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"As we continue our journey through Advent, Pastor Ed talks about the Reason for it all: Jesus, the Light of the World."
"We are in the 3rd week of Advent, which means we are turning the corner and beginning to talk, not just about the 2nd coming, but about the incarnation "
"Pastor Ed continues our journey in the Advent Conspiracy and discusses the Second Coming of Christ"
"This week marks the beginning of Advent. Historically, Advent calls us to remember that God came to earth to live among us, along with preparing us for his final coming at the end of time. Christmas is supposed to be all about Advent."
"As you spend time with your families this Thanksgiving, whether you're excited to see loved ones or are dreading it, we're asking you to represent God there, to make it a SACRED SPACE. Acknowledge God, reflect on what He has done, and love and listen to your family. "
"Pastor Ed shares thoughts on thanking God for who He is."
"Pastor Ed frankly and from the heart about ways for us to express thankfulness in our lives."
"Pastor Andrew continues our series about creating and maintaining Sacred Spaces in our lives for God."
" Ed continues the Sacred Spaces series with some thoughts on how our lives matter to God.
Papa Ed’s brother Mark shares some thoughts on marriage relationships from Genesis.
We’re bouncing around and examining some thoughts, that God has created life to be lived out in community. Yes, we champion individuality. Certainly, the Bible talks about us being created as individuals. Yet, there’s always this connection that when we express our individuality it should always be lived out in the context of community.
What if belief isn’t just an end within itself? What if we’re not supposed to just “believe,” and then just try to live this kind of holy thing the best we can? I don’t know quite what that means. But, we’re supposed to believe and wait until Jesus comes…. What if we’re missing “why” we believe? What if believing is something more than belief?
I fear that though we get the idea, as evangelical’s, of believing [in personal salvation] – ourselves, and trusting in Christ – ourselves. I wonder if sometimes, we miss the point of why?
Andrew continues this series with some compelling thoughts on how God gets involved with our lives.
In Christian thought, when we approach people, we need to respect them, and treat them like we would as if we were approaching God Himself. That’s smack in the middle of Christian thought. That somehow, when we go out into the world and face each other, there should be a little bit of a “whoa,” I’m approaching someone, who on some level, is reflecting the image of God.
Ed shares some thoughts on how to find the places where God’s Word can speak into your life.
What if God hasn’t made faith just about being great individual people who live perfect lives? What if God has called us to admit that we need each other?
Andrew shares some thoughts on faithfulness – faithfulness to God.
A big part of how we love each other is in the names we use; how we “label” each other.
" In the ancient world, the gods were thought to be angry. Most of the stories of creation in the pagan world were of the gods fighting and war. The reason we end up with the universe and human beings is the result of their fighting. When the Bible and the stories of scripture come out; it’s a completely different story. The story of scripture has nothing to do with the gods being angry. It has everything with this being in eternity who imagined wanting to share life with someone beyond himself. According to the Genesis narrative, the reason God creates is precisely because of love. This is radical thinking in the ancient world! "
Andrew talks about how God hears and answers our prayers.
Freedom for many people is a kind of commitment to their own simple, baseline impulses. It looks like the classical form of Hedonism. Whatever you have an impulse for – go for it! Sadly, there are people in the context of the church that think the reason we have faith is so God can give us even more stuff than the pagans!
“God did something I didn’t expect Him to do. God is bigger than our ideas. Even though we have theological constructs and understandings, that doesn’t mean God can’t work beyond them. One of the ways we’re going to reach more people for Christ is to quit judging them because they don’t speak our (codified) language….”
Andrew Arndt shares some thoughts on the mystery of God.
Andrew, Ed, and Paul talk about fatherhood from the perspectives of three generations.
Imagine what it would be like if you could actually change. That’s the dream of this business of faith.
The final sermon from the series When God Breathes.
Andrew Arndt continues with the fourth message in “When God Breathes.”
Part three of Ed’s series on the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.
The reason faith matters is because it’s what allows us to participate in this plan, this dream that’s unfolding in the world. We’re in the midst of celebrating the [season of] resurrection. When we ask, “what really took place there?” You have to back up and realize that God, in the very beginning, of this thing, has this wonderful dream to lay-out this world in which He would participate in. We mess it up right in the beginning. Yet, God chooses to chase us and not abandon us – not leaving us to our own demise and destruction. He chooses to jump into the middle of this thing and absorb all of our pain and the stuff we’ve messed up – taking it to the cross and the grave. When He [Jesus] comes out of the grave, something got set into motion that gives hope for the world; and we become part of that hope.
Somehow, when you do what you do as unto the Lord. You realize, this is what God wants. This is God’s will for me to participate – in this kindness, or in this action. That somehow, as we participate with doing what’s good, we get invigorated!
This business of resurrection, that we celebrate today is the most important holiday for the Christian church. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrection; our faith is in vain. The scripture tells us that the reason this is true is because the greatest miracle God ever did was raising Christ from the dead.
Palm Sunday -- When the nation of Israel was jacked-up with hope, the hope was soon disappointed. Not because God didn’t act for them, He did. Rather, because He didn’t act for them the way they had expected Him to act for them. (Jesus came to bring peace. They wanted a conqueror to free them from Roman impressment). One of the messy things about faith is, that is true for us as well. God promises to act, but often the way He acts is not exactly what we wanted….
The whole idea of God’s motive and love for us, is best characterized in the Greek word “agape.” This is a love that is reckless. It is a love that isn’t based upon merit; nor on conditions. It’s a kind of love that’s based upon the person loving rather than that person being loved.
The two sides of spirituality
Spirituality has a very intellectual side to it, which is wonderful for people who like to think. But, there’s also a really deeply felt aspect of spirituality. This is the part where you need to use not just the part of the brain that’s logical, but the part that’s creative, aesthetic, and is rich with feeling – there’s emotion to it. The part of the brain that is more experiential than it is analytical. ….faith is the stuff of mystery.
God loves us and is for us. On some level, there should be a gesture in our souls that we want to say, as Paul said, we want to live pleasing to the Lord – we want to respond back. The Bible says we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and strength. In other words, there’s a place for us to be intentional about our response to God – that we can love Him back.
I wish spirituality was really simple, real easy, but it’s not. When you’re honest about it, much of life is jacked-up with complexity .
This thng we’re in is an issue of faith. I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was just an issue of knowing, solid, with no uncertainty. The fact is, God is invisible. I wish He wasn’t. I wish it wasn’t the Goldilocks deal it is. The three bears get home and discover someone has been messing with their porridge, chairs, and beds. It isn’t until the end of the story that they run into that “someone” – Goldilocks. The reality is, it isn’t until the end of this journey that we run into Jesus Christ. The only thing we have are these little evidences, little nudgings of the soul, little things that change. When they change, you think, somebody’s been messing with this. I think it’s God….
An epiphany is when you see something that you didn’t previously see. What’s interesting about faith is that a huge part of faith is about seeing what you couldn’t see before. In fact, the whole idea about faith is you begin to perceive things which are unseen, and you become confident in what you can not see with your eyes because you’re seeing with eyes of faith. Scripture calls this the eyes of your heart; and you begin to see what you previously couldn’t see. Somehow, this journey of being apprentices of Christ is full of that idea. We need to understand that Christianity isn’t so much a religion where we run at God. Rather, it’s an experience where God shows stuff about himself, and we go “whoa, I never saw that!” And because you see it – it changes you.
God isn’t trying to be involved in our lives just to make us feel better, and us try to find our own way and use God as currency to get what we want. God will help you. Even if you’re a selfish moron, God will still be there to help you. But life is fairly flat when it’s about things…. Jesus said, if you gain the whole world, you end up paling your soul. And when your soul becomes pale, you won’t even be happy when you gain it! You’re only supposed to have success and prosperity in your life to the degree that your soul is prospering. Don’t get out of sync, don’t try to drive your own life. Joy is in finding the sync with why you have been created to be in this place.
