I want to begin this morning by asking a question – How many of you feel that life turned out to be just as easy as you thought it would? You see, I think, most of us, when we’re young, think that life is going to be like a beautiful day at the beach. We…
Shaped BY the cross into the shape OF the cross
Sermons on Trials/Suffering
One of the difficult things about being a parent is knowing when to support your children’s dreams and when to gently let them know that they might want to consider getting another dream. One of my pet peeves (and Sueanne will verify this) is whenever I hear someone say, “I just want you children…
If I were to ask this morning, “With a show of hands, how many of you like chocolate ice cream?”, I suspect that there would be quite a few of you who would raise your hands. And if I were to ask, “How many of you like Brussel sprouts?”, there would probably be a lot…
Hollywood loves sequels. That’s why there are 14 Batman films, 26 James Bond movies, and 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sometimes those sequels are really good, like Toy Story 2, 3 and 4. Other times, those sequels are really lousy, like “Jaws: The Revenge”. But there’s something satisfying about sequels, because whenever…
Memorials are important. Some of you may have visited the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC, or the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, or the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. These memorials are moving because they capture moments of traumatic loss in ways that help us to process them while honoring…
“I just think God wants me to be happy. It’s never God’s will for his children to suffer.” I hear those statements frequently from Christians as they try to make sense of the character of God. Why would a loving God not want his children to be happy? And I understand the reasoning behind it.…
As you all know, every good children’s story begins with the same four words. And those four words are…. (“Once upon a time”). There’s something almost magical about those words because as soon as soon we hear them, we want to know more. What’s this story going to be about? Well, the Hebrew language…