Excerpt from sermon on 02/22/2015:  

"The wilderness is an important part of our relationship with God because it thrusts us into unfamiliar, scary, and sometimes even dangerous territory.  All of the usual props that we rely on are missing.  We’re vulnerable, and when we’re vulnerable we’re more open to God.  Without our usual props to rely on, we must rely on God alone.  When we’re in the wilderness, we become clear about all of those things about us and about our life that don’t contribute to our relationship to God and we let them go.  Just as with Dorothy, we realize the true value of our home, our home with God.  We come out of the wilderness cleansed, strengthened, renewed, knowing what matters and what doesn’t matter."
 

Today our contemporary Christian singing group, Heavenbound, sang a song appropriate for Lent.  It is titled, Worn.  

To see youtube video, click here

Excerpt from sermon on 02/08/2015:

"Yes, the scripture passages read today share good news with us. Yet, I want to draw your attention to a quote by John Henry Jowett, who lived from 1864-1923 and was a prominent preacher and pastor. Jowett said, “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.” We could just as accurately say, “God does not restore us to make us restored, but to make us restorers.” You see, God has a two-pronged approach to his restoration project. He restores us for our sake, but he also restores us for his sake. God restores us so that we may serve him."

Excerpt from sermon on Sunday, 02/01/2015:  "How do we know when authority and the power it brings with it are from God?  What do that authority and power look like?  What don’t they look like?  Christopher Morse believes that God is love and that God is Lord.  You can’t say that God is love only, and you can’t say that God is Lord only.  God is both love and Lord.  God has authority and power over all things.  In the final analysis, God will not be defeated by anything.  Yet God’s authority and power are only used with love.  Here’s how Morse says this:

'Christian faith refuses to believe that love, as defined with reference to God, is subject to final defeat by any opposition.  [In other words, God’s love cannot be defeated by anything.]  Christian faith refuses to believe in any form of domination that is not the dominion of love.  [Yet, God will only dominate through the power of love.]'

Authority and power that are from God are used with love.  If they are not used with love, they are not from God.  This is the test that the Bible asks us to do when confronted by authority and power, or when using authority and power."


READ FULL SERMON HERE