Immanuel
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) Isaiah gave this prophecy seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Immanuel. The description of the coming Messiah was to be “God with us.” The impetus for this sermons […]
A Child is Born
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) God’s promise is spoken of in terms of a birth. This was a way in which God had chosen, in Israel’s past, to show his dramatic intervention in human history…three pivotal points […]
God with Us
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece and was thought to be the home of gods. The twelve Olympians, with Zeus at their head, made their dwelling atop this great mountain…high above the average man, often above the clouds, far away from the grinding lives of mortals. In this, the Greeks are no different […]
Mountains
You’d be hard-pressed to find a scene more stunning than the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains. I spent a lot of time in Colorado this summer and the view never got old. Those mountains are captivating. My son and I intended to take on the challenge of climbing a “14er” (a mountain over 14,000 […]
Quiet Waters
Are you busy? Of course you are! There’s a good chance you debated whether or not you had enough time to read this missive. Being busy is a normal part of the world we live in. Jesus was busy: “He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a […]
God’s Presence
Last time you heard me preach, we were talking about the wilderness. When paradise was no longer an option for Adam and Eve, the wilderness is where they found themselves. But more than just a desolate physical place, the first couple had been removed from God’s presence. But not forever. Because of God’s mercy and […]
A Sea of Troubles
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:9–10) Throughout most of Israel’s history, the nation was essentially landlocked; […]
Better Together
“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24–25) William Blake famously said, “A bird, a nest; the spider, a web; […]
Living Stones
“And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.” (1 Peter 2:5, NLT) We live in a world of 7.9 billion people; yet we’ve never been lonelier. We’ve never felt so […]
Where Are You?
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8–9) In my sermon […]
Searching
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say…?’” (Genesis 3:1) We live in a strange age, don’t we? You have in your pocket a smart phone that is one million times more powerful that the Apollo 11 […]
The Waiting Game
“Hope delayed makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12) When something we’ve hoped for has been delayed for many years or seems a long way off, we can despair and be tempted to give up hope. When that which we’ve longed for comes to fruition, it is like […]
