The 4th Sunday of Advent: love & Magi. This is the 4th and final Sunday in Advent. As I have mentioned earlier the candle is for love and/or the Magi who came to visit him. We need to remember foundational truths. These are the things which do not change, regardless of everything else. The message of…

What do you fear? The other week Daniel and I stayed up late and watched the next movie in the Harry Potter Series: The Prisoner of Askaban. In one scene the students are given the task to face their fears. They can only face their fears when they acknowledge them. Some fear sickness and death. As I…

Advent is here. Today marks the 1st Sunday in Advent. For churches that follow a liturgical calendar it is also the “new year” for them. Advent looks back. We look back to the birth of Jesus. Advent looks forward. We look forward to his coming in the manger but also His coming in the clouds at the end.…

What are you grateful for? Take a moment and start to list your blessings. Those of you online chat them in so we can share together this morning. Being thankful is hard. Let me state this at the beginning. Respect those who do the ministry. This is not just about respecting leaders, though we must,…

Life is a journey. We say this in our world for a reason. Life has its highs, the mountaintops. Mt. Carmel, drought Life has its lows, the cave moments. This is where we pick up the story of Elijah. Be careful what we say. We can unintentionally be like Jezebel as we hear what God has done in other people’s…

Where are you looking? This is an important question. Where are you looking for love, hope, truth, grace, relationships, authority, perspective? We go where we look. We will become like that which we look at. For some we look in the past. This is the “good old days”. This is appropriate and we at times…

Two ways: positive thinking or resignation. These tend to the be two ways of handling pain, suffering or evil in our culture. If we can just think happy thoughts the pain will go away. If I just act as if it is not really happening I will be okay. Or this is just who I am. Look at my pain. Look at what…

How do we handle pain, suffering and the evil around us? This is the question we have been exploring the past couple weeks. I am hoping to wrap up by the beginning of November our series on suffering. Joseph experienced a lot of pain and suffering. Some of this was because of his choices and many times…