Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pentecost

Last week I shared that Pentecost is coming up on the church calendar. I also talked about we are to welcome strangers into our midst. How can we welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives? And how can we be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit? These are important questions as Christians, because it is the grace of God working through the Holy Spirit that leads us in this Christian walk. Please leave a post if you would like to share pertaining to these questions.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Keyboard Cat is Sweeping the Nation

I wonder what the cat who didn't make pet of the week was like?

Hospitality

This coming Sunday I will be preaching from Romans 12.9-18. The main emphasis in this text will be hospitality. It is an interesting way to look at hospitality in light of the day of Pentecost coming up. Commonly the church calendar has Pentecost coming up on May 31st and Pentecost is marked by the coming of the Holy Spirit. How can we be people that practice hospitality ----- in light of the coming of the Holy Spirit? Are we to be people that are hospitable to God's reign in our lives ----- allowing the Holy Spirit to use us and bless us with God's grace?
Hospitality is something that we are good at in the "South". But, I wonder if this is something that we can get even better at. And is there a difference between "Southern" Hospitality and Christian Hospitality?

Monday, May 18, 2009

Awesome

We had an awesome youth Sunday this last week. I am so honored to be in ministry with the youth at Warren's Grove. We are truly blessed to have them. So a big thank you to all of you that were part of the service and to all the parents. God is really doing big things and I am excited about what the next part of the process is going to be. Keep up the good work.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tech Stuff

I have to confess ----- in the last year I have gotten to be quite the tech saavy person. And today is bumping it up another notch. You are not going to believe this but my office is not networked. So today Mr. Lin and I have been working on that all day. So that we can print off of one computer and be connected so that there can be the sharing of files amongst the church's computers. It is truly awesome to see such gifted people that have come into my life to help with these things. Mr. Lin has truly been a blessing in that regard. He developed the church's website, continues to update it and now is installing a network. My prayer is that we all use our gifts and talents to glorify God in the earth ----- because that is the place that we are to use them.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Youth Sunday

This Sunday we have a wonderful couple of worship services coming up. There is youth Sunday coming up where the youth group from Warren's Grove leads the worship services ---- anything from singing, to preaching, to blessing, to praying. I love youth Sunday because we have such wonderful youth at Warren's Grove. Be praying for them because for some of them this is there first time doing something in front of the whole congregation. Pray that God will give them grace and strength to be about what God has called them to do.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Psalm 22. 25-31

This Sunday I will be preaching from Psalm 22.25-31. It says this in verse 29: "To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him." What a fascinating verse. It is referring to what happens to those who go to the dust and who sleep in the earth. In the face of this death that seems to be all around for the psalmist ----- he still says: "and I shall live for him." Even in the midst of death the psalmist still commits his life to the giver of life. It is kind of like what Paul writes in Romans 8.38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death,nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, or things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." What do you all think?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

H1N1

Hello everyone. It seems like I have had numerous conversations about the swine flu lately ----- also known as the H1N1 flu ------ and I wanted to see what you all think. Apparently the evening news on Saturday told people that they should be careful about taking communion the next day because of the H1N1 virus. I was wondering what you all think about that? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. This is a very interesting conversation to have and honestly, I would have never seen this conversation coming up around the Lord's Supper.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Semester is....

My semester is done. That is such a wonderful feeling and I am so looking forward to summer. I want to say a thank you out to all of my friends and family and all the wonderful folks at Warren's Grove that have been praying for me and encouraging me in this semester. You all don't know how much that means to me.