This is the second of a few thoughts I hope to share as to why churches need to be open. If you missed the first installment, I encourage you to go back and read it (at least the preliminary statements) to give some context to my thoughts. When this pandemic began to affect public gathering places, a slogan was pounded out by Christians on Facebook posts, blogs, and various other media – “be the church.” It usually went something like this – “now is the time to show that the church is not a building. We are the church. Be…
I promised in this past Sunday’s sermon (July 1, 2018) that I would post the ten lessons we saw from Genesis 26:34-28:9. Nine of them are lessons of warning. The tenth is a lesson of hope. For a fuller context for these, you may want to listen to the sermon! The apple does not fall far from the tree. What you see in Jacob and Esau is only a heightened example of their parents. Esau could not control his various appetites. It appears he learned that from his father well who loved his son because of his game. Jacob was…
A few days ago I was blessed to be at a banquet for a particular Christian institution. The banquet existed to raise funds for this institution, and they did a wonderful job serving over 450 guests. At that banquet, I saw greatness on display. As I was chatting away at my table, I noticed two servers in particular: a husband and wife who are friends of my wife and I. They were serving plates of delicious food to the various tables and cleaning up our dirty dishes after we had finished. What struck me about these two servers was not…