Like an Anchor
This Resurrection Sunday sermon is based on Luke 24:1-12. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A
Holy Week (but not quite Life Together)
I love a good quote. I use them all the time because they clarify, condense and add considerable weight to an already good point. Churchill said: “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” Well, I would add that it is even a good thing for educated people to color their conversations with a great quote every now and then. I am all with Marlene Dietrich here: “I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.” By the time this post comes out, we will be nearing the end of Holy Week. Easter is quickly approaching, but we still have to go through the darkest hours of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. It seemed to me that instead of continuing our discussion of Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, that we
A Palm Sunday Prequel
This Palm Sunday sermon is based on John 12:12-16. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A
Something’s Missing in Life Together
There are careers I just would not want. I would not want to be a mortician. In my opinion, it’s a dead-end job. I would not like to assist a doctor giving colonoscopies. Now, maybe it is better than being a professional colonoscopy patient, but I am not so sure I want to probe the differences. I would not want to be a corrections officer. Imagine doing that for 10 to life? Nor would I want any part of these real-life jobs: a roadkill collector, a crime-scene cleaner, a manure inspector, a zoo cleaner or a priest. That’s right, a priest. I definitely would not want to be a priest. Why? Simple, I don’t want to hear your confessions. Perhaps, I could listen to confessions from people I didn’t know, but hearing them from people I know and love, no thank you. We are looking at Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together:
Walking Worthily in Ephesus, Part 2
This sermon is based on Ephesians 4:1-16. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: ____: If ___ ___ hear ____ ___ the ________, you're going to be ___ ___ ___ ____ . You ___ also ___ ___ feel ___ out. You ____ also ____ ____ aids. I said: “Listen: If you only hear half of the conversation, you’re going to be at a real disadvantage. You are also going to feel left out. You might also need hearing aids.” But that is what happens whenever we read the letters in the New Testament. We are only hearing half the conversation! And that is not good because you can then misread (mishear?) what the author is trying to communicate. Bottom line: Without knowing the background, you are going to be at a real disadvantage. You may even need reading aids! For instance, take the book of
Plain Sailing (Not Sinking) for Life Together, Part 2
In our previous post, we asked, “What caused the Titanic to sink?” In this post, we want to ask the “who” question, as in, “Who was the one most responsible for the disaster?” This is also known as the “blame” question. Now obviously, the captain should shoulder the bulk of the blame (after all, he was the captain); and his executive officer did absolutely nothing to help save the day, but neither of these gentlemen would be at the top of my list. My number one target to blame is the ship’s radio operator, Jack Philipps. Long before there was a crisis with an iceberg, Jack was dealing with a crisis of his own. See, the day before the Titanic sank, the radio went out, and that meant he was way behind. Thankfully, the radio had been fixed, and that was a very good thing. Now back in the day,
Walking Worthily in Ephesus
This sermon is based on Ephesians 4:1-16. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: ____: If ___ ___ hear ____ ___ the ________, you're going to be ___ ___ ___ ____ . You ___ also ___ ___ feel ___ out. You ____ also ____ ____ aids. I said: “Listen: If you only hear half of the conversation, you’re going to be at a real disadvantage. You are also going to feel left out. You might also need hearing aids.” But that is what happens whenever we read the letters in the New Testament. We are only hearing half the conversation! And that is not good because you can then misread (mishear?) what the author is trying to communicate. Bottom line: Without knowing the background, you are going to be at a real disadvantage. You may even need reading aids! For instance, take the book of
Plain Sailing (Not Sinking) for Life Together, Part 1
Here are seven simple ways the Titanic disaster could have been avoided. Build it with a double-hull. Single hulls save money. Double hulls save lives. Use steel rivets, not weaker wrought-iron rivets (40% of the 3 million rivets used to weld together the hull’s steel planks were inferior). Seal the top of the watertight bulkheads. Watertight bulkheads are great if the water is shallow, but if the water gets deep and you haven’t sealed the tops of the bulkheads, water will just flood over the top, making a watertight bulkhead a waterfall bulkhead. When in dangerous waters (especially where you cannot see too far ahead of you), slow down or stop completely. In other words, don’t continue going at near maximum speed. Other ships in the North Atlantic that night took this advice to heart. None of them sank. Once you see an iceberg dead ahead, turn the ship immediately.
Prayer in Ephesus
This sermon is based on Ephesians 3:14-21. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: ____: If ___ ___ hear ____ ___ the ________, you're going to be ___ ___ ___ ____ . You ___ also ___ ___ feel ___ out. You ____ also ____ ____ aids. I said: “Listen: If you only hear half of the conversation, you’re going to be at a real disadvantage. You are also going to feel left out. You might also need hearing aids.” But that is what happens whenever we read the letters in the New Testament. We are only hearing half the conversation! And that is not good because you can then misread (mishear?) what the author is trying to communicate. Bottom line: Without knowing the background, you are going to be at a real disadvantage. You may even need reading aids! For instance, take the book of