November 22, 2017 · 3:40 pm

A Prayer at Thanksgiving

In this blog post I want to share a Thanksgiving prayer. I expected to write something somewhat traditional along the lines of recounting the many blessings for which we can offer thanks to God.  And while there is an abundance of such blessing to recount – for which I am thankful – the prayer that began to form in my heart and mind went a different direction.  This prayer is much more one of intercession for things in the news over the past year that many find troubling.  As a pastor I have seen the effects the deterioration in our national dialogue has had on friends, families and the church.  Perhaps you have as well.  If so I invite you to join me in this prayer at Thanksgiving.

 A Prayer at Thanksgiving

O God, in the noise and clutter of a confused and troubled world, help us to hear you. Continue reading →

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November 10, 2017 · 8:45 am

SERVE

This week I put out a query through social media regarding “service”.  I asked three questions: 1. Why do you serve others?  2. Where did you learn to serve?  3. What have you gained by serving?

I want to thank all of those who responded. There were several thoughtful replies and they’ve helped me think about this topic more in preparation for sharing a sermon on “Serve”.   I thought I’d use this post to share my answers to these three questions: Continue reading →

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November 1, 2017 · 2:07 pm

Grow

The marks moved incrementally up the door frame no more than a half inch or more at a time.  To the side they were assigned the initials of the one being measured: REC, TCC, PJC, KIC, and DMC.  Measurements were taken on no particular schedule, but probably after a fair amount of pestering had transpired.  In resignation – perhaps curiosity, but mostly to satisfy – the yard stick would be brought out as one by each the subjects stood. Shoulders back, eyes forward, head level as that same yard stick served first as marking point and then was brought down the wall to measure the height of the subject.  Inches were converted to feet and inches called out to the nearest quarter or eighth.  Growth was noted, cheered, celebrated, and marked for all of posterity on the frame behind the door to our utility room.  Those marks, perhaps under a layer or two of paint, still exist today.

As the youngest of the above identified initials, and therefore the shortest for quite some time, I took specific interest in the gains being made in my growth in stature.  Was I gaining on my siblings? Continue reading →

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October 26, 2017 · 3:48 pm

Connect

This Sunday at FBC Columbus we begin a three-week stewardship emphasis using the theme “Connect, Grow, Serve”.  We will be thinking about connections and connecting this week through an interesting passage of Scripture: Matthew 12:46-50.

As I have stopped to reflect on this theme I became aware of just how often I have used this word “connect”, or some version of it, in ministry. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2017 · 6:05 pm

Living Interactively With God

In my sermon today in the series “Be the Message” I drew on the wisdom of Dallas Willard and his work on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the “attitudes that ought to be” (or Beatitudes).  Willard said that living a good life, or being a good person, is learning to live “interactively with God”.  He suggests that this is what Jesus is speaking about in his famous sermon when he describes persons who are “blessed.”  Jesus does this by offering a quite unlikely list of 8 different characteristics: poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted (for righteousness sake). Those who live in this way are “blessed” or content because they are in tune with the things of God, the ways of God, and the will of God.  They are living “interactively” with God.

That may seem to us a high bar of a goal.  Perhaps even unattainable in our own merit, and therefore unreachable.  But it’s the life that Jesus modeled, and the life that he calls us toward.  A friend, having listened to the sermon, commented that living interactively with God today might be thought of as having a 24/7 FaceTime encounter with God. Continue reading →

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