In the movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Kevin McCallister says to a New York City taxi driver, “Boy, it’s scary out there.” The scary-looking driver responds, “Ain’t much better in here, kid.” It’s a scary world out there for all of us. There’s terrorism in Paris and San Bernardino. It’s a world […]
Unlike technology where the second is called a beta version (often viewed as a product or service deemed unready for mainstream consumption) when Jesus came as the Second Adam, He was perfect. Beta products may not ready for prime time and people will wait for debugged items to hit the store shelves, but Jesus was […]
As we’ve begun to consider the Incarnation as the means through which God makes us acceptable to Him, we cannot forget that the scarlet cord running through it has always been sacrifice. It was sacrifice when God supplied the ram so that Abraham’s faith would shine and the line of God’s promise would carry forth […]
The Incarnation was never the end game. It was always preparing the way. The way of peace. The way of reconciliation. The way of ongoing presence of God. And the way for the Holy Spirit to come. In the Incarnation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all had some skin in the game, even if Jesus […]
When opposing groups come to some sort of peace agreement, each side usually gives up something to reach a so-called happy middle ground. It’s all about compromise and getting to a place of relationship. Not so with God. Because God is holy and we are sinners, there is no middle ground. It’s like pregnancy, you […]
Do you ever wish you’d lived back in the days when Jesus walked the earth? To touch His human hand, to know His human voice, to see His human face, to hear His human laugh, and to look deep into His human eye… knowing what we know now… on this side of the Ascension? That […]
Sometimes I wonder how God felt about that whole flooding-of-the-earth deal. How necessary! How awful! How terrible! How incredibly sad! Genesis 6: 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was […]
One of the more intriguing concepts in the Bible is that God kept His promise to us by being both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God sacrificed for us. Frankly, God was thoroughly ticked off at us. Especially at ministry leaders. They didn’t really have a clue how mad God was. They were […]
Wow, can you believe it? It’s the last of our sermon series on the Book of Acts, but the end is actually a beginning. It’s going to prove to us that the story continues. It continues with you and it continues with me. That’s actually a great thing about stories. Until there’s the two word […]
The Gospel Story Continues with you and me, even after the last chapter of the Book of Acts. Was Luke intentionally vague about the ending to remind us of this truth? This is the final message in the sermon series Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles and is based on Acts 28:11-31. While […]
