living for eternity today
Well this week is that whole love week. It’s the week of Valentine’s Day. It’s a day filled with flowers and candy. It’s a day when we talk love and acceptance. Unfortunately that love and acceptance stuff we show on Valentine’s Day is very conditional. It’s a love that seems more transactional – I’ll love you as long as you love me back kind of thing. Continue reading
This past weekend was a pretty cool weekend at the church I serve. We had the amazing opportunity to bring Hollyn to perform live in concert! It was great! If you’re not familiar with her music you should go over to her website and check her out! Since we’re still riding the wave of the concert, I thought it was fitting to select a song that featured her music along with the one who gave her a start in the industry, Toby Mac. Continue reading
One of the hardest things in the world is to see yourself as you really are. I mean we either look at ourself as our own worst critic, never giving ourselves any credit. Or we look at ourselves through rose-colored glasses and think we can’t do anything wrong. Now if you’re married, you can fix this false perception of yourself and just ask your spouse – they’re generally pretty honest. 🙂 Continue reading
There is only one name that will really make a difference. You could try to use any other name you’d like but all of them will end up failing you at some point. So I’d like to just save you the time and effort. Now I know some of you are thinking well he’s a pastor so that’s why he’s telling us all of this. He kind of has to doesn’t he? Well, no I don’t have to, but I’ve found that nothing else will do. Continue reading
I know we’ve used this one already but it’s important for me to post this today. You see today I have the privilege of performing the Celebration of Life for a wonderful man of God who had just one story. This man was a man of God like no-one that I’ve ever before met. He helped me plant my first church. He became a friend. He was like a second father to me. He was my spiritual mentor. I would call on him when I had questions and he’d always help me find an answer. Today I’d like to tell you his story. Continue reading
A couple of realities are worth discussing this morning. First the devil is real. You may or may not believe it but it’s true. The devil in the bible has been described as the father of lies. The whole purpose of the devil is to lead you to believe something that just isn’t quite true. Parts of it may sound appealing but I can assure you that if it comes from the devil – it’s a lie. Continue reading
Sometimes in life things get a little out of hand. We lose sight of the things that really matter in life. Challenges and hardships take over and all we can see is darkness. And darkness is frightening because it contains so many unknowns. Continue reading
We’ve all seen it. Many of us have one in our houses this time year. Our churches pull them out of storage as we approach Christmas. The manger scene is a staple in our Christian celebrations of Christmas. We’re so familiar with the characters in the story that we likely don’t even give it much thought. The wisemen came from lands afar to see the baby born. The shepherds respond to the angels’ call to hail the birth of an unlikely king. Mary and Joseph were just trying to find out what it meant to be parents as they coddled their newborn son in the stable that quiet night.
But what about Mary and Joseph? What do you think was going through their minds as they held their child? Did they know what really was going on? Did they know who their son would grow to be?
One of my favorite Christmas songs carries such a heavy message. Mary did you know? Did you know that this Jesus would end up being the savior of the world? Did you know that this child would grow to change the world? Did you know that his death would bring life to all who believe?
As a parent and a pastor I often look at children and wonder what does God have in store for you. I look at the young people around me and marvel at the many great things they are accomplishing. I’m so excited to see what God has in store . And seeing these young people mature gives me hope for our future.
So did Mary know? Perhaps, but likely at best was in denial of what it all meant. But what we do know is that she was faithful to do what God called her to do. This Christmas remember the greatest gifts sometimes just might come in the smallest of packages.
Merry Christmas!
I don’t like to stop. I often am afraid that while I’m asleep I’ll miss something important. This is a large reason why I stay up late and rise early. But there’s another kind of sleep that has crept in and started to affect us all. It’s the sleep of complacency. Continue reading
Since there are only so many weeks to celebrate Christmas and there are some pretty great Christmas songs, I thought it’d be good to take a few weeks of our #musicmonday this year and celebrate Christmas. Christmas this year is a song that talks of the transition between fall and Christmas. The message is one of anticipation. Continue reading
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