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- Taking Care of Business - Taking Care of Business: There is a phrase in the secular world, “Making Love”, that conjures up things that do not belong in a devotional. However, that phrase does communicate an important process in the deepening of a friendship, the strengthening of the bonds in a marriage or a partnership, or the trust that often forms in a Bible Study group. A process that requires discipline, both active and passive.From a spiritual standpoint, we are called to love others, and Jesus goes so far as to tell us to love others as He has loved us. Continue reading
- Love with a Dollar Sign - Love with a Dollar Sign: Throughout scripture, we see the theme of giving, generosity, compassion, praising the Lord by sharing the bounty. Sometimes it’s doing likewise, as we see in the lesson of the parable of the good Samaritan. Sometimes it’s opening your home, preparing a dinner for someone else, sometimes it’s going beyond tithing in order to meet the need of someone. Often it is love with a dollar sign. Most of us know we are privileged people. We have closets and bank accounts that overflow. For what purpose? We can be Jesus in action, it doesn’t take much. Continue reading
- Grief and Joy - Grief and Joy: This past Sunday, September 12, Pastor Judy Follis returned to our pulpit after an absence of over three years. It was a joyous reunion, a reunion of friends in the presence our Lord and Savior. Her topic was one we could all relate to, on a personal level, Heartbreak. Aside from a personal point of view, it was an appropriate subject considering the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the previous day. We don’t like adversity, we don’t like something that is going to change the smooth path of that our life has been taking. The fairytale is coming to an end and reality is facing you. For the disciples, and for you and I, we would rather deny it for a period of time hoping it would go away. But, alas, it doesn’t. Continue reading
- On God’s Terms - On God’s Terms: This passage in Romans 8, The Message, is perhaps one of the most encouraging and peace-giving message of scripture. The idea of experiencing life on God’s terms is both scary, and one of those things that, as we think about it, would make us joyfully overwhelmed. However, there is a qualifier and that is we still experience the pains of sin. Yet, we are looking at our dark side from the standpoint of the mind of God. The starting point for this Good News is that phase, if God himself has taken up residence in your life. God in the form of the Holy Spirit. When we speak of eternal life for those who have accepted Christ as Savior, that gift comes from the Holy Spirit who gives us spiritual life. Continue reading
- I Don’t Understand! - I Don’t Understand! How often in your lifetime have you said, I don’t understand? Maybe as a child, learning stuff, you were confronted with the puzzle of finding the square root of something, and in the process of being taught, you missed something and you are left with incomplete information. You were confronted with a solution that just didn’t work, and you didn’t understand what went wrong.Okay, so you don’t understand something. You turn to your teacher or a friend and ask for help and they answered with, “Think about it.” That may work with puzzles of the world, but what about puzzles of the heart, of the soul? The smartest person in the world could not think their way to peace of mind. Continue reading
- Harsh Words - Harsh Words: This thought came to me one morning and I jotted it down: Harsh words come from unsettled minds. I pondered on that word “unsettled”, trying to sort it out. I think our minds become unsettled when we are under stress, or we’re in cross purposes with a loved one, or when disappointment has sucked the joy out of our day. Or perhaps our minds have become unsettled as a result of words we have spoken in anger. Continue reading
- Haste to Find Him - Haste to Find Him: How do we distort our worship of God in those private/personal moments early in the morning? What do we hang on those minutes that we dedicate to our time with God? Do we have daily devotionals by wonderful theologians who speak to us and we try to imagine they are speaking to our hearts, and, in turn, to our Lord? Do we hang meditational music around our time with Him, or is that simply entertainment? Does our desire to journal our time with the Lord enhance our time with the Lord or does it become a task that we have to complete, each and every time? Do we hurry up, cram our time with the Lord into a small window, bracketed by breakfast on one side and are own little to do list on the other. We find the Lord, when in the calmness of a heart full of prayer, He finds us with gentle words and thoughts. Haste not. Continue reading
- Consequences - Consequences: Eve, this is quite a tasty bit of fruit. Where did you get it? From the tree? That tree! But God told us not to touch that one. Well, he did, but he didn’t really mean it. The fruit is luscious-looking and oh so tasty. Now that I ate that, I can see so much more, and, Adam, shouldn’t you put on a fig leaf? Everywhere there is a caution, a warning, a forecast of approaching flood or tropical storm. We hear “shelter in place” and “take refuge in a basement or interior room.” We are told not to drive through water that floods the road. We understand that the vaccine and masking can be an effective defense against the virus. Yet, we eat the fruit. We elect to ignore the cautions, choose not to shelter, in a basement or elsewhere. We are challenged by water on the road and drive on. We would rather believe a lie than scientific proof. It is my right! Continue reading
- Cutting Out the Middleman - Cutting Out the Middleman: Martin Luther had a war with the Roman Catholic Church on several different fronts. They certainly didn’t like much of the Reformation, they had apoplexy over the fact but he was translating Holy Writ into German and having it published. Martin Luther cut out the middlemen, the Latin scripture, the priests to read and interpret the Word. That is what Jesus did through the Resurrection and the in-filling of the Holy Spirit! He opened the door for us to approach the Heavenly Father. Continue reading
- Between Here and There - Between Here and There: Two years ago, at the Nashville Story Conference, the theme was “Between No Longer and Not Yet.” I did a little digging and there’s actually a Latin word, ‘Liminal’, which means threshold, the place of entering or beginning. It’s the place of transition between what was and what is next. In John 16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will be coming – His trial and crucifixion, followed by the Resurrection. He is trying to fix in their minds the fact that he would be killed, and would later rise from the dead and they would see him again.We are no different than those disciples. We embrace Jesus Christ in faith alone, trusting the promises that have been laid before us. In essence, we are on that road to Capernaum, on the strength of the promises given. Continue reading
- Taste and See? - Taste and See? Can you think of a time when you actually "tasted" God’s grace? I can recall a time several years ago, loaded down with guilt because of something that had happened the day before, sitting in a church in Chicago, early for the Sunday service, listening to Paul Winter, the famous alto saxophone player, playing an introduction to the worship service. That beautiful music surrounding me and then I sensed God's grace washing over me. At that moment, my depression and guilt were gone and I knew that this was God’s grace. In a real and tangible way I could taste (experience) that the Lord is good. Continue reading
- Rules of Worship - Rules of Worship: New York City painter Archie Rand likes to work big. But nothing prepared the art world for “The 613,” his series, completed in 2008, of 613 paintings, one for each Jewish commandment. For the ancient Jew, the Laws were important guide rails for living a sacred life. What would medieval sages make of the commandments, or laws, that modern Christians have thrown up to give guidance to our idea of worship? In the Mark passage we get the impression of conflict between human’s idea of Christian behavior and God‘s. Do you suppose we can count to 613 Christian laws? Probably. Continue reading
- Parable of ___Your name goes here ___ - Parable of ___Your name goes here ___: Have you ever thought of your life being a parable? Would Christ ever use your life to illustrate the goodness of people, like the Parable of the Good Samaritan? Maybe the Parable of the Hospital Visitor? The Parable of the Faithful Friend? Parable of the Blessed Greeting-card Lady? How about the Parable of the Grumpy Christian? Make no mistake about it, we could all be featured in the Parable of the Sinner Saved by Grace. Our lives could, indeed, be a parable, if you think about it. God designed us for a purpose, lives that have meaning, and He has equipped us for success in that purpose. Our job is to sort it out, “Where are you taking me, Lord, what is my purpose?” Continue reading
- Who Was Stephen? - Who Was Stephen? We know a little about Stephen, but we don’t know a lot. We know he was the first martyr, stoned to death allegedly for blasphemy. That occurred about three years after the Resurrection when the popularity, and controversy, surrounding Jesus as Messiah was gathering momentum. We know he was not one of the Twelve. They brought Stephen before the Sanhedrin, and it is before this body that Stephen launched into an exceedingly long sermon on the history of Israel, pointing out the errors in which the Jewish hierarchy were preaching. That did it! Continue reading
- Change of Heart - Change of Heart: How do you change a person’s heart? I can understand how someone could change another’s mind with facts and a persuasive argument. But how does one change a person’s heart? Sometimes there is confusion between a mind-set and a heart-set. Both can be difficult to deal with. I suppose that both could cause a breach between friends, depending on the topic or the circumstance. I believe that our mind-set is something over which we have control. You make up your mind to take a stand, or to do something, to say something, or to believe something. Your decision might be influenced by others, or by circumstance, or even by the weather. Your heart-set, on the other hand, is different. Your heart-set is influenced by factors that might have been placed on your heart at a very early age. Continue reading
- Philippians 4:13 - Philippians 4:13: Philippians 4:13 is a favorite Bible verse for so many people. I’ve heard different versions of that verse, not as written but their own version, maybe with a secular twist, implying that God will give me the strength to live my life anyway I wish. Wherever in the world did we get the idea that we can take a verse from the Bible , and redefine it anyway we want to fit our circumstance? Paul’s words reflect a spiritual teaching that nothing is impossible with God. We see it reiterated in Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27 and Luke 1:37. Then Paul repeats it in Romans 8:31, that if God is for us, who can be against us? We can even dig deeper into the Old Testament where Jeremiah 32:17 tells us that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Continue reading
- Lament (Reprise) - Lament (Reprise): In light of the tragedy that occurred in Afghanistan recently, I thought a great deal about the families of the 200+ lives that were lost, their grieving that continues long after the memorials, the hymns, the prayers. Here’s an old-fashioned Biblical word for you: Lament. Yes, like “Lamentations”, but what does it mean to lament? Is it like grief that many of us are familiar with. I thought I had an idea, until I looked it up in my Webster’s. Here is what I found: Lament, a mourning, wailing, to feel deep sorrow. To regret deeply. It is also a literary and musical term meant to convey deep sadness. Well here’s another definition, or at least a different application. Lament is an important concept in the Old Testament, and one deeply ingrained into the Jewish mindset. In some ways, it was closely related to repent, a turning from evil. For those in Jerusalem it was a privilege, bringing their deepest hurts, or struggles to God who cares for us. In lament, we know God as a caring and active spiritual entity, Continue reading
- God’s Church – Part 3 - God’s Church - Part 3: This past Sunday, our Pastor preached on the topic of what is happening within our churches. With the harshness of truth, he cited many of the changes that have shaken our church over the past 20 years, that have left many of us wondering about the future of our congregation. The change has been in elements of mission, for there is so much in our history, that is embedded in our memories of the way “it used to be” that makes it hard to look at where we are now, and what will be. We revel in the power of a thriving Church, every pew filled, beautiful organ music and choirs, outreach, and planning and dinners, and on and on, all of which attracted that mighty congregation. That stopped working years ago but the image is still there in the frontal lobes of the membership. Continue reading
- God’s Church – Part 2 - God’s Church - Part 2: The Book of Revelation is best tackled with a rich, creative imagination. It is a book filled with images and symbols, but at its very core, Revelation is a book of hope. But Revelation is also a book of warning! Things are not as they should be in the churches. Christ calls the churches to commit to living in righteousness, and we need to understand what that commitment means is the key to determining God’s purpose for the church, specifically, your church. You may not understand at this time what is happening, but God’s church is following God’s purpose. Continue reading
- God’s Church – Part 1 - God's Church - Part 1: How often have you heard someone saying they don’t understand. Maybe you have said that yourself when grappling with a difficult or complex set of circumstances. I don’t understand what he’s saying, or I don’t understand differential equations, or I don’t understand how to program my computer. So, on and on it goes, each time revealing our lack of understanding of the complexities found in our physical world. Ah, but how about your/my understanding of our faith and the spiritual world? This world that God has placed us in, has gifted us, has given us a Savior, sometimes confounds our understanding. Do we understand the source of that confusion? At the heart, do we have an understanding of the way in which our Creator God works? Continue reading
