Category: Sunday’s Sermon

  • Honor in a Cancel Culture

    How many of you have returned at least one thing you received this Christmas?  It’s great, isn’t it?  Don’t you just love doing returns?  Yeah, nobody likes the hassle of returns.  Over Christmas, I ordered some items for my truck from Walmart but found out they were on backorder after ordering them.  So, I chatted…

  • Travel Light—Letting Go of the Past

    I talked with someone this past week who commented that they are ready for 2024 to be in the rearview mirror.  I know some of you may be feeling that same way. Perhaps some things happened in 2024 that you are ready to move on from.  Maybe it was a struggle with anger, and you…

  • Travel Light—Letting Go of Bitterness

    The word “Advent” comes from the Latin “adventus,” meaning “coming” or “arrival.” Before the Advent or arrival of Jesus, there was the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In the same way we are also on a journey with Jesus. However, it is important to remember that this world is not the destination of our journey.…

  • Travel Light—Letting Go of Distractions

    How many of you are like me and are easily distracted? I will confess that I am the most single-minded person you may ever meet. I can only focus on one thing at a time. I do not multi-task. I’m not saying I don’t multi-task well; I simply don’t multi-task. That goes for almost everything…

  • Travel Light—Letting Go of Stuff

    In August of this next year, my daughter Olivia will be riding in the longest, most grueling horse race on the planet. It is 1000km (620 miles) across the Mongolian steppe desert. It will undoubtedly be a memorable and epic journey for her. Part of the preparation is figuring out what to pack for the…

  • Our Values—What is important to us?

    A reality for all of us, whether we are talking about individuals, families, or churches, is this: If you don’t know your target, you will hit it every time. If you’re aiming at nothing, you will hit nothing. That is a universal truth. Several weeks ago, we started a conversation that, I hope, reminds us…

  • Our Values—What’s Important to Us?

    Vision 2025—More about our values. Earlier this week, I was in Beaverton at a conference. For the first couple of days, I used Apple Maps to get around town from my hotel to the conference venue. On the last day of the conference, I felt good about navigating the area we were in, so I…

  • Our Values—What is important to us?

    I remember what life was like before there were cell phones.  I won’t lie; sometimes I dream about smashing my phone.  But one little piece of technology that I do really like is my GPS.  The GPS is great because it does a few things.  The obvious feature we all love about GPS is its…

  • The Gospel Unveiled—The Solution to Original Sin

    On August 6, 1945, one man, Harry Truman, ordered the atomic bomb dropped over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The death, the devastation, and the destruction that followed that event were unparalleled in history. The atomic bomb changed the entire course of geo-political events, as every building within 4.7 miles of the epicenter was leveled…

  • The Gospel Unveiled—Abraham’s Faith—Romans 4

    Paul says to the church, “You are not justified (or made righteous) by what you do, but by faith (or belief) alone in Jesus.” This is a radical statement for both Jews and Gentiles in the church in Rome. This idea is counter-cultural in many ways. Justification means being declared righteous—as though we never sinned…