God’s Ever-Widening Circle
God said to Abram, “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) Abram (known better to us by his later name of “Abraham”) was called to take a risk. He had a good home and was a well to do person in his homeland. But ...
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Rethinking Stuff – How Much is Enough?
Jesus told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will ...
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Changing the Future
And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are ...
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The Lord’s Prayer – What We Need
What we need and what God wants for us are one and the same. When life is right, we pray for what God wants us to have and find our lives filled with enough and with meaning.
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Wanting What God Wants
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” When we pray the Lord’s Prayer there is a move from addressing and praising God at the beginning to asking for things throughout the rest of the prayer. This week we begin to look at what we ask God for and why we ...
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The Spirit is at work
In spite of the fact that much of American Christianity has descended into a transactional way of thinking – you believe and God will give you the goodies -Martin Luther believed that faith and the Christian life started as gifts. We don’t decide to believe and get what God offers. God offers freely and the Spirit opens us up to receive. It is not about our “decision” to believe. It is about God’s decision to love us and Christ’s work to demonstrate that love, no matter what the cost to God.
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Talking About Jesus
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord… The Creeds go back centuries. In fact, the Nicene and the Apostles Creeds both go back well over a thousand years. They were written in a different time and place to settle some of the biggest questions the church was ...
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God created the world…
In the beginning when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the ...
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Love Like Jesus
Jesus said, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37) The above verses come at the end of the Parable of ...
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God Goes First (Always)
Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself… (Exodus 19:3-4) “I am ...
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Taking Hold of Eternal Life
“Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:15) We often think of faith as a source of peace and comfort (and it is). But faith ...
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We All Need a Little Mercy
“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” (1 Timothy 1:15 NRSVUE) There is a misconception that Christians are “good people.” As attractive as that idea is, it is a bit misleading. Christians are people who trust that their relationship ...
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