The Gift of Faith: In Life. In Death

When we are thinking Advent, we are thinking Christmas.  When we are thinking Christmas, we are thinking of new life wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger. This week is less death and more life.  Chances are this is a little more of what you expected of an Advent study.  Abraham’s faith assured him …

The Gift of Faith: Death, yet…

I’ve heard a lot recently about how ‘bad’ the world is getting.  In the same line I hear a lot about what is wrong with this generation or that.  The conversation often dwindles to a point of hopelessness.  Sometimes people part ways with an oh well can’t do anything about it, it is what it …

The Gift of Faith: Steps to Him

We will all experience death.  Well all of us except for a few people.  One of the few who did not is our topic for today, Enoch. Three verses are what we get regarding Enoch. “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methusalah.  Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and …

The Gift of Faith: Still Speaks

What is seen? Unseen? The invisible… what? I have to admit: even after growing up in the church and having good teachers and books surround me my entire life, this whole faith thing still makes my brain feel foggy. How to understand the mystery? Well, let’s take a look at Abel and see what we …

The Gift of Faith: In the end.

Merry Christmas and Happy Advent we are going to kick off our week talking about death and destruction.  During Advent we can forget that the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes came so he could give his life for us.  We can forget the baby we sing nursery rhymes was God.  He was God who humbled …

The Gift of Faith: A Party with the Great Cloud of Witnesses.

You know what you need for a party? People! What other things do you like to have at a party? I am from the midwest so it's not a party without food. And the food probably looks like cheese balls, pickles rolled up in ham and cream cheese, cheese and crackers...(do you see the theme?..) …

The Gift of Faith: The Struggle

We’ve talked about death and new life.  What about everything in between?  All the life and all the struggle.  According to scripture the struggles in life are not worth comparing to the glory of heaven. (Romans 8:18).  That is so much easier said than done.  When we are living in the grind and the guts …

He Leads: Party Announcements

What does a party look like? For John it looked like eating crickets and dressing in goats hair. That's not a party I would throw not even on Halloween. This is the man and the way Jesus chose to introduce himself. This is the man sent right before Jesus to let everyone know he was …

He Leads: When God gives you lemons and all that

There are times in our lives where we are tired of lemons.   We are so tired of lemons that we are also tired of their cousins, limes. We might also be tired of things that are yellow. “When life gives you lemons …” We reach the point at times when platitudes, even well-meaning ones, …

The Gift of Faith

What is Faith? Hebrews tells us "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 Ephesians tells us "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no …