We typically think of Grace (God's Riches At Christ's Expense) as that which saves us. We don't deserve to spend eternity in heaven, but because of grace, God sees Jesus when he looks at us instead of seeing our sin, and welcomes us into his kingdom. Even the late,...
These aren't my favorite songs ever. These are simply those songs that, whenever they come on the radio, I keep them on. Some combination of melody, rhythm, and vibe makes these sound as good as the day I first heard them. Here they are. 5. Never Been Any Reason, by...
Yesterday's message ... Had some fun with the biblical name "Bigthana" by envisioning a younger brother named "LittleThana"; Pointed out again how often the children of Israel have been subjected to genocidal rage; Explored how frustrating it is when a reward YOU EARN...
Most of you know the old chorus "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands." It's pithy, child-like, and singable. But is it true? In the face of a whole lot of evidence that looks contrary, is it true? Midway through the book of Esther, you could be forgiven for...
I spent Monday through Wednesday of this week at a United Methodist conference in Dallas, Texas. As a lot of you know, that's the city of my birth, childhood, and adolescence. One of the first things I did on this trip -- as I do every time on those rare occasions I...
Over the past several years, I have, thankfully, emerged out of a fog of cynicism. I went through a season where I was so frustrated with the actions of people who described themselves as mature Christians that I almost threw out the notion of mature Christianity...
I just finished reading Frederick Buechner's The Remarkable Ordinary: How To Stop, Look, And Listen To Life. Buechner is a Princeton grad, Presbyterian pastor, essayist, novelist, and occasional preacher. He just turned 92 and so is not turning out much new material,...
Yesterday's message ... Introduced the squirm-in-your-seat concept of a "sexual audition" from Esther 2; Meditated on both the nature of the bible -- why such a story in holy writ? -- and the activity of God -- does he cause stuff, respond to it, or something else...
So there's a beauty: Esther. And there's bleh: her life situation, her predicament, her enemies. Why have both synagogue and church always included such a sordid, "godless," story in their Scriptures? What does Esther 2 have to say to us in 2018. Quite a lot. It's a...
With some frequency, our Next Step Membership Workshop will involve an experiment. A Methodist experiment. And while the people in the class change, the results of the experiment rarely do. Here it is. At the beginning of our third evening together, I ask the...