September 1, 2013 The Sin We Commit: Drinking from Cisterns and Not the Living Spring

Our relationship with God is a mutual relationship – God not only interacts with us, God desires for us to interact with God in deeply personal ways.  And yet, though God is faithful to us, we often are not faithful to God.  We like to have God around (as a consultant), but God wants to be more than a consultant – God wants to be a confidante, one who walks with us and we with God.  The sins we commit are not so much behavioral “sins” but the sin of not needing God.  We think that we are self-sufficient – but life is to be found in being centered in God. 

Jeremiah reveals the waywardness of the priests and people in which they sought to find living water elsewhere than from the life of God.  From where do we draw our life?

Link to Message: The Sin We Commit: Drinking from Cisterns and Not the Living Spring

August 25, 2013 - Hearing God's Voice

Today’s scripture (Jeremiah 1: 4-10) invites us to hear God’s voice.  God speaks to us.  Do we hear, do we respond to God calling us?  To hear God speaking to us we are invited to have a mind that is open to hear from God. To see, to hear we need an open mind.  To adapt a statement by Robertson Davies, a Canadian author, “the eye sees [and the ear hears] only what the mind is prepared to [encounter and] comprehend.”

Jeremiah gives us some insights in developing the courage to hear and respond to God's voice.

Link to Hearing God's Voice

July 14, 2013 Plumb Lines in an Out-of-Kilter World

How do we measure up to the righteousness, the justice of God and God's ways.  When we measure our place in the world by our comfort or by what benefits us, we see nothing wrong with the way we engage or do not engage those who touch the heart of God.

But when God holds a plumb line to our lives, we begin to see how far our ways are removed from God's.  Amos challenges us to realign ourselves with God and God's justice in the world.

Link to message: Plumb Lines in an Out-of-Kilter World.

July 7, 2013 Engaging the Prophets - Hope: Peace Like a River

As we begin our series on the Prophets we are exploring what concerned the hearts of the prophets- in what ways were the people aligned or not aligned with God and the purposes of God.  We explore the prophets to check on our alliances.

Link to message: Hope: Peace Like a River (Introduction to Prophets)

June 30, 2013 - Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Road construction just does not happen in our cities in the summer, in preparing the way of the Lord, we are involved in road projects so that God has free access into our lives.

Link here to: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Easter Sunday - Ashamed No More: Surprised by Resurrection

On this Easter Sunday, we complete our exploration into the theme of salvation from the perspective of honor and shame, in which we have sought to develop a different perspective from a more western perspective of judgment and guilt.  Ashamed No More throughout Lent examined how we might understand God's grace and mercy differently, how we might understand salvation differently as we examine these through the lens of honor and shame.  Now on Easter Sunday we are Surprised by Resurrection.

 

Connect to Ashamed No More: Surprised by Resurrection.  Not only are we surprised by resurrection, just as the early disciples were, in being surprised by resurrection, and in being open to the new creation it creates, we discover that we become, through Christ Jesus, the surprises of God in the world.  

Fourth Sunday of Lent - Ashamed No More: Grace that is Wasted

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent we continue our exploration into the theme of salvation from the perspective of honor and shame, rather than from a more western perspective of judgment and guilt.  Ashamed No More throughout Lent examines how we might understand God's grace and mercy differently, how we might understand salvation differently as we examine these through the lens of honor and shame.  

 

Connect to Ashamed No More: Grace that is Wasted.  This week's message focuses upon how God "wastes" grace on us.  Not in the perspective that we are undeserving - we are.  But rather, God does not stop pouring grace out upon us - God keeps bestowing grace upon us so that it overflows our lives - i.e., God wastes grace on us in order for us to have an abundant experience of grace in our lives.