We are sometimes tempted to look at other families who appear to have their act together and think - "Why can't my family be like that ?" Family Dynamics can feel as complicated than a Nuclear Reactor, and sometimes it is just not clear what we should do. Today we look at practical tips for raising babies, teenagers, and the challenges of caring for elderly parents in honoring ways. It turns out that the family unit is not one more possible group of people, but rather a gift that God intended for your blessing. But in a broken world, families get broken too. Today we get wisdom from God's word and are reminded that no matter how broken our biological family may be, we can be members of the family of God.

All of us want great friends, but as Emerson said, “If you want a good friend, be a good friend.” How do we do that ? And how do we know when friends are doing us more harm than good ? What does it mean to have healthy friendships that last ? We look at wisdom from the book of Proverbs and the ideas of Martin Buber to help us see other people as co-mysteries created in the image of God – rather than as a means to an ends.

What should you do when people drive you crazy ? What is the right way to deal with difficult people ? How do you dance with a porcupine ? Today we look at a practical set of exercises that can really help you deal with difficult people in a godly way. We study several images that can help us in the heat of an argument, and we turn to Ephesians 4 for a vision of who we are called to be in tough times. See the hand out for this sermon at What should you do when people drive you crazy ? What is the right way to deal with difficult people ? How do you dance with a porcupine ? Today we look at a practical set of exercises that can really help you deal with difficult people in a godly way. We study several images that can help us in the heat of an argument, and we turn to Ephesians 4 for a vision of who we are called to be in tough times. See the hand out for this sermon at

http://levpres.org/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Leverington-Handout.pdf

The first step to being able to improve any relationship is understanding the difference between Stimulus and Response. Do we have the ability to choose better ways of doing relationships ? Are we merely animals that respond to stimulus ? It turns out that we are, but we are also something much more - created in the image of God. Join us as we wrestle with the first foundation for great realationships. See the handout for this sermon at:

http://levpres.org/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Covey-article.pdf

Psalm 90 is the first of our "Living in the 90's" summer podcasts. Here is an intimate prayer whose gaze spans from the eternal glory of God to the fleeting frailty of a human life. Psalm 90 does a great job of re-booting our priorities and calling us to live afresh, to live now, to experience what it is like to have God as your home in the midst of barren and broken landscape.

Ever had a neighbor that drove you absolutely nuts ? It is said that there are two kinds of people in the world - our friends and our teachers. Believe it or not, that crazy neighbor can help teach you an important lesson about the book of Galatians! In Galatians, Paul contrasts two very different lists - a list of the acts of our sinful nature and a list of the fruit that the Spirit of God produces in us. The difference between those two lists is the difference between self-centered misery and self-forgetful joy. Today we focus on the second list, the amazing, beautiful fruits of the Spirit and find out that we can't manufacture them ourselves, but we can be the farmers that till the soil so they can grow.

A black hole looks so much like nothing - it is so dense that even light can't escape its gravity - so when you look at it you see... nothing. Sin is a lot like a black hole - it doesn't look like much, but the further you go in, the harder it is to get out. Today Paul covers a list of sins - sins that a lot of us don't want to talk about, sins that frankly some of us don't think are all that bad. We don't see why they are even called sins in the New Testament. But what if we don't see them because they are like a black hole or a land mine - hidden from our sight, yet deadly. What if it is not so much that the Bible is old fashioned, but rather it is like a pair of x-ray glasses that reveals dangers we just cant see even though they are right in front of us ?

Many of us grew up thinking that a big part of being a Christian was being moral - obeying God's laws and trying to live a good, godly life. Then how can Paul say that living under the law actually leads to bondage and being cut off from God ? ! People have all kinds of theories about human nature and God's will, but most of them simply don't match what we actually see and experience in real life. Today Paul gives us realistic image of human behavior and what true freedom looks like. It turns out that it takes effort to hold on to your freedom and it is easy to drift away from it. We tend to drift away in one of two directions - either towards self-indulgent sins or towards self-righteous rule keeping - both of which end up in bondage. Today we look at one of the most amazing scriptures we have for understanding the promise of the gospel - Galatians 5:1 - "It was for freedom that Christ set you free..." Come join us on a journey that begins with the best cork screw ever invented and ends with a picture of your relationship with God that could change the way you think about the way you do your life.

This podcast gives us both a technical biblical study and an experience of resting in God's presence for our own lives today. Many people struggle with this strange section of Galatians where Paul quotes a section of Genesis that ends with "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Doesn't sound exactly loving. What the heck is this all about ? The people Paul was talking too were very proud of their knowledge of the scripture and the fact that they were "Abraham's Sons." Paul effectively says "If you really knew the scriptures, you would know that Abraham had two sons - and they ended up in two very different places. Which son are you... really ?"

If someone could you tell you a truth that was hard to hear, but it would help you grow into the person you are called to be - would you want to hear it ? We all have blind spots - character faults and lousy personality traits that stunt us and cripple us, and make us petty, small people. Today Paul challenges the Galatians with the question "Have I now become your enemy

by telling you the truth?” We take a practical look at very practical step you can take to grow into the image of Christ.