Category Archives: christianity

Who was that crazy woman?

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At about 45 years of age, she wore clothes that were beyond trendy. They looked like clothes teens might wear in music videos, although MTV was still 10 years away.  Her hair was a sight to behold —  jet black against her snow-white skin, it was startling enough, but what really made it remarkable was how she stacked it up on her head, making her four to eight inches taller than she was without it.

We used to say that she played the organ like I would imagine Captain Nemo playing in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Weaving back and forth dramatically.  She played well, and her flamboyant display was captivating at least and entertaining at best.

Somewhere along the way she sensed a call to serve God by teaching the teen Sunday School class — my teen Sunday School class.  She taught us about music, training us to discern when we listened to artists. She taught us to welcome people by welcoming us into her home, for a Christmas youth fellowship. She corrected us when we treated others poorly and she encouraged us when she played volleyball with us.

We were blessed because of her service to the Lord.  I am glad she didn’t miss her calling.

The following sermon speaks of how important it is for you and me not to miss our calling.

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Learning to Love at Christmas

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When I think of love and of Christmas I am tempted to say, “If you want your Christmas to be meaningful, then let’s enter into loving relationships,” but that would be incomplete. Loving people doesn’t just make Christmas meaningful. It makes life meaningful – even rewarding. However, in order to love as you’re wired to love, you have to enter into a loving relationship with God. You do that through Jesus.

The Bible says that Jesus is the way to God. That’s not politically correct. But the Bible indicates that it’s true. Jesus calls himself the gate. He says he is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Peter says there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. You can know God’s love by receiving Christ as your Savior. Then you can begin to love others from the overflow of Jesus’ love.

The audio below teaches us about different kinds of love and explains how to show the love we should, not just at Christmas, but all-year-round.

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The Baby Jesus — all-grown-up…

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In a sermon from Matthew 10, Skye Jethani warns us against looking at the Bethlehem manger and thinking only about this innocent, helpless, sweet baby, tender and mild, laying down his sweet head.  He is no such thing.  Jesus said in that text that he did not come to bring peace but a sword.

He did not come to give us the warm fuzzies, but to demand our allegiance. He came to die on the cross to pay for our sins. He came to draw you to himself so you could be forgiven. He demands that we give him first place in our lives and worship nothing else — be it family or ourselves.

One of the greatest thinkers of the past century, C. S. Lewis, said it well in his book, Mere Christianity.

Christ says: Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I’ve not come to torment your natural self but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth or crown it or stop it but have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires that you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked, the whole outfit. And I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself. My own will shall become yours.

The all-grown-up Jesus wants your all.  You can’t negotiate with him.  You can’t bargain with him. He doesn’t offer a full-serving for some, and lunch-sized portions for the rest.

He has come to dethrone everything that we might illegitimatly place at the center of our lives.  This message speaks of this all-grown-up Jesus in greater detail.

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