Presby-Musings

Did you know that God is totally fine with bragging?  Don't get me wrong, God is never cool with you bragging about yourself.   For example, In Jeremiah 9:23-24 the prophet declares the following:   "This is what the Lord says; The wise must not brag about their wisdom. The strong must not brag about their strength.  The rich must not brag about their money..."   I met a pastor recently who, within the first hour or so of our meeting, made sure that I knew he had a 140 IQ.  I heard later, he also shared this information with his congregation in a sermon not long after he arrived at the church as a new pastor.  Additionally, he made sure to bring it up in conversations with church members, staff, etc.  When I heard this, I shook my head in disbelief.   "Who does that?"  I asked the person who was sharing the information.  "I would never do something like that with my congregation.  I know better!  I guess tha...

This week we are concluding the sermon series that we've been working on for the past several weeks--a sermon series entitled "At The Movies."  Each week we have been using hit movies from the past year to serve as our inspiration and illustrations.   This week we will be relying on this summer's biggest hit, Jurassic World  to help us in our efforts to develop skills to experience God in the world around us.  I know.  That sounds like a tall order, doesn't it?  The fact of the matter is that God is all around us, and is still speaking and creating.  We just need to have eyes that are opened to the reality of God in the world.   Our little weekly conversations throughout this month have been exercises on how to practice opening our eyes.  If you can find the spiritual center of a movie, connect it to Scripture and then again to how you can live a life more fully integrated into the kingdom of God...  then you are on your way ...

Let's say you are driving down the road in your car, listening to Steely Dan and singing passionately about how "Ricky" better not "lose that number," when suddenly you hit a pothole and lose control of your ability to steer.  As a result of this, you discover that Jesus has not taken the wheel, and that it is now spinning wildly in your hands as you careen headlong toward a minivan full of nuns.   Here's a question for you...  Is the ensuing accident your fault?  Removing the obvious mortal sin of listening to and enjoying Steely Dan---most people would tend to say, "Absolutely not!  It was the pothole's fault."  And by extension, then we would go on to blame the municipality that allowed said pothole to exist.   And we would be wrong.  The accident would still be your fault.  Your insurance would increase, you would get the ticket, you would be to blame.  In most states, it is your duty to report potholes when you s...