Advent and Christmas have both been such long traditions and celebrations in the lives of most Christians. So as we once again enter this season of the year, how well versed are you really  in some of the details that we hear in the stories and in the music of the season??

During those 40 days, Elijah was instructed by God to stand in the mouth of a cave. A giant wind, a strong earthquake and a fire went by but God was not in those. Following those, there was silence and a still, calm voice of God that spoke to him. It was in a calm and silent moment that Elijah experienced the small voice of God speaking to him.

 

I shared a video clip of a moment in 2003 that reminded me of what that small voice speaking in his ear must have felt like. If you would like to see that experience,CLICK HERE for the clip. 

This last week I made an unexpected, last minute cross country road trip moving my son, Dan, to Phoenix for a new job. All of his furnishings and belongings were loaded in a 16’ U Haul truck towing behind his car. 

 

After a second night’s hotel stay, we poured into the U Haul at 3 am. It was pitch black out and I was the designated driver for that leg of the journey. It is really eerie driving an unfamiliar vehicle into the sheer darkness of the night. This was new territory for me and so dark.

I look out my window today, and it is eerily silent. Not even a single bird has come to roost anywhere in my yard. My dog, Ava, does not even bother to look out the window where she normally gazes for long periods of time. 

Archived Posts

Gandhi and the Sugar

I wasn’t preaching Sunday, Reverend Jackie Chandler was.  And she talked about the power of influence you get when you practice what you preach.  This famous illustration came to mind.   It fits Jackie’s points quite well.  Enjoy!

Not Just for Parents

          Our current sermon series is about How To Talk Parent, but it doesn’t require any of us to be parents to appreciate the bits of wisdom OUR parents shared with us growing up.

If Not Higher

          Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday.  It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.

The Perfect Church

There is an old joke about the perfect church.  We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play.  It goes like this:

The Clothes You Wear

Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments.  I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy.  In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.