Two of my daughters were in their school play this weekend, called Little Women, and one of them played the role of Bethie who (spoiler alert) dies near the end of the play. Bethie got written out of the story 3/4 of the way through the story, and the cast went on without her just fine. Sure, the rest of the characters missed her, but their lives went on in things like marriage and travel and work and hobbies, etc. This past Sunday, I preached a sermon from Acts 12, where King Herod violently attacked the church as it was really growing all over Jerusalem and now into Antioch. It seemed like s ..read more

On April 8, 2024, many in the Central and Eastern US were able to see a total solar eclipse. Millions of Americans picked up some “eclipse watching glasses” so they could watch the sun directly as the moon moved in and then moved on. I was one of those who did not buy the glasses, because I didn’t plan on looking directly at the sun. But, I snuck a peek into the sky a time or two and was quickly reminded just how blinding the light of the sun is. Then some scriptures came to mind: Revelation 21:23 says heaven will not have a sun or a moon. No need for it, because the glory of God will illumi ..read more

(excerpt from Sunday Sermon) One of the criminals next to Jesus on the cross at some point here saw something about Jesus that the criminal on the other side did not. The one on the other side yelled insults at Jesus, but this one interjected… Luke 23:40 …“Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in ..read more

I Have Loved Them as You Have Loved Me 20 “I pray not only for [the disciples], but also for those who believe in me through their word. 21 May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 (CSB) I’ve been studying John 14-17 these past several weeks, and ..read more

A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones. Proverbs 14:30 There is a tragic story in the book of 1 Samuel describing the first king of Israel, named Saul. Saul had been empowered for his role as king by the very Spirit of God (10:10). Saul wasn’t just someone who was a head and shoulders taller than everyone else. God had anointed him as king. And yet, several poor decisions along the way in Saul’s 42 year reign proved that maybe his heart wasn’t as all in as it might have appeared. In fact, some of those decisions were deliberate disobedience against the L ..read more

The other night, I sat down tonight to do something completely unrelated to writing a 2021 Year in Review paper, but all of a sudden, the year sort flashed through my memory and I felt like I should write some of it down. We actually had a really good year, despite a lot of uncertainty in terms of where we would meet and how the year would play out. WINTER We finished out 2020 meeting online, since we were not allowed into the school during the second spike of Covid, and in early 2021, we landed at Copper Creek Ridge, a small wedding venue on the West side of Interstate 218. It limited us a l ..read more

Ambassadors, not Volunteers At River City, we call the people who serve on Sunday mornings, “ambassadors.” Why do we use this term, and not “volunteers”? First of all, when I think of a volunteer, I think of a gap-filler. You need 3 ushers, you have two, and so you announce the need for one more. A person says something like, “Sure, I think I can do that.” They serve as an usher, even doing the job very well to the best of their ability, filled with the Spirit… and then go home, wash their hands, and never think of it again. It’s not that there’s no place in the Church for volunteers. But that ..read more

In 1984, a movie was released called Spinal Tap. It’s a comedy about music, and even if you’ve never seen the movie you may have heard one of the lines. Nigel, one of the main characters, is showing off his guitar collection, and when he gets his guitar amp, he points out how all the knobs on his Marshall go to 11. “Everyone else’s just go to 10,” he says, “but when we need that extra boost, we turn them up to 11.” “Couldn’t you just make 10 louder than all the other amps that go to 10?” Nigel is asked. He pauses to consider. “But these go to 11.” WHAT KIND OF GOD ARE YOU, ANYWAY? Psalm 66 des ..read more

Do You Believe? Everyday we operate on thousands of different beliefs. You assent to some truth in your head, and you act on it. For some of you, you understand that a cup (or a pot) of coffee in the morning is the only way you will be able to function (belief). So you act on that belief by swinging your feet out of bed and, before you have even considered anything else about your day, shuffling to the kitchen to dump grounds into the filter, pour the water into the reservoir, and push “BREW.” Then, after your morning routine of breakfast and coffee, showering and getting dressed, you head out ..read more

“The error at the root of all false ideas of perfection is this: it is rating our behaviour before God higher than our relation to God-putting conduct before faith, deeds before trust, work before worship… We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust…The soul’s true and universal perfection is a faith. It is a perfection of attitude rather than of achievement, of relation more than of realization, of truth more than of behaviour…. Christian perfection is the perfection not of conduct, character, or creed, but of faith. It is not a matter of our behaviour before God the J ..read more