Pastor Prince

Our cultural Christmas is largely sweet and soft.  Like a "Precious Moments" nativity.  But the real Christmas story told in the scriptures has rough edges!  Luke 1 says that as Mary contemplates the birth of her son, she composes a song of revolution.  It speaks of the exalted being humbled, the humble being exalted, the hungry getting full, and the full left hungry!  Jesus is born in a barn.  His visitors are shepherds, who were social outcasts. These rough edges are on full display in Luke's account of Jesus' appearance at the temple in 2:25-38.  When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus go to the temple, an "old saint" named Simeon takes Jesus in his arms, praises God because he has seen the Messiah, and prophesies that the child is destined to cause the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed.  Not sweet and soft! Finally, Simeon says that a sword will pierce Mary as well.  This is the first time pain is mentioned in re

In the magnificent prologue of John 1:1-18, John begins the story of Jesus in the eternal past.  He starts with the Word, who was with God and was God.  He continues by saying the Word became a real human being and lived in the world, showing us what God is like. In verses 10-13 and 16-18, he tells us that the Word came to his own, and his own didn't receive him. This is one of the greatest ironies of history, because God created the world through the Word,.  Yet when he came, the world turned him away.  Killed him, in fact.   But not everyone rejected him.  Some believed him, put their faith in him.  To those, God gave the power to be his children.  Through faith in Christ, they were "born from above" (John 3:3), or spiritually born.  In this way, they came into God's eternal family.   John concludes the chapter by saying that the law came through Moses.  Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  We who have put our faith in Christ and followed him

The first five verses of John 1 take us to the eternal cosmic plane, as they talk about the Word that was with God and was God.  Then in verses 6-9, we move to the human world of time and history, as John says that God sent a man named John into the world.  He wasn't the light, but was a witness to the light God was sending to the world in the Word who became flesh: Jesus Christ. This John was John the Baptist.  His more accurate title was "the Baptizer."  He wasn't the first Baptist, though we would love to claim him! Some in the early church era believed the Baptizer was equal to Jesus.  Maybe even superior!  But the gospel of John wants people to know clearly that John wasn't the light.  He wasn't the Word who became flesh.  Nonetheless, he was important.  He was a witness to the light.  He pointed to Jesus and identified him as the Messiah, the Savior. These words about John remind us that God calls us Christ followers to a similar mission: to poi

Last week, we thought about the mind-stretching and mind-bending truth of the eternal Word, who was God, and was with God in the eternal past.  John 1:1 reflects the truth of the Trinity, that God is three persons in one being: Father, Son (Word), and Holy Spirit.  We also saw that the eternal Word had life, and in him was the light of humanity.  His light shines in the darkness of our broken world, and the darkness hasn't overcome it. This week, we explore something equally mind-stretching and mind-bending!  John 1:14 says that this Word that was God, and was with God in the eternal past, became flesh and lived among us!  This is the great miracle we celebrate at Christmas: God became a real human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Why did he do that?  He had many reasons, but one of them was to reveal himself to humanity.  John suggests this truth when he says in the latter part of verse 14 that we've seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of

It's the time of year for Christmas TV shows and movies!  Lots of them talk about "the true meaning of Christmas."  But hardly any of them present the true meaning of Christmas!  One of the few ones that does is "A Charlie Brown Christmas," that premiered in 1965.  I watched it on our black and white TV.  Even then, I was impressed with the scene in which Linus steps on the stage and recites the Christmas story from Luke.   This doesn't mean other specials don't have good points about Christmas.  Who doesn't laugh at "Christmas Vacation"?  Who doesn't get a lump in their throat when they sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life"?  Still, they present a hollowed out Christmas, a Christmas without its essential meaning. This week, we begin our worship teaching unit "Christmas Presence: God with Us."  In this unit, we're going to learn the true true meaning of Christmas

Joseph's story, told in the latter chapters of Genesis, is a remarkable narrative of faith and perseverance.  He overcomes family dysfunction, injustice, and more to become second only to Pharaoh. But his story is more than a lesson in character.  It tells how God worked him to save Israel, and ultimately, the world. The key passage in his story is Genesis 45:5-8.  There, he tells his brothers not to beat themselves up about what they did to him.  God had worked through it all to accomplish a great deliverance.  Had they not sold him into slavery, he wouldn't have been in Egypt, and they would have starved to death.  This part of the story prompts a debate about whether God sends bad things in our lives or he creates good in the bad things in our lives through our faith.  I tend to believe the latter, drawing on Romans 8:28.  God works all things to the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. Beyond the story of saving Israel

Genesis tells us that Joseph found himself in a "pit" a couple of times.  First, when his brothers threw him into one, and second, when Potiphar put him in the dungeon.  Both were literally "low" points of his life!  The first time he was there because of the anger and jealousy of his brothers.  The second time he was there because of the unjust accusations of Potiphar's wife. Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the first pit and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, who, in turn, sold him to Potiphar in Egypt.  Joseph's escape from the second pit was much more involved! Genesis 39:1ff tells how Joseph rose to being in charge of the prison.  Genesis 40:1ff says that Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker were thrown into the same prison. One morning, when he went in to attend them, he found them downhearted. They told him that they had experienced dreams the previous night, and had no one to interpret them.  Joseph offered to help.  He listened

Lemons are sour, and when we have a sour experience, we say we've been handed a bunch of lemons!  One of my favorite sayings is, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  Through God's power, we can take a bad experience and turn it into something good. A Bible character who epitomizes that saying is Joseph.  His story begins in Genesis 37.  In our worship unit, we're going to see how he dealt with lemons in injustice, opportunity, and mercy.  We start with seeing how he experienced lemons in his family life. "Dysfunctional family" is a redundant term!  Every family has a degree of dysfunction.  Joseph's family had more than a little. His father Jacob favored him above his brothers, and that created terrible problems in his family.  Things got so bad, his brothers conspired to kill him.  But they saw a way to get rid of him and make money off him by selling him to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders.  They told their father he had been k

Why did Jesus come to this world?  Oftentimes we Christ followers say it was to redeem us from sin and give us eternal life.  Jesus came to do that, but it was part of a broader purpose.  His broader purpose was to bring God's kingdom to the world.   Jesus spoke of this mission in his first recorded sermon in Luke.  Luke 4:14-21 says that in this sermon, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2.  This Old Testament passage was a prophecy of the end times.  After reading it, Jesus said, "Today, this prophecy has been fulfilled in your hearing."  This meant the end times had begun, and God was starting to establish his kingdom on earth through Jesus!  This kingdom would be good news for the poor, as it would free prisoners, heal the sick, and release the oppressed. This passage tells us that the alleviation of poverty should be part of our kingdom work in this world.  Sadly, churches today tend to fall into one of two categories: Those that preach the gospel but do little

One of the many extraordinary things about Jesus is the way in which he reached out to people on the margins of life.  Our new worship unit focuses on how he did that, and how he calls us to do the same! Luke 5:17-26 tells the story of the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him to Jesus.  His friends took him to Jesus on a mat in faith that he would heal him.  When they arrived, the house in which Jesus was teaching was so crowded, they couldn't get him to Jesus.  So they went up on the roof of the house and tore a hole in it.  Then they lowered the man to Jesus! When Jesus saw their faith, he decided to heal the man.  He told him that he had been forgiven of his sins, and could take up his mat and walk.  And he did! This is one of many incidents recorded in the New Testament in which Jesus healed people.  Why did he do it?  First, it was a sign.  Luke 7:18ff says that John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask, "Are you the One who is to come, or sho

The book of Job is a deep dive into the problem of suffering.  It's one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament.  Wisdom books like Proverbs often teach that God blesses righteous people and judges wicked ones.  But Job challenges that assumption.  In Job, a righteous man suffers, and struggles with what God has allowed to happen to him. After Job has lost everything and been afflicted with terrible sores all over his body, three friends go to be with him.  When they see him from far off, they don't recognize him.  As they draw near, they begin to weep.  They tear their clothes and fling dust in the air, which were ancient demonstrations of grief.   Overwhelmed, they sit with Job seven days in silence! Here, Job's friends show how we can be with each other in difficult times.  They went to him, they empathized with him, and they stayed with him.  Though they didn't say anything, their presence indicated their love and care for Job. Sadly, things fe

We're basing our new worship unit on our children's Orange curriculum for the month of September!  The unit is "Friends," and it focuses on God's commands for us to love each other as he has loved us. The account of Jonathan and David is one of the great friendship stories in the Bible.  It's recorded in 1 Samuel 18-20.  Both of them were great, charismatic leaders and warriors.  David appeared to be the inferior in the relationship, because Jonathan was King Saul's son and the heir to Israel's throne.  But God had rejected Saul and his house, and chosen David to be the new king.  Samuel had already anointed David as the new king before he met Jonathan.  Jonathan didn't know about David's anointment, and David didn't let it get in the way of their friendship. Though it was in neither of their political interests to sacrifice for each other, they did.   Their story teaches us that in great friendships, each party focuses on

Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) explores the boundaries of love.  A lawyer quoted the Levitical command (Lev. 19:18) that we should love our neighbors.  When Jesus told him he should do that, the lawyer asked the important question, "And who is my neighbor?"   It was a way of asking, "Whom am I supposed to love?" Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  Afterward, he asked the lawyer, "Who was a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?"  Jesus flipped the question around, and moved neighborliness from static to active! One of the core commitments of churches that grow young is that they strive to be great neighbors in their communities.  They know their communities and seek to be Christ's hands and feet in them.  They know their surrounding cultures, but don't fear them.  Instead, they seek to know them.  They acknowledge the good and bad in them. If churches want to grow young, t

Jesus made peculiar choices in disciples!  Mark 1 tells us that he began by calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John.  These were good men doing honest work.  But none of them were scholars with  theological training.  Then, in Mark 2, Jesus called a tax collector named Levi to be a disciple!  That was much more peculiar because tax collectors were social outcasts.  Many of them were wealthy, but gained their wealth by corruption. Mark 2 also tells us that Jesus had dinner at Levi's house.  Since the only friends tax collectors had were other tax collectors, Jesus and his disciples were having dinner with sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes. This upset the Pharisees, so they asked Jesus' followers why he was doing something so shocking.  Jesus overheard the Pharisees, and replied by saying that healthy folks don't need a doctor.  Sick folks do.  He said he came to the world not to call the "righteous," but "sinners." This story s

What's your church known for?  Acts 2:42-47 describes the church of Jesus Christ in its infancy.  The Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost and gave life to it.  This passage tells what these early Christ followers were known for.  They devoted themselves to several activities, but one of the most notable was what most of our English versions translate "the fellowship." The Greek word for "fellowship" is koinonia.  It comes from the root koine , which means "common."  Koinonia was a sharing in common.  The text describes the deep connections and sharing in common the early church experienced.  They shared meals in their homes, eating together with glad and sincere hearts.  They shared their possessions, giving to their brothers and sisters in Christ as they had need. The book Growing Young says that one of the important core commitments to churches that grow young is to develop a warm sense of community.  Those in the church don't

The book Growing Young identifies six core commitments of churches that have successfully grown young.  One of them is that they take Jesus seriously. In Mark 8:27ff, Jesus and his disciples are traveling in the region of Caesarea Philippi.  Jesus drew large crowds, and the people in those crowds believed he was a great person of God.  But they were unsure of who he was.  Jesus quizzed his followers about who people thought he was.  They offered various great persons from Hebrew history.   Then Jesus asked who they thought he was.  Peter replied with a great confession that he believed Jesus was the Christ, God's Son. Peter was right, but his understanding of the kind of Christ Jesus would be was wrong.  Jesus accepted Peter's confession, but immediately began to redefine his concept of the Savior.  He told him and his other followers that he would suffer, die, and rise from the dead. This was difficult for Peter.  He didn't take Jesus' words serio

Jesus cared about people nobody else cared about.  Luke 15:1ff says that tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to hear him.  People on the margins of society were attracted to Jesus.  Maybe it was because they felt his love for them.  Maybe it was also that Jesus condemned their religious leaders while never condemning them!   Verse 2 says that the scribes and Pharisees started grumbling about the fact that Jesus hung around with such people, and even ate with them!  It was scandalous.  These people were to be condemned, not welcomed and loved! Jesus responded by telling three of his most unforgettable parables: The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son.  In the first of the three, he pictures a shepherd who leaves behind 99 sheep to hunt one that was lost.  One sheep out of a big flock doesn't seem like much.  But this one sheep was valuable to the shepherd.  When he finds the lost sheep, he puts it on his shoulders and takes it home.  He gather

Most American congregations have big bare spots.  These are gaps in certain age groups.  The biggest gap is among emerging adults.  Emerging adults are people aged 16-30. Over the years, I've seen this gap grow, and have become concerned about it.  Last year, I discovered the book Growing Young by Kara Powell and others.  This book presents the results of studies of churches that have successfully grown young by reaching this segment of the population.  This book presents the following insights. Our religious landscape is changing rapidly.  The Pew Foundation has found that the portion of our population that identifies itself as "Christian" declined from 78% to 71% between 2007 and 2014.  During the same time frame, the number of people who claimed to be atheist, agnostic, or nothing at all grew from 16% to 23%.   Other studies show when these gaps in our congregations begin to appear.  40-50% of people drop out of church after high school graduation.  

The dark clouds of Jesus' crucifixion and death were gathering.  On their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples stopped in Bethany at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  These were Jesus' close friends, and he may have longed for their love and encouragement on his way to suffering. While they were reclining a table, eating, Mary walked in and went to Jesus' feet.  She took a pint of expensive perfume, poured it over Jesus feet, and began to wipe his feet with her hair. This was one of the most profound acts of love performed for Jesus in his life. Judas was offended at this action.  He asked, "Why wasn't this perfume sold, and the money given to the poor?"  The gospel of John says that Judas didn't care about the poor.  His main concern was the disciples' moneybag, which he kept and sometimes took from. Jesus replied, "Leave her alone.  It was intended that she save this for the day of my burial.  You will always have the po

I hear it often from people who are going through terrible grief.  "The Bible says, 'God will never put more on you than you can stand.'"   Many times, what people are really saying is, "This is more than I can stand!  What is God doing?" I usually don't "correct" people at such times.  Instead, I try to assure them of God's presence with them in their suffering.  But the truth is, the Bible never says, "God will never put more on you than you can stand." The closest the Bible comes to that is 1 Corinthians 10:11-13.  In this passage, Paul was talking about temptation.  He said that God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can resist.  "The Devil made me do it!" isn't true!  Paul says that when we're tempted, God always provides a means to escape.  While temptation and testing are similar, they aren't the same.  The Bible gives lots of examples of people who experienced more

The statement "Money is the root of all evil" is commonly attributed to the Bible.  But it's not in the Bible!  The Bible says something different! Preachers who profit off false teachings aren't new.  In 1 Timothy 6, the apostle Paul wrote about teachers of his day who thought godliness was a way to make money!  They liked to stir up controversy and make a big deal out of minor things in order to make money. The apostle went on to say that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  In itself, money is neutral, neither good nor bad.  But the love of money, the deep desire to gain more money is a root of many kinds of evil.  Paul said that people who were eager for money had wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs! The love of money is pervasive in our culture.  How do we keep from it?  In Jesus' parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), he told the story of a master who entrusted his wealth to three of his servants.  The para

In these days of fake news and "alternative facts," it can be difficult to discern the truth!  The same is true of the Bible.  Sometimes people misunderstand biblical teachings.  Sometimes they think statements are in the Bible, when they aren't. One of these is "The Lord helps those who help themselves."  This statement isn't in the Bible, though widely quoted as such.  Though it isn't in the Bible, it could be a principle in the Bible or consistent with what the Bible teaches. Reflecting on this statement, it's biblical validity hinges on what people mean by it.  If they mean that we have to do good deeds to gain our salvation, then it isn't biblical.  In passages like Ephesians 2:4-9, the scriptures say that we become right with God by receiving salvation as a gift through faith.  Salvation is a gift received, not a reward earned. But if they mean that our walk with Christ requires response and action, then it's consistent with the

In Daniel 1:8-20, Daniel and his friends are settling into lives as exiles in Babylonia.  They've received Babylonian names, and King Nebuchadnezzar has enrolled him in his school to train them to serve in his court.  He wanted them to have the best, so he ordered that they be fed with food from his own personal supply. But Daniel refused to eat the food.  The text says that he didn't want to "defile" himself.  We don't know what he found defiling about the food.  Books like Leviticus describe those laws.  But the precise reason why he didn't partake isn't important because the food represents more than food.  It represents Babylonian culture, particularly parts of that culture that opposes God's commands. Daniel and his friends eat only "vegetables and water" for ten days.  At the end of that time, they look better than those who ate the king's food.  Not only that, the king examines them and admits them into his service. They

Today, many Christ followers are reeling from the rapid pace of cultural change.  Those of us who are older sometimes think we fell asleep and awakened in a foreign land! The scriptures offer examples of people who found themselves in similar circumstances.  Among them are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, young Jewish exiles who lived in Babylonia.  The Babylonian king brought them from their land to his, and trained them to serve in his court.  Despite this, they maintained their identities as members of God's covenant people. Early Christ followers found themselves in a culture that didn't support their beliefs.  New Testament writers like Peter (1 Peter 1:17) and the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:13), admonished Christ followers to live as exiles and strangers in this world.  They were in the world, but they were citizens of God's eternal kingdom.  They were to live by the values of that kingdom, even when they conflicted with those of their surround

Some of the worst manifestations of bad Christians take place in the midst of church conflict.  We would think that Christ followers would behave better in working out their differences, but oftentimes they don't. I've experienced lots of church conflict, beginning with one of the churches I grew up in.  Back in the early 1970s, the church had more than a thousand in attendance.  Now, the church hangs on by a thread, with a few dozen people worshipping in a sanctuary that seats about a thousand.  The church's neighborhood has transitioned, but it's fate was sealed decades before by a terrible church split.  Thankfully, I wasn't there for the worst battles, but it grieves me that such a great church destroyed itself.  For some reason, God called me to minister in an era of prevalent church conflict.  My denomination split, and the church I currently serve split, mostly about the denominational split. Church conflicts handled badly are costly to the work of

Historians say that our country is more divided than it's been since the 1850s, the years preceding our Civil War.  Christ followers have the opportunity to heal this divisions.  Sadly, we've been busy adding to them! Beginning in the 1970s and '80s in our country, evangelicals turned from the proclamation of the good news of Christ to engage in political activity.  The Moral Majority was the largest and most visible manifestation of this.  The culture war was on! What did this culture war bring?  Today, our culture is more liberal than when the war began!  Worse, many people in our country associate evangelicals with partisan political activity instead of gospel proclamation.  On top of that, Democratic and Republican Christ followers are rarely members of the same church. Jesus worked amid deep political tensions.  Though people pressured him to be a political leader, he refused.  Instead, he called people to a kingdom that transcended all the kingdoms of

We think of the resurrection of Christ as many things, including the most important event in history!  But we don't often think of it as a sign.  Yet Jesus said it was.  John 2 records that after Jesus ran the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple, Jewish leaders demanded that he give a sign that he had the authority to do what he did.  Jesus said that his sign would be, "Destroy this temple, and after three days I will rebuild it."  At the time, no one other than Jesus understood what he meant.  But later, after his resurrection, his followers understood. So what does the sign mean?  The Jewish leaders believed their authority came from God. They authorized the merchants and moneychangers to do their business in the temple.  Jesus was claiming that his resurrection would show that his authority was greater than theirs because he was Lord.  This gave him full authority over what went on in his Father's house. The idea of Jesus' Lordship in

I hate death.  It seems God does too.  The Bible has nothing good to say about death. "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."  These words from Martha in John 11 reflect much of the anguish we feel about death.  Is God present when death occurs?  What has he done or what will he do about death? Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were Jesus' close friends.  He had been their guest in their home.  Yet when he got the word that Lazarus was gravely ill, he lingered where he was a couple of days.  When he finally arrived in Bethany, Martha went out to meet him, and made the statement above.  Then she said, "But I know that even now God will do what you ask."  When Jesus said that her brother would rise again, Martha said in resignation, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."  But what about now?  She missed her brother! Jesus stunned her by saying, "I am the resurrection and the life."  Though this state

Truth is in the news a lot these days, particularly in politics.  This was the cover of Time magazine last week: That's a good question.  In these days of "truth hyperbole," "alternative facts," and "fake news," the truth can be hard to find.  Some people don't think the truth matters.  What matters is what we think and how we feel. We're not the only ones to wrestle with the truth.  People did in Jesus' time too.  In John 9:1:1-14, we read about Jesus healing a man born blind.  The main theme of the story is that Jesus is the light of the world.  He is truth. The Pharisees struggle with the healing because it occurred on the Sabbath.  In their interpretation of the scripture, healing was work, and work was forbidden on the Sabbath.  When some took the formerly blind man to them, they said that Jesus couldn't have healed him because he was a sinner.  Yet the man argued that Jesus couldn't be a sinner because Go

What if the king we want isn't the king we need?  That's a question this week's message will explore.  John 6:1-15 tells the story of the Jesus' feeding of the five thousand.  God intended it to be a sign of one thing, but the crowd around Jesus saw it as a sign of another.  They were looking for a material Messiah, who would meet their material needs and wants.  But Jesus was a spiritual Messiah, who focused on spiritual needs.  The people wanted physical bread, so they would always have plenty of food.  Jesus offered them spiritual bread that would give them eternal life. We're a lot the same way.  Joel Osteen is much more popular than Mother Theresa!  The American Dream is more powerful than the dream of God's kingdom.  Jesus' sign of the feeding reminds us of what we need and how Jesus had provided it.  That sign points back to the exodus of Israel and looks forward to the Lord's Supper.  It showed that Jesus was a new Moses, who brought

A father wants to save the life of his critically-ill son.  This is how the story begins about the third in our series of signs identified in the gospel of John.  John 4:46-54 tells how a desperate father heard about Jesus, and hastily made the journey from his home in Capernaum to Cana, where Jesus was staying. When the man asks Jesus for his help, Jesus replies by telling him to go home, because his son was going to recover.  On his way home, the man's slaves met him with the news that his son's fever has broken.  When he asked them what time it had happened, it was the exact time when Jesus said he would be healed. John identifies this as a sign of who Jesus was and what he came to do.  The OT scriptures teach in passages like Isaiah 25 that at the end of the age, God will bring healing across the world.  This sign Jesus performed showed that he was God's Messiah and healer, and that he was bringing healing to the world. Though we're much better off than

In John 2:13-33, Jesus does things we don't expect him to do!  He makes a whip of cords, and apparently uses it to drive animals out of the temple courts.  He turns over the tables of moneychangers and cries out that they have made his Father's house a marketplace! I can't think of another story of Jesus in which he does something like this!  As his followers observe him, they remember Psalm 69:9, in which the writer speaks of a consuming zeal for God's house. The Jewish leaders were upset at what Jesus did.  They confronted him with the question, "Who gave you the authority to do this?  What miraculous sign will you give?"  Jesus responded by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again!"  Nobody understood what he meant at the time, but later, after Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples would know what he meant. This is Jesus' first public act in the gospel of John.  It's almost violently pass

In this age of Google maps and such, we still need signs.  Signs show us which direction to go.  They also tell us what we're looking at! This week, we begin a new teaching unit titled "Signs."  The gospel of John flags a number of Jesus' miracles as "signs." These miracles are signs because they identify important things about Jesus and his mission.  They also point to spiritual realities in our lives.  This unit will last until Easter. The first miracle John identifies as a sign is recorded in John 2:1-11.  We might expect a miracle in which Jesus heals or raises from the dead.  Yet the first sign he gives, and one which sets the tone for all the others, is the sign of turning water into wine. Many Bible passages teach that one day God will establish his kingdom on earth and reign through his Anointed One (Messiah).  Several Bible passages (see Isaiah 25:6 and Revelation 19:9) teach that God will kick off his kingdom with a big party.  Accord

One of the most important and difficult parts of a renovation project is electric wiring.  Wiring is mostly hidden behind walls, so you can't see it.  You can assume all is well, but when you turn on a light or plug something in, nothing happens!  That's because the wiring has failed to supply power. The wiring and power source of the church is the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised his followers that after he ascended to heaven, they would receive power when the Holy Spirit fell on them.  In the Spirit's power, they would be his witnesses all over the world!  The rest of the book of Acts tells the story of how the Holy Spirit worked through Christ followers to accomplish that mission. Sometimes we think church growth is a matter of having the right plans, structure, music, space, and so forth.  But none of these matter without the power of the Holy Spirit!  The Holy Spirit transforms us and gives us abilities to minister in and through the church. J

This week, we continue our church renovation show by thinking about windows and doors.  Matthew 28:18-20 records that Jesus gave his followers a commission to go and make disciples of all nations.  The church was to both go outwards and to bring people in.  Our mission is like our church's windows and doors.  Windows bring light, ventilation, and view.  We should subject all we do as a church to the light of our mission.  We should allow our mission to ventilate and refresh us.  We should also look out and view the needs of our community. Doors allow people to come in and out.  We go out our doors to minister in Christ's name in our community.  We invite people into our community through our doors. Our church's mission, vision and strategy statements reflect our need for windows and doors.  Our mission is to make disciples, united in worship and service.  This is our reason for being.  Our vision is to embody Christ, loving all people, and introducing t

Immigration is in the news a lot these days.   Have you noticed that it comes up often in the Bible?   Immigration is important to the story of God’s people, Israel.   In Genesis, Abraham migrates from Ur to Canaan, and lives as an alien.   In Joseph’s time, the Israelites migrate to Egypt during a famine.   In Exodus, God saves the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and in Joshua, he takes them back to Canaan and enables them to conquer it. In the Old Testament law, God often reminds his people to be kind and fair to immigrants because they were once immigrants themselves: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”   Exodus 22:21 (NRSV) “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”   Exodus 23:9 (NRSV) The book of Exodus says that Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites because he saw this group of immigrants as a security threat (Exod. 1:8-10).

In our worship unit "This Old Church," we're looking at our church as a renovation project.  That doesn't mean our church is dilapidated!  Every structure needs occasional updating and inspection.  The same is true of churches!  Last week, we looked at our foundation, and saw that the only foundation for a church of the Lord Jesus Christ is Christ himself.  We're tempted to mix other things in with that foundation, but when we do, our foundation cracks and our structure sags! This week, we're going to think about walls.  In particular, load-bearing structural walls.  These walls are our essential teachings.  Scripture passages like Romans 10:9-10 describe the essential early proclamation of the church.  We'll find that these essential walls include having faith in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, confessing that Jesus is Lord, affirming that the Bible is our authority for our beliefs, loving everyone in Christ's name, and fulfi