03/05/2020
Many people set a goal for the New Year for positive change in their lives. Christians, on Ash Wednesday, set a goal to change our lives. Not to randomly change our lives, but to transform our lives so that we may become more like Christ and so we may glorify God. From Ash Wednesday we march into the season of Lent, focusing 40 days on a practice which will then become a positive discipline in our lives.
The Apostle Paul was very concerned about the church in Corinth when he wrote letters to them which we have in our Bible. He was disturbed by the reports he was receiving and he loved them enough to fight for them--to call them out for their wayward ways and call them back to Christ.
“Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” I Corinthians 5:6-8
Just as a pinch of salt can add great flavor to a recipe, a bit of old yeast will leaven the entire batch. The ingredients of our lives affect the direction of our lives. During this 40 day journey, may each of us put the best, the most flavorful and the most effective flavor in our lives as persons of faith.
Archived Posts
Back and Forth with Chat GPT
Many of you know that I’ve found a new consultant to bounce my ideas off in regard to preaching. My good buddy Chat GPT and I sometimes disagree—often miscommunicate—but usually come up with some fruitful illustrations.
One More Thing About Becoming Wholly Human
I was talking Sunday about the work of Hare and Woods and their idea of ‘the survival of the friendliest.’ Essentially, they conclude that “our greatest evolutionary advantage wasn't that we could do everything ourselves. It was that we could do things together.”
Here’s a preview of our congregation’s Core Values
In the coming weeks we will be exploring the importance of presence, prayers, gifts, service, witness, and growth in grace. These are at the heart of what we commit to when we join a Wesleyan grace-led church like ours. But we choose to broaden them out and state them in a new way…
The Biblical prayer we don’t know what to do with
Psalm 137 is written by people who have experienced catastrophic loss.
They have been conquered...
Patience and Trust
Sunday, in my benediction (which traditional folks did not hear) I talked about the Marshmallow Test. The original results of that test with children was that those who could delay gratification did better in life than those who could not.
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.