or the other. You cannot have both. Given our present situation, Muslims would tend to choose jihad, Christians would tend to choose Jesus. But it is my contention that—rightly understood—you can’t have... Read more
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