Benefits from the Bible

August 30, 2009? Proper 17 James 1:17-27 Bibles are everywhere. You can find them in grocery stores, bookstores, motel rooms. Every year the Bible outsells every major bestseller. In America we are glutted with the Word of God on the airways, radio, TV, books, magazines. Yet millions of people still miss the benefit from the Bible.

Crossing the Line

?August 23, 2009 Proper 16 John 6:56-69 On Sunday, members of a house church in a city of the old Soviet Union arrived inconspicuously in small groups throughout the day so as not to arouse the suspicion of the KGB informers. By dusk they were all safely inside, windows closed and doors locked. They began singing a hymn quietly but with deep emotion. Suddenly, the door was pushed open and in walked two soldiers with automatic weapons, loaded and ready to fire. One shouted, "All right-everybody line up against the wall. If you wish to renounce your commitment to Jesus Christ, leave now!"

The Teaching Pool

All across the country, several churches and their pastors are beginning to create a new way of constructing their weekly messages, choosing to move from an individualized study model to a communal one.

Doing God’s Will

?August 16, 2009 Proper 15 Ephesians 5:15-20 Everyone wants to know God's will. What if God has already given you His will? Many people get hung up on the 5-10 percent of God's will they do not know-like where to go to school, whom to marry, which job to take-which theologians refer to as the specific will of God. Sometimes, we forget about the 90-95 percent of God's will that we already know. (It is recorded in black and white in the Bible.) Theologians refer to this as God's general will because it applies to all believers.

God Is in the Gate

August 9, 2009 ?Proper 14 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 Drugs almost killed the young father of the 10-year-old girl, but he escaped from that lifestyle; and by the time his daughter was in high school, he was completely free-or so he thought. He recognized the signs and tried to stop her; but when his daughter was a sophomore, filled with beautiful potential, an overdose took her life. He felt the tortuous grief of losing a child, the helpless frustration of watching the habit that led to her death and heavy pain of regret for the example he set for her. He had been freed from drugs, but she had been enslaved. Why didn't he die instead of her? Why was he forgiven and given life when hers was taken?