Who are the happiest people you know?
In this week's passage (2 Corinthians 8:1-5), Paul describes some of
the happiest people he knew, and it may not be for the reason you
might think. Join us this week to find out how you truly can have a
Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The Greatest Announcement
We live in a world of the great
announcement. Every store has "the biggest sale of the year."
Every car dealership has "the lowest prices in town." And
anyone who has seen the movie "Elf" knows there is a diner
in New York that has "the world's best cup of coffee."
We see through the hyperbole. We know
there will be another sale, a better price, or another cup of coffee
that's just a little bit better. In the end, we don't really care -
it's just another announcement trying to get us to buy something.
Not so with the announcement in Luke
2:8-14. Come this Sunday to hear what truly is the greatest
announcement in all history.
See you Sunday!
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
No Small Parts
Remember: there are no small parts,
only small actors - Constantin Stanislavski
Don't worry; I don't know who
Constantin Stanislavski is either. If Wikipedia can be trusted, he
was a Russian author and actor who developed the technique called
"method acting." I'm not sure what that is - my acting
career consisted of memorizing a grand total of three lines. In four
different plays.
Whatever Mr. Stanislavski was talking
about, it certainly is true in the account of Jesus' birth. Each
individual played an important role in God's purpose. That's because
we all play an important role in God's purpose. In this week's
message from Matthew 1:18-24, we will discover how significant you
are in God's plan as we look at the life of Joseph.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Yes Message
Text messaging is changing the way we
communicate. Not only is the technology changing the way we send our
message, it's changing the message itself. Text messages, by nature,
have to be short. My thumbs can only type so many words at a time.
Necessity being the mother of invention, we have witnessed the rise
of the emoji. These small symbols, originally faces created with
colons for eyes and symbols for the mouth, have evolved into little
drawings to express emotions that used to require an entire
paragraph. For example, "The guy in front of me in the checkout line is taking forever to finish. I have no idea when I will get home for dinner. It is entirely possible that I'm going to spend the rest of my life reading the gum wrappers at Walmart." has become :\
This week, we look at the second of the
Christmas announcements, the angel informing Mary that she would give
birth to the Son of God. Her amazingly brief acceptance of the Lord's
call on her life reveals how we should all be ready, when the Lord
calls, to say "Yes."
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
The right side of the fence
While driving down the road, I saw a horse craning its head through the barbed wire fence to eat on the other side. Further down the road, was a deer, gingerly walking along the road. How silly, I thought -- they both have wide open fields....why are they endangering themselves by going elsewhere?
Many times, we, too, are the same way. The grass looks greener, or we'll just go 'there' for just a little bit...we'll be careful...and all the while, God is providing us with wide open fields of blessing and protection.
He provides blessings that make our cup overflow....we have all spiritual blessings...he gives more than we can ask or imagine. We have no reason to look elsewhere.
Many times, we, too, are the same way. The grass looks greener, or we'll just go 'there' for just a little bit...we'll be careful...and all the while, God is providing us with wide open fields of blessing and protection.
He provides blessings that make our cup overflow....we have all spiritual blessings...he gives more than we can ask or imagine. We have no reason to look elsewhere.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Announcement
From time to time I'm glad the the
powers in charge do something I despise - the emergency broadcast
system. The "alarm" signal used by radio and television
stations to signal an emergency announcement has to be the most
annoying sound ever created, right up there with fingernails on the
chalkboard. When the sound goes off, however, we all know what it
means. Either it's a test of the system, or time to go to the
basement.
Some announcements are essential to
hear. The announcements of the Savior's birth are the most
significant of all. Over the next several weeks, we are going to
prepare for the Christmas season by surveying the announcements
surrounding this extraordinary event, announcements we all need to hear.
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