Going Skiing

Religion in America

I would love to hear you all respond to this. Just click the comment link below and post a comment.

Rain

So, it was just starting to feel like the weather was turning to the warm ----- and then the rain, and more rain, and more rain, and more rain. It feels like it has been raining for a week. It feels like I should be in Seattle. What do you all do to get out of the funk of dreariness when it is yucky outside?

Spiritual Disciplines Part I ---- Prayer

On Sunday, August 17th I preached a sermon titled "Prayer as Communication with God." I thought you all would like to get a refresher on this in preparation for this weekends sermon topic. Here is a snippet from that sermon: “Jesus says in Luke 22.31: 'Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail.' Ultimately, Jesus is praying for us—praying on our behalf—and that is why we pray in the name of Jesus. But, that is where many people get hung up on the Trinity—why does Jesus, who is God, pray to God? The reason that Jesus prays—is because prayer is communication—and what is necessary for communication is relationship. And what is fundamental to the Trinity is relationship. The Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is all about relationship. The Father is in relationship with the Son through the Holy Spirit. And in relationship we acknowledge the fact that we are not each other—for instance, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the Father—while at the same time they are united—they are one—in relationship. That is why the Son, who is Jesus, prays to the Father—because they are in communication with each other. They are in relationship with each other. That is why it is fundamental to the Christian faith to pray. We acknowledge the fact that we are in relationship with God, by communicating with God. And God hears our prayers—and answers our prayers. And in relationship we change—we become more like Jesus—because we are being united to Christ through the Holy Spirit.” Prayer is something that is the very core of who we are as Christians. Let us stay in love with God by continuing to draw closer to God in prayer.

The End of a Series

This last Sunday I ended a series on the Three Simple Rules. This was based on a book by Bishop Reuben P. Job called Three Simple Rules. Those rules are 1) Do No Harm, 2) Do Good and 3) Stay In Love With God. I decided to end the series and then expand on the third rule----stay in love with God. I am going to do that by focusing on five common spiritual disciplines in Christianity. Those are: 1) prayer, 2) partaking of communion, 3) Bible reading, 4) fasting and 4) holy conferencing (or participating in groups that draw us closer to God). I am really excited about this ----- I think this will help all of us to make the three rules more real ----- more concrete. I will be starting out this Sunday, March 29th on Prayer. If there are any great stories or insights you would like to share on prayer, please just click on the comment link below and share.

One Great Hour of Sharing

This is a special offering that we are taking up this coming Sunday, March 22nd. I thought you all would like to see this information.

Stay in Love with God

This Sunday I will be preaching on Staying in Love with God. This will be coming from Colossians 2.6-7. What I am really interested in is finding ways that you all have stayed in love with God. We love God because God first loved us ----- and now we are to continue to stay in love with God by continuing to be in relationship with God. That relationship can look different for every Christian ----- even though there will be things that will be the same for all of us ----- things like Bible reading, prayer, communion, gathering for worship, and many others. Share here in the comment section some of those ways that you stay in love with God. You can just click on comment below and add it in.

We bought a van

Like I wrote earlier ----- we have experienced some car problems over the last 3 weeks ----- so we decided to bite the bullet and get DeAnne a new van. It looks similar to the van that I have shown in the picture. We have now become a two mini-van family. And now I am driving DeAnne's old mini-van ----- which I have to say ------ is the fanciest car I have ever driven. Usually, I drive vehicles that are just getting by, but this van is nice!!! Anyway, I thought you all would like to know how the vehicle issues turned out.

Back from Spring Break

So my family and I got back from Spring Break ----- we stayed just long enough to watch the Blue Devils whoop-up on Florida State. I am back into the swing of things with school and I am looking forward to Spring. Tell me ----- are any of you looking forward to warmer weather? It seems like we got teased with it and then it got gloomy again.

Youth Retreat

Hello everyone. I am just finishing my Spring Break (woooo-whoooo) and it was a nice time away from school work ------ even though I still read a school book. The book was written by Tex Sample, titled: Blue Collar Resistance and the Politics of Jesus. This is for a class that I am taking called The Local Church in Ministry. Check out this quote: "Basic to the ministry of the church is the construction of a community of faith that lives a different story that turns people who were no people into God's people." Amen to that. I did also want to write to you asking you to be in prayer for the youth of Warren's Grove. We are going on a spiritual retreat this weekend where we are going to be studying The Three Simple Rules. Those are: do no harm, do good and stay in love with God. Please pray that we will experience God in new and profound ways as we grow in our love of God and our love of neighbor.

My Car

I wanted to give a little dedication to my car. Or maybe I should say my old car. This car has been really good to my family for 15 years. It is a 1995 Dodge Neon with 203,000 miles on it. On Wednesday, I was on my way to school and it stopped driving and I happened to coast into a garage and then they looked at it and assessed that it was by drive belt (I think that is what it is called). So I had it hauled to my mechanic and he put a new one on and found out that it had actually bent a valve. So that is too costly to fix so we are letting the Dodge Neon go on to glory land. My children liked to call the Neon "Jet" based on the Little Einstein's show ----- if any of you like to watch that. Any way this is my tribute. You have been a good car and you will be missed.

Snow

I got to play out in the snow yesterday afternoon after getting home from school. We had close to 6", I was told. It was amazing ---- but the most amazing thing is how good my oldest son is at throwing snow balls. He must of hit me in the head 10 times. I wanted to show you a video my wife took of the kids playing in the snow.