He Is RISEN!
Scripture Reading: Mark 16:1-8
This day is the our greatest celebration. It really is. Every other Sunday service we have is because of this Sunday.
This is the Sunday where it truly all begins. Some might say Christmas is the start of it all, but in reality it is this Sunday.
Why this Sunday?
Because if Jesus didn’t rise for the grave, we would have nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Think about it. People are born every day. Some of us are seen as important, some of us less so. Personally, I believe all of us are important, but the world sometimes has different levels of importance. Anyway, we all are born, we all live our lives, and then we die.
I’ve had some great teachers in my life; people who inspired me, who encouraged me to live to my potential. And I am thankful for them. In fact, I still think of several teachers I had in high school often. I wonder how they are, where they are, and how many others they may have inspired in their life. But the reality is, they are going to die some day.
I know it’s not a happy thought, but the reality is they will die. We all get our turn.
What’s the old saying? “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” read more…
Sunrise sermon – it’s our story too
This week we did a strange thing together as Christians. Did you notice it? This past week during our lunches we did something new, and it was a little odd. What was it?
Our theme for the week was “Singing our way to the cross!”
What do we most associate singing with? We associate it with celebration. Sure we sing at other times, music has been created to soothe all kinds of moods. But singing our way to the cross sounds to me like an act of celebration.
How can the cross be a celebration?
It’s the place where God’s Son died!
A celebration? read more…
power trip
Scripture Reading: Mark 11:1-11
Power is a strange thing. I don’t mean electricity, I’m talking about strength or control over something. Like a king over the people. Or a parent over a child.
Now, if you are a parent and are giggling right now, I’m with you.
A lot of times we might think we have power over someone, or control over a situation, but the reality is usually something else entirely.
Before we had kids, Bev and I were those kinds of people who showed up early. For everything. All the time. That doesn’t happen so much any more if we’re travelling as a family. Admittedly it’s easier now than it was when they were babies, where everything revolved around if they were awake, or hungry, or needed to be changed. But even today, sometimes it’s still a rush.
Power and control are things we wish we could have. Or at the very least, when we think we’ve got it, maybe it would last long enough to finish the job.
It’s no secret that I am a heavy user of technology, and we all know I used to work in the high-tech sector as an IT professional.
Back then most of my day would be working on someone’s machine who called to say they were having problems. 90% of the time I was able to connect to their machine remotely to look around and find the problems that needed to be fixed.
Because I was working remotely, sometimes the person who was experiencing the problem wasn’t aware I was working on the issue. So they would ultimately decide to try and fix it themselves. read more…
be ready
Scripture Reading: Mark 13:1-8, 24-37
Architecture comes in many different styles and uses, just like types of buildings. There are malls. There are businesses. There are schools, hospitals, factories, office towers, hotels, churches, museums, not even to mention the diversity of houses built over the years.
Yet, despite all of this, each has a special meaning to us. Especially when it comes to our homes and churches.
After the last few weeks of hearing Jesus teach in the temple, in our reading this morning he finally leaves. As they are leaving his disciples point to the temple and make comment. Now I’m not sure with what emotion they are pointing to it; are they pointing out it’s impressive structure, it’s beauty? Maybe.
They point to the temple and say, “What a large building! Look at those impressive stones!”
And how does Jesus respond? He says this, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
Now, how would you feel if we left here this morning and I said, “Take one last look folks, next week this building might be gone!” read more…
give your heart
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:28-44
When I was in seminary some of us wanted to get together and explore, play and learn new music. So we started to get together on a weekly basis to see what we could do. We quite enjoyed it. And after a while we were starting to get some requests to play at churches, so we thought we needed a name.
We thought about it, trying to find just the right name to capture our essence. We were all self taught musicians, we had no particular special musical skills. We just know we loved Jesus and wanted to play and sing music together.
As we thought about these things, one name came to mind for me.
“Two Cents”
Why “Two Cents”? read more…