7 Truths: God Walked the Earth

Sep 17, 2012 |

“7 Truths: God Walked the Earth”
John 1:1-5; Romans 1:1-7

What do we remember about 1969? For many, there is only one major memory, and that is of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Where were you when it happened? Who were you with? For the generation of my parents and grandparents, this is a defining moment in their lives.

For those of you who remember, it was exciting wasn’t it? A man. Walking on the moon. Up there. In SPACE!!!

I mean, to go from the first human in space in 1961 to actually walking on an alien surface in just 8 years, it’s pretty impressive. And to think today of all that goes in technology-wise to getting people into space, or rovers on Mars, and how they did all of this with 1960s technology, it’s all very impressive.

Neil Armstrong, and his famous first words from the moon are words which have been repeated many, many times over the last 40+ years. read more…

What Is It….

Sep 14, 2012 |

What is it you absolutely love about your life?

Not a hard one to answer is it? Usually a few things will come to mind.

But what about church? What do you love about your church?

Again… this is probably not a very hard question. What comes to mind?

When people share with me what their favourite part of church is, it’s usually the people and the food which top the list. Let’s face it, we do these two things pretty well in our churches. We like to be together, and we like to eat.

This is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good thing. Having someplace to come and feel “at home” and comfortable, that’s perfectly fine.

But why do we get together? Why are we a church?

Are we a group of people who like to hang out together, like a club? OR are we people who gather with others because we love Jesus?

Is it the first? Come on, you can be honest here. It’s ok. It’s true for a lot of people.

But you know what? There are many places where we can be together like a club. Every community has clubs of some sort.

We are the church! We are the embodiment of Jesus Christ, Son of God, here in the world.

Jesus must be our focus, our connection, our source of joy and hope. If he’s not, then we’re another club.

Which is ok. Clubs are good, but maybe we need to be real about it.

But if we want to be a church, then let’s be a church! Let’s get to know Jesus more. Let’s spend more time learning about him and letting ourselves be transformed by him.

Why?

Because Jesus changes lives. And if we’re on fire for Jesus, then others will want to know him too. And they’ll join us. And their friends will join us.

So go ahead. Get to know him more. You’ll be glad you did.

7 Truths: Not All Dead Stay Dead

Sep 10, 2012 |

“7 Truths: Not All Dead Stay Dead”
1 Corinthians 15:1-8

This weekend we are starting a series I’ve been looking forward to as I planned it over the summer. Occasionally I am sent books to review on my website, one of the perks I suppose. Early in the summer I was sent a book with a very intriguing title. It is called, “7 Truths That Changed The World: Discovering Christianity’s Most Dangerous Ideas” and it’s written by Kenneth Richard Samples.

In this book, the author takes on the issues which seem to challenge what we consider to be basic beliefs of our faith in Jesus Christ. The topics being challenged are the resurrection, the creation of the universe and all that’s in it, free will, grace and suffering, to name a few.

So we are going to spend the next few months looking at these things we hold to be true about our faith, and how the world is attempting to reject these claims.

It’s no question we are living in a world that is aggressively challenging faith and religion. Declaring loudly that God is not real, and certainly has no bearing on life, the universe or anything. read more…