The Kingdom of God Is Upon Us

We've been studying the past few weeks about what is formally called "Epiphany" in the early chapters of the gospel accounts. It's about the unveiling or revealing of Jesus Christ to the world in different ways. One of the things he immediately starts to teach is about

Torches, Jars and Messages

(This is a reiteration of a few points from last Sunday's sermon time -- I hope you enjoy it!)
The story of Gideon gets space in many children's Bibles and storybooks, because it's so visual and adventurous. A basically ordinary guy is called by God to deliver his people from

Praying: to Santa Claus, or the Almighty?

I admit it, I fall into a bad habit sometimes:  prayer becoming a list of people I'm asking the Lord to heal, or situations that I think he needs to resolve, and other life issues that I believe only he has the power to change. "Father, please help ____" has become a repetitive phrase.  If we are to "pray

Psst! It's a Secret!

It may not be a big surprise to any of us that Jesus of Nazareth was a little different than expected for his day. He spoke in mysterious ways -- even for a rabbi! -- and said a lot of challenging things, like "he who saves his life shall lose it." It was enough to make some wonder about his sanity (see Mark 3:20-21). So here was Jesus, preaching and healing people, doing wonderful things that made people think he might be the Messiah that the whole nation wished would show up. When he asks

He's My King!

I'm continuing to read in various media reports online about protests against the newly-elected President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. Individuals and groups are using the slogan "Not My President" in their anger against our new leader. But I'm not here to talk politics -- I'm here to lift our eyes to a higher plane, to who our real Leader is. Hint: we're getting ready to celebrate his birth soon!

Jesus -- his name means "one who saves" -- was born in a little backwater

Being Great by Serving First

Serving is almost always hard work, even if you do it for a living (think of your food servers at restaurants -- they work very hard taking care of customers). The one Servant who tops them all, Jesus Christ our Savior, served to the point of pain, giving his body and life to a torturous death on the cross (before his triumphant, world-changing resurrection). But even before

Sin Is...

Sin gets a lot of 'air time' in some churches, and sometimes in the debate between church and society. Quite often the subject gets reduced to a few sins that somebody is irritated about or thinks are the worst ones in society right now (and conveniently, sins of which they don't believe they're guilty, so they can feel better about themselves). Preaching about sin is popular with some, but will preaching about it reduce

Telling and Bringing Good News

The road was dusty and hot, but the crowd of people following Jesus to the next village didn't pay much attention to the environment. They were just excited to be around the rabbi who had been healing people and teaching a strange new thing, that God had sent peace and forgiveness of sins to people.. Some were looking forward to a

You Won't Want to Miss This!

You may remember the story of Rip Van Winkle, who slept for 20 years and woke to a much different world. Have you ever felt like that? I sometimes think that way about my journey through legalism and the first decades of beginning to understand grace. Oh, how good it would be to see all that again, with what I know now! Some days I still miss the point (I'll get back to that). How is

The Spirit-Walk

What if you could live in complete confidence? I don't mean that you would magically know the winning lottery numbers or which British football team will win the championship (it was Leicester City). What I mean is, could you be confident in knowing that your everyday actions and your words toward others would

Jesus and Bungee-Jumping

A friend of mine posted on Facebook this morning, "If you want to be anxious today, pretend you're in control" quoting Michael Reeves. Pretending, of course, we never were in control and we never will be -- but we'll be miserable if we try. This reminds me of one of the points underneath the scripture I read this morning, Luke 4:9-12.  In this small segment, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and tempts him to throw himself off, knowing that God must and will rescue him. Jesus responds rightly, "The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’" So what's behind this?  Is Jesus outlawing bungee-jumping,

Where Do We Go from Here?

The Lovely Joanne and I just got back from a day at a summer camp, where some of the campers and staff were baptized. Hooray and hallelujah! For those newly-baptized persons, I know one of their next questions is "now, how do I follow Jesus?" So here are a few words that may help. Should we seek a 'balance' between grace and

It's Here -- and It's Spreading!

"One of these days..." is a frequent phrase with some people I know. Like them, I'm looking ahead to the time when peace and joy will cover the earth, death and disease and war will be no more, and the only tears will be from joy. YES, it's coming! Better than that, it's already

Plants and People Grow

It's planting season in our part of Colorado, but even if you start seeds indoors under lights, it's a slow process. If you've ever gardened with children, you've seen them put

Invited Into our Father's Business

By Randy Bloom, Regional pastor for GCI

Trinitarian theology teaches us that God (Father, Son and Spirit) is “on mission” in the world and we are invited to participate! We participate as we actively engage with Jesus, by the Spirit, in

A New You

This is an outline of a sermon I would have given except for being snowed out.  I hope you enjoy it!

Main scripture, 2 Cor. 3:7-18 -- the old covenant versus the new.  Here are some contrasts between the old, based in the law, and the new, built on Christ:

Law, leading to death, vs. the Spirit

Love WHO???

Sometimes I don't understand Jesus. He's just a little too 'out there' for me. He's famous for the Sermon on the Mount, but that is a challenging piece! I mean, he takes the old command "don't murder" which is fairly straightforward, and makes it impossible with "don't call anyone else an idiot." Is that fair? (Maybe he only said that because he didn't have to deal with the drivers around here.) Not only that, he tells us we should love, not only our neighbors and friends, but even our enemies. That can't be realistic, can it? Maybe he had something else

What Brings Joy to the Holy Spirit?

Ephesians 4:30 says "And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live." Last Sunday looking at this verse, we asked questions like what brings grief to the Holy Spirit and why that is. The next interesting question was, "What

A New Childhood

God calls himself our Father, and he calls us his children. Jesus called little children to himself (Luke 18:15-17 for instance) to explain visually what it means to be God's kids (not just so he could explain humility -- he also took them in his arms and blessed them). The imagery that God accepts us "as his kids" should include our own memories of safety, love, warmth, comfort, care and security. That's how it should be.

But for some of us, childhood

Living in the Kingdom: The Sermon on the Mount

"Blessed are the poor...You are the salt of the earth...Unless your righteousness is better than the Pharisees...You have heard it said..."  These are familiar words from Jesus. Many times they are said to be "a new Torah" or "the constitution of the Kingdom," and they can be a tad frightening if