Blog

I went to a zoning meeting on Monday evening. It was to allow a halfway house to be placed in an old home that had already been zoned as a group home only now the home was to house people convicted of felonies.

Keywords: hebrews 13:3  |   3 comments

I don’t know why but ever since I read the scriptures Monday morning as a part of my devotional time this phrase has been nagging at me.

Keywords: hebrews 11  |   1 comments

I though I would share with you a Bible Study I lead at the Kiwanis Manor this week. Luke 12:13-21 "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"

Keywords: luke 12:13-21  |   1 comments

Last week I preached a message proclaiming that there is one thing above all other things that we as Christ followers ought to be concerned about…Jesus Christ and Him crucified for my (your) sins…first, foremost above all else. Other things may be nice, other things may be important, other things may demand our attention, but this one thing must be held closest to our hearts above all else!

Keywords: luke 11:1-13  |   1 comments

The Bible it's been said is the history of a God who created us to be with Him in a paradise. Only He gave us freewill and with it we've chosen to separate ourselves from a perfect and Holy God

0 comments

Have you ever wondered why God has made this life so hard? Not that we in the U.S. even have an inkling of what HARD can be, but that the answers to all of life’s questions seem to be just beyond our reach.

Keywords: galatians 5:24-25, mark 10:18, matthew 5:22, romans 7:15, romans 7:24  |   0 comments

It’s a mystery to me, how God will work in people’s lives differently. For some He immediately calls into a deep life changing transformation and in others it seems to take a long while.

Keywords: galatians 1:11-24, romans 7:15, romans 7:24  |   1 comments

We struggle to understand this God who is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct yet not three separate. This Sunday is Trinity Sunday for those who recognize liturgical calendars and for all Christ followers the very concept of the Trinity is core to our understanding of God. Yet who really understands who can really grasp this God that is so far beyond us? I’m left asking myself what does it all mean…how does it change my life and the world around me?

Keywords: 1 john 4, matthew 22:37-40, romans 5:5  |   1 comments

I listened to a really good sermon the other day entitled “Reviving the Nephesh” by Rob Bell from Mars Hill. I always enjoy Rob’s sermons and this one pI listened to a really good sermon the other day entitled “Reviving the Nephesh” by Rob Bell from Mars Hill. I always enjoy Rob’s sermons and this one particularly grabbed me because I had preached a sermon somewhat similar back in October. I guess it encouraged me that I wasn’t completely off base on the issue?! Rob used Psalm 23 to address the issue where I was a little more analytical trying to understand the ‘Dividing Soul and Spirit’ from Hebrews 4.

1 comments

I’ve been struggling to write something about prayer this week…maybe it’s because I’m a terrible pray-er. I so easily get distracted that if I try to spend extended time in prayer before you know it I’m making lists of things I should be doing! I’m not sure why that is, is it lack of faith? Is it lack of spiritual maturity? Or is simply a lack of practice, something I just need to practice at?

3 comments

As we enter week four of our series Windows on the Gospel the image of balancing our faith between extremes is coming clearly into view. Last week as we took a glimpse of Martin Luther, we saw that we too readily rely on our own goodness, the works of our hands to justify us before God.

0 comments

I’m not quite sure how it happened but it seems as if I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing on this Blog and have missed some opportunities. Last week about Friday sometime I reminded myself I hadn’t written yet and thought, “Oh I’ll just finish what I’m working on and then I’ll do it”…and here it is Tuesday!

2 comments

I've had quite a busy week and here it is almost midnight on Saturday and still no post! I want to at least add a link to a resource I used a lot this week for the first of our sermon series "Windows on the Gospel" here is the home page of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America . http://www.goarch.org/

1 comments

Having not grow up in the church and even coming to Christ outside the church I have always looked at the things that we do in church with a bit of skepticism. In the past I used to say quite regularly, “Where’s that in the Bible?” when I would see some Religious Ceremony going on…now I’ve learned to at least hold my tongue now and then!

2 comments

We have 10 new members joining BUM Church this Sunday praise God! I so look forward to the excitement and joy of the Palms and the Baptisms and the confirming of our faith with the vows that we as a church take with our new members. It always reminds me of when my family was baptized and joined the church together. Yet at the same time The Spirit reminds me that it may not always be that way.

2 comments

I led a Bible study at the Kiwanis Manor (an assisted living retirement home) this week and developed an outline for that study. So I thought I would share some of that as well as some insights from the women who were there. The passage I chose to reflect on was Philippians 3:4b-14.

1 comments

So here I set in downtown Columbus in a hotel room, staring at a blank screen…I’ve got nothin’! I shouldn’t say nothing…I’ve got something but no idea where to go with it. Karma is at a conference for school and I’m supposed to be writing my second sermon this week on the same set of scriptures.

1 comments

This week’s excerpt from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 at first glance seems to be out of left field. It starts with a statement that sounds like it’s part of a greater statement, and it is…kind of. Paul in the previous chapter is writing about how those who do the work of the Lord deserve their pay yet, he has tried to be an example for them. Paul writes of a runner striving towards the goal and athletes training for the prize. So he also strives to bring his body into submission and under control to win the eternal prize. His last line is most insightful for our reading:

Keywords: 1 corinthians 10:1-13  |   2 comments

As I read this week's passage from Philippians it's amazing to me how much is actually packed into these few verses! Just six verses, about 170 words...what can we learn?

1 comments

He came to be what we couldn’t be, He came to fulfill what we couldn’t fulfill, He came to offer what we couldn’t offer…Holy, Righteous and Pure…the only sacrifice acceptable to the Lord. It sounds too easy to be true…

1 comments

I wonder, looking out into the faces of the people each Sunday, how many have truly experienced the Lord in a life changing way? In a transfiguring way, where who they are has been shaken to the core? I have seen changes in many over the last six years…in others, not so much. Does my seeing or not seeing really indicate anything?

2 comments

This year of the RCL Year C mainly works its way through the Gospel of Luke with many ‘Special Sundays’ including readings from John and a couple from Matthew. Luke 4:31-44 is skipped over for some reason and includes a very interesting detail to me.

0 comments

Wow I thought I had a bad temper…what made them so mad? What is going on here?

0 comments

When I think of how many times I have read a passage and discovered something new it boggles my mind! It"s almost as if I have never read it before, yet I can remember reading it and receiving insight from it before

0 comments

I just spent the last weekend at Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility for a three day Spiritual Weekend called Epiphany. The 3 days are filled with talks and tes

0 comments

Two simple words filled with potential! It could describe an actual path to follow, it could describe a process, it could describe a state of mind or means of thinking,

0 comments

I went to see the movie 2012 recently with my wife. After having written about it a couple of weeks ago I felt a strange kind of need to see it

0 comments

This week's readings are filled with apocalyptic imagery and prophecy yet to be fulfilled! As we head into Advent this is normally the case, every year we are reminded of the promises throughout scripture that the end will come…and the Messiah will return.

0 comments

So here I set in Panara trying to ignore the business meeting going on right next to me and think about the widow’s mite. My ignorance and simplicity sometimes astounds me…what the heck is a mite? The KJV is where that word comes from yet the Greek that is translated is leptos so again I ask, what is a mite?

0 comments

We start our series on “The Road to Financial Freedom” this week and I love the way God has worked this out for us. You’d think since I planned when to start this series I would have based it on the scripture readings for this week yet, it had more to do with fitting the series in before the holidays than anything else! The title of the first week’s sermon is “Who’s in Control” and it of course is the perfect question to start the conversation about finances…go figure.

0 comments

1 corinthians 10:1-13 (1)

1 john 4 (1)

galatians 1:11-24 (1)

galatians 5:24-25 (1)

hebrews 11 (1)

hebrews 13:3 (1)

luke 11:1-13 (1)

luke 12:13-21 (1)

mark 10:18 (1)

matthew 22:37-40 (1)

matthew 5:22 (1)

romans 5:5 (1)

romans 7:15 (2)

romans 7:24 (2)