Dane Lewis

About Dane Lewis

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So far Dane Lewis has created 794 blog entries.

“Pray This Way”

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. . . .’” (Luke 11:1-2) Back in the day, there was a TV police drama named, “Dragnet.” It set the stage for every good cop show after it with its great staccato musical sting, its gripping storylines, its real-to-life actors (Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday) and its great quotes. “The story you are about to see is true. . . .”  “This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.” “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.”  “We were working the night watch. . . .” But today, we want to focus on Sergeant Friday’s most famous line: “Just

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Standing in New Life

This sermon is based on Ephesians 4:20-24. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling, “Stand Out.”

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“The Greatest”

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39) Sometimes, when we walk our dog Ragna, he decides he wants to eat grass. And then he gags, and it just gets ugly. And so, we made a law: No eating grass. But then one day, we were walking and he took a bite out of a small plant that was growing by the side of the trail. Now, he felt that he was justified in eating this. After all, the rule was no grass. It never said anything about plants. And when we pressed him on it by saying, “You know what we meant,” he totally disregarded us and threatened to call his lawyer. And so, before we went walking

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Standing with the Spirit

This sermon is based on Romans 12:1-2. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling, “Stand Out.”

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“Bearing Fruit”

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) One summer, I worked at an apple orchard. I loved it, but after a month, I was offered a job that paid three times more money and required three times less exertion. And so I moved on, even though, at my new job, I couldn’t eat any of my work. For years, that’s all I knew about bearing fruit. But if we want to be disciples of Jesus, bearing fruit must become our priority and our passion. Right in the middle of the Farewell Discourse in John 15, Jesus begins to talk about fruit. Specifically, he talks about bearing fruit. And he hits it hard. He says that if we don’t bear fruit, we will be “cut off” (verse 2a). And even if we are bearing fruit, but not nearly enough, we

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Standing with Jesus

This sermon is based on Philippians 2:5-12. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling, “Stand Out.”

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“So That”

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Sometimes, reading the Bible is an adventure in missing the point. 2 Timothy 3 has been a favorite passage of mine for years, but my focus has always been on those first four words; “All Scripture is God-breathed.” Now, I can make a good argument for why the focus ought to be on those words. After all, the inspiration of Scripture is of critical importance, and scholars wrestle with the meaning of almost every word in this clause. But if that remains our sole focus, we will miss the whole point of the verse. See, the point of the verse is not found in the first four words, but rather on those two small words that appear almost in

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Standing with Faith

This sermon is based on Romans 1:16-17. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling, “Stand Out.”

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“Follow Me”

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'” Matthew 16:24 One would never believe that defining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus could be so confusing. Jesus seems to make it very clear here in Matthew 16 (and twenty-one other times in the four gospels). It is comprised of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following him. Here’s my problem. For most of my life, instead of emphasizing Jesus’ command to “follow me,” I stressed his invitation to “believe” in him. In other words, instead of focusing on living like Jesus, I centered on thinking properly about Jesus; and my discipleship became a matter of having right theology. And while I may never have admitted it, right thinking was more important to me than right living.  Now, “believing” is important and understanding theology

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Standing with Peace

This sermon is based on Romans 5:1-8. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling, “Stand Out.”

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Called to Stand Out

This sermon begins our new teaching series and is based on Acts 4: 1-12. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: What in the world convinced people back in the Roman world to abandon their beliefs and gods and come to Christ? After all, there were no immediate incentives—no promises of instant and lasting health; no promises of a life of exorbitant happiness; no promises of immediate and continued wealth and no promises of adoring popularity. There were, however, plenty of deterrents. In fact, anyone who became a Christ follower back then could expect a largely negative response from others. So, what in the world convinced them to make such a commitment? Surprisingly, it was the people in the church. And unsurprisingly, it is the same thing today. That’s what we want to explore in our new series which we are calling,

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Go Forth with Peace

This sermon is based on 1 Peter 2:18-25. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Stephen Colbert likes to call the Fourth of July weekend, “exploding Christmas.” I’m not into fireworks too much anymore, but I do like ideas; and I especially like ideas that “explode” in our heads, ideas like freedom, independence, equality, life, grace and, most importantly, mercy. This July, we want to “go forth” and look at how our calling as citizens of heaven shapes our citizenship on earth. Let’s “go forth” by showing mercy and pursuing peace.

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Marked by Mercy

This sermon introduces our new series and is based on Matthew 18:23-34. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: Stephen Colbert likes to call the Fourth of July weekend, “exploding Christmas.” I’m not into fireworks too much anymore, but I do like ideas; and I especially like ideas that “explode” in our heads, ideas like freedom, independence, equality, life, grace and, most importantly, mercy. This July, we want to “go forth” and look at how our calling as citizens of heaven shapes our citizenship on earth. Let’s “go forth” by showing mercy and pursuing peace.

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Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 5

Today, we conclude our series on the Desert Fathers. And we conclude with a call to action. Henri Nouwen writes: “Precisely because our resistance [to pursue God and to pray] is so great, we need disciplines. We need very concrete ways of living by which we can keep inner space open for God and grow into the new self. But as we struggle with the demons, we will discover that we are not struggling on our own but that it is the power of Christ himself who makes us victorious and it is that power that transforms us into new people. Indeed, God re-makes us.  “That is paradise: the new life in God.” Throughout the centuries, Christ followers have used various methods to “grow into the new self.” And while, we do the hard work of striving to grow in Christ—a task that involves dying to self, putting off the

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Called to Prayer

This sermon concludes our series and is based on Mark 9:17-29. You can also view each week's sermon/worship service on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ncsq_QNvCv61bIwKUpP5A SERIES OVERVIEW: BLURB: Sometimes we make things too complicated. Suppose our goal is to follow Jesus. What do we do? Easy. We study theology. We analyze passages. We scrutinize sayings. We delve into the parables, and then we make a list of 72 things to work on before Saturday. And why do we do this to ourselves? It’s complicated. But what if we started by asking the question: “What did Jesus’ life looked like?” What if we asked about Jesus’ daily routine and seek to duplicate that? Where would that take us? I think it would take us right where we want to go.  After all, it is Simply Irresistible!

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Hot Wisdom for Desert Living, 4

Let’s be honest: we don’t want to go into the desert. We don’t want to confront our demons. In fact, we don’t want to grow, at least not at the price that the desert fathers required. But true spirituality calls us to die to self and give ourselves completely to God. But that seems a bridge too far and so we constantly put it off until tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. There’s a great scene in CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce. A ghost (a person) has a lizard (his rabid sin nature) on his shoulder. The lizard is constantly spewing out lies and tempting the ghost who is more than willing to listen. An angel comes and offers to kill the lizard, but the ghost is unwilling to let him do so. He can’t imagine life without his sin. The angel asks, “Can I kill it?” To which the ghost

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