Blog

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

The Hebrew language has fascinated me for years…one of these days I’m going to have to quit fumbling around with it word by word and learn the whole language! Until then I’ll glean what I can from the resources available, all the while praising God for the abundance and availability of them. This week’s passage once again comes from the book of Hebrews as the Lectionary proceeds through. Hebrews 5:1-10 continues on from last week’s reading speaking of the Priesthood of Christ

0 comments

Hebrews 4:12-16 is taken from within the context of arguing that Jesus Christ is greater than Joshua. Joshua is one of my favorites from the O.T.! He, not Moses was deemed worthy to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land yet as the writer argues he did not bring them into the promised rest. Till this day Israel still struggles to exist in a world that hates them…they are constantly being threatened and attacked, by cowards sending children with bombs and hiding in schools while they shoot rockets over the border.

0 comments

Divinity came to earth and took humanity back to heaven. That’s how Dr. J. Vernon McGee put it…for some reason I kind of like that. Hebrews 1:1-4 gives us these various attributes of the Divinity of Christ: Hebrews 1:2b-3 through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

0 comments

As I read the scriptures for this week, that simple little statement jumped out at me for some reason. Jesus goes from talking about the fires of Hell to speaking of fire and salt? The Ceremonial Laws given to Moses required salt. Leviticus 2:13

0 comments

The book of James is filled with good practical advice. Straightforward sometimes in your face applications of God’s Word. This week’s passage in the New Living Translation seems to be filled with the word ‘jealous’ James 3:14, 15, 16, 4:2, all use jealous or jealousy as a negative attribute of someone who is not wise, of someone who places themselves and their desires over others. Yet depending on your translation jealous is also used in James 4:5 as an attribute of God?

0 comments

Words of encouragement or words of Abaddon (destruction) seem to be based on the condition of our current situation. If we’re doing all right then words of encouragement and even praise come pretty easily. But when we’re down, when we’re discouraged ourselves, somehow encouragement for others and praise for God seems to be in short supply. It’s as if our hope is dependant of our current situation…yet conditional hope is no hope at all!

0 comments

Jesus came and did what was prophesied about him, yet many missed it. They were looking for the full fulfillment of the prophesy. Even John the Baptist who was the first one to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah doubted from prison. Matthew 11:4-5

0 comments

A few years ago at a previous church the Superintendent of the local school dressed up like a bum one Sunday and walked into the sanctuary for the service. There were lots of whispers but he was greeted by those around him and told they were glad he was there…pretty good response I would say! I wonder how that would work in our church? My hope is for similar results…yet I’m not so certain.

0 comments

Something happens to us between the age of two and three. Before two we are sweet and innocent and seek to please. Somewhere between two and three we like to see what we can get away with! I can clearly remember both of my boys saying no and reaching for something at the same time…watching me, just to see what I was going to do. Now when I ask my 18 year old son to do something he likes to wait until I freak out and make a big deal of it before he does it! I ask him nicely three, four, sometimes even more times…why does he do that to me?

0 comments

Moses says be careful, Deuteronomy 4:2 Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you. He warns them by reminding them of what happened the last time they turned away from God. In fact the O.T. is filled with the history of a people continually turning away from God and His Commands.

0 comments

Be strong and courageous are the words Moses uses to Joshua…those are the words Joshua uses to the Israelites and those are essentially the final words that Paul uses to the church in Ephesus as he writes from prison in Rome. In fact the words used in both the Hebrew (Joshua & Deut) and in the Greek (Ephesians) speak of gaining or receiving this strength and courage.

0 comments

1 corinthians 10:1-13 (1)