1.  Now and then I host what the Quakers called a “Clearness Committee” for an individual working their way through an issue about direction or a decision.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, it’s a group of friends who know a person well and their only role is to ask questions.  They cannot make statements or prescribe what a person should do.  The Quakers have a high regard for the ability of a person to come to the truth on their own. Last week our friend was sorting through an issue that affects all of us at one time or another.  They had a fine career and were suddenly sideswiped…

1.  The whole idea and image of “sanctification” may be intimidating for many of us.  It sounds more like an image of Grant Woods’ “American Gothic” – the famous painting of the farm couple.  Both unsmiling and humorless – the man with a pitchfork. It’s serious business, isn’t it? For some it’s probably a series of lists and personal challenges they tackle every day.  Benjamin Franklin developed a list of 13 virtues that he worked on every single day.  When he woke up in the morning he asked himself, “What good will I do today?” and when he went to bed at night he asked, “What good did I do…

1.  As Americans, we have a basic antipathy toward kings, don’t we?  It’s in our bones.  We resent any kind of royalty – except the ones we create – and the privileges of dynasties – except those who run for elected office.  It’s been so from the beginning. “In England a King hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which, in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man…

The lesson this morning is on redemption. What does it mean to be redeemed? For some it means a reputation recovered after being lost. I remember one of the Watergate figures, Jeb Magruder, going into the ministry after serving time in the Watergate break-ins. Actor Robert Downey, Jr. has struggled all his life with drug addiction and then a failing career but has recently turned that around and redeemed his career. Others have found lives of service or even anonymity after notoriety for a part of their lives. But all of these are people who have redeemed themselves or their lives. That’s not the same as the topic this morning.…

Sometimes when I read the book of Colossians I wonder what the congregation must have been thinking as they listened to it being read. I have to stop and think practically after every verse so I can imagine people saying to the reader, “Don’t go so fast. I didn’t get that. Stop and go over that again. Can I get a copy of that to take home with me to read?” So much of what Paul writes to the churches is practical counsel for day to day living and further on in the book there are rules for daily living. But in the first two chapters we are working through…

The lesson this morning is titled Jesus Reflects: Jesus is the exact representation of God. The three passages are Colossians 1:15-20; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 and John 5:36-44. Colossians 1:15-20: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from…

1.  If you read biographies or watch the television program “Biography” you notice a pattern that is frequent in the lives of many great leaders. Early success and then years of obscurity and hardship – even rejection and exile. Two good examples are Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. Child stars and prodigies often experience the same. Writers and artists may show promise – even brilliance – and then languish for decades before creating anything again. One hit wonders are common in music as are novelists who cannot produce a second best seller. Sometimes circumstances change beyond their control. Silent movie star Rudolph Valentino’s voice was not suitable for movies with…

1.  There are few topics that occupy our mind as much as work.  It’s where many of us spend most of our lives.  Some of us spend more of our lives working than we should.  Some of us have found work that doesn’t seem like work at all.  My Dad had a phrase that described it for him.  “Work is the glue that holds life together” and that seems to be true.  What would life be without work? There are literally tens of thousands of job titles in this country.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has divided work into 840 different job categories and within each category there are hundreds…

Let’s look at the story of creation this morning – but perhaps in a different way than usual. How does it all begin?  It begins with a light and then over the course of six days He speaks the world into existence – sometimes forming creatures out of the ground and sometimes simply speaking them into existence.  But however He does it, the world is almost complete – but not quite. Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the…

1.  Some of the first words in the Bible are God’s speaking creation into existence. “God said, “Let there be light.” From that moment on Scripture is filled with God’s words to creation. And it is not a single voice in creation, is it? Creation is more the result of a conversation – especially in the account of the creation of mankind. What does it say? “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…So God created him; male and female he created them.” In some ways you could say from the very beginning we have been wired for conversations – not a solo life. We need words. We…