The Story of Us (Creation)

Text: Genesis 2: 26-31   I just returned from Israel.  I was asked several times how this pilgrimage continues to impact me after traveling to the Holy Land so many times.  I responded that on each trip I become more spiritually “rooted.”  Rooted in the way that keeps you healthy, nourished and vital.  Rooted in

Does Your Church Want a Future? (then “get” this!)

History will look upon the years that spanned our lifetimes and declare them to be a period of seismic cultural shift.  In the same way the Gutenberg Press changed the world in 1439, the advent of the personal computer and the internet has changed the world again.  We live in a time when the Norman

Let Jesus Take Your Trash Out

Text: Psalm 123 Some years back I was reading a business journal that was exploring lucrative fields for the future.  Most of it was tech and medically related but not all of it.  One particular line stuck with me, “There will be profitable future markets for people who can make other people’s trash go away.”

Preaching the Bible (all of it)

A major failure of modern orthodox Christianity has been an unwillingness to preach and teach the whole of the Bible.  I am as guilty as anyone.  We play the hits over and over but we don’t play the whole album.  As a result, most of the content of the Bible goes unaddressed and unexplored in

Telling the Truth (About Jesus)

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you

Why I Believe What I Believe… A Seven Part Blog on Hebrews, Orthodoxy and Hope in Christ (Part VII)

  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our

Why I Believe What I Believe… Hebrews, Orthodoxy and Hope in Christ (Part VI)

  Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.  3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that

Why I Believe What I Believe… Hebrews, Orthodoxy and Hope in Christ (Part V)

  21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly

Why I Believe What I Believe… Hebrews, Orthodoxy and Hope in Christ (Part IV)

Welcome to my forth installment of “Hebrews, Orthodoxy and Hope in Christ.”  Let’s begin with scripture: In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.  And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so