Tag: Matthew

Faith in the Hard

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Last week we got to hear from the angel Gabriel as he reflected on his experience delivering the news of Jesus’ birth to Mary. With him we got to marvel at the wonderful truth that with a faithful servant, God can change the world. This week we got to hear from Joseph who gave an poignant reminder that faith in the hard really is worth it. Keep reading to see how this story unfolds.

Faith in the Hard

They’re finally asleep, thank the Lord! You would think that exhaustion from the journey alone would have made that particular task significantly easier than it has proved to be lately, but you would be wrong. These are the things no one bothers to tell you when the child arrives. All everyone does then is ooh and ahh over how cute he is. “He’s such a precious little baby,” they said. “He’s just perfect,” they crooned. “He’ll be the Savior of the world,” they proclaimed. But after a long day on the road and with the stress of recent days weighing heavily on our minds, I’m not so much worried about the whole world being saved as I am getting a few hours of sleep so we can keep going tomorrow.

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A Centered Life

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This past Sunday morning, we kicked off a brand new teaching series called Simplicity: Finding Contentment in a Busy Life. The fact is: We all have lives that are busier than we’d like them to be at times. We all have times when we are just discontent with the state of our situations. Trying to navigate out of and around those kinds of seasons can be tough. This series is all about how to avoid them in the first place. Don’t miss a single part of this journey as we talk about how to focus in, slow down, and live the kind of life we’ve always wanted to have.

A Centered Life

Do you ever want more?  That’s kind of a broad question.  More of what?  Well, anything.  If we’re going to stay that broad, then of course you do.  I do too.  Now, not of everything.  But sometimes we want more, right?  Maybe you want more to drink at dinner.  Perhaps you want more dinner.  Kids often want more attention.  If you’re reading or watching a great story, you may want more when it ends; you may want to find out what happens next.  There are all kinds of situations in which we want more. 

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 5:23-24

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“So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever tried to do something while you were distracted? I’m trying to write this while my kids are watching a mid-90s teenybopper sitcom—not so easy. We weren’t made for doing multiple tasks at the same time. Some people may seem to have the ability to multitask, but the truth is that trying to do more than one thing at the same time is just going to result in not doing any of them very well. Rather uncomfortably, this goes for worship as well as life generally.

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Love Like Jesus

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This week we finally wrapped up our series, Being Useful. In the final analysis, how can we be the most useful to Jesus? The answer is found in getting ourselves on board with His most central mission: To love one another into the kingdom of God. To find out more about this incredibly freeing truth, keep reading.

Love Like Jesus

By the time I reached my senior year of college, I was so deep into my chemistry major there was no turning back from that.  I say that, because by that time I had already agreed to pursue God’s call to ministry and realized that most of what I had spent the previous three years learning was going to gradually leak out of the back of my head from disuse.  Always a fun realization when you still have the four hardest courses of your major yet ahead of you.  Speaking of that, one of those courses was Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry, or DINC for short.  The professor for the class was Dr. John O’Brien. 

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What Do You Know?

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This week as we continued in our series, Being Useful, we talked about the next quality on Peter’s list that will make us more useful to Jesus. Having faith and pursuing virtue are good, but they require something else of us to get them right. In this part we talk about with this other thing is.

What Do You Know?

Do you know where the annual U.S. sailboat show takes place?  Any takers?  Do you know who else didn’t know the answer to that question?  James Holzhauer.  Name ring a bell?  He was the most recent super candidate on the long-running game show Jeopardy.  He dazzled the country for just over a month as he went on a 32-game winning streak.  Now, a streak like that would be impressive enough by itself, but that’s not what so captured the nation’s attention.  Back in 2004, Ken Jennings went on a winning streak of 74 games and sits in second place for all-time Jeopardy earnings with just over $3.5 million.  Yes, that’s only second place.  No, what made Holzhauer such a fascinating contestant was his gutsy wagering.  I’ve seen winning contestants on Jeopardy walk away with a few hundred dollars as their prize.  Holzhauer’s biggest prize was a shade over $131,000.  All for…knowing stuff. 

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