Four scenes showing the Last Supper, Jesus entering Jerusalem, carrying the cross, and crucifixion.

Summer Reruns: A Fresh Look at Generosity

Leave a comment

Jesus’ final week on earth before going to the cross was busy. He was in the temple almost every day teaching and preaching and engaging with the Jewish religious authorities who were trying desperately to undermine Him in any way they could. Amid all of this commotion, though, Jesus found a few quiet moments to just sit in the temple complex with His disciples, observing the passing scene. As He looked across the great courtyard, He saw worshipers pouring their offerings in the treasury box. The metal box with a trumpet-shaped opening made sure that the most obviously generous patrons of the temple were noticed and celebrated by everyone within earshot. What caught Jesus’ eye in that moment was not the large gifts of the wealthy, but the apparently insignificant gift of a poor, old widow. His comments to His disciples about the woman gave us a totally new way of understanding how God looks at generosity. They reframed what matters most when it comes to our giving. Let’s take a look at this story from Mark’s Gospel in a post from this date in 2021.

Read the rest…
Laptop screen showing 'Summer Blog Ideas...', notebook being written in, beach in background

Summer Reruns: Giving God Our Best

Leave a comment

We’re into the very heart of summer. It’s hot. Way too hot in fact. And although the next month is going to be intentionally low key at my church, the reason for that is to allow time for families to vacation and rest and refresh…including my own. All this month I am going to be featuring some old posts during the week. Sermons from Sunday will go up on Mondays like always, but otherwise we are going to look back over some things I’ve written in the past. And, with closing on nine years’ worth of posts to pull from, there’s quite a selection ahead of us. Each post during this season will be one that ran on the current date in a previous year. So, take a fresh look with me at what was on my mind right near the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. Have a great Tuesday!

Digging in Deeper: Malachi 1:12-13

Growth in Secret Places

Leave a comment

This week we are moving forward in our series, A Kingdom Vision, walking through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We have finished Matthew 5, and it’s time to move forward into Matthew 6. Jesus opens this next part of the sermon by talking about three different spiritual practices. He gives lot of practical advice in terms of how to pursue them in ways that will be the most lastingly beneficial to us, but it’s the bigger picture that we simply must not ignore. And the big picture is this: the reason we pursue these disciplines matters. A lot. Let’s talk about it.

Growth in Secret Places

I love weeks like we had last week. I love hearing about camp and all that the youth and kids experienced and that God accomplished during those weeks. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the years I have chaperoned as well. I think the reason I love church camp so much is that a church camp was the source of my first real job out of high school, my wife, all three of my boys, and my call into ministry. How could I not be grateful for camp? And, yes, you heard that right: my marriage is a product of a camp romance. 

Read the rest…

Happy Birthday, America

Leave a comment

“For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 CSB – Read the chapter)

Tomorrow the United States of America celebrates its 250th birthday. Personally, I’m going to be up early claiming a spot on Main Street where I will watch our town’s annual Fourth of July parade. It’s the largest such parade in the area. I’ll be joined by 30-35,000 of my closest friends who will park…everywhere there is to park in our town of about 2,500 people. After that, I’m going to be hunkering down in the AC (for my European friends, that is a miraculous invention that allows you to make it dramatically cooler on the inside than it is on the outside) because it will be nearly 100 degrees already by the time the parade ends. Then I’ll go to a cookout with some friends and close the day out by watching the largest fireworks display our town has ever had on the last day of our weeklong carnival. The next morning, I’ll get up early and head to church. In other words, it’ll be about the most American weekend you could imagine. Let’s talk a bit today about what makes America so great.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday, America” →
Man tied to tree with rope in dense forest looking distressed

Getting Caught in Your Own Trap

Leave a comment

“Why, my son, would you lose yourself with a forbidden woman or embrace a wayward woman? For a man’s ways are before the Lord’s eyes, and he considers all his paths. A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin. He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity.” (Proverbs‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬-‭23‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever done something that seemed like a good idea at the time only to run into a wall later? Had you really stopped to think about it, you probably wouldn’t have done it, but you wanted it. And so, instead of listening to the friend or two who warned you against it, you convinced yourself that you were right or even wise—at least justified—in doing whatever it was. Sin is a trap, but it’s one we often fall into ourselves because of a pattern of bad decision making. This applies to all sorts of situations, but especially times of sexual sin. Let’s talk about it.

Read the rest…