Foolishness or Faithfulness?

A Message for World Communion Sunday — Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Matthew 21:33-46 Are you a rule-follower? That’s something I never put into that language until one educator described one of his kids as that. Around 1988 I spent my summer on a short-term mission trip in the Philippines. Manila was my home-base. It was … Read more

Extravagant Generosity

Jesus, consistent with the Old Testament,  speaks unabashedly and repeatedly about wealth, greed and generosity. In Mark 12.41-44, Jesus relates a story comparing the giving of the rich to that of poor widow who gives two very small copper coins. Jesus comments … They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, … Read more

Risk-Taking Mission and Service

Are you doing the same things that you were five years ago? Does your ministry (we are all called to ministry as followers of Christ) look the same as it did five years ago? As you discover your God-given giftedness, have those gifts developed beyond what they were five years ago? Have you discovered any … Read more

Faith and Works: The Test of Faith

I presented the sermon at last Thursday’s Community Lenten Lunch service here in Clearfield. My sermon followed the reading of John 6.1-15. A Group Workcamp is coming to Clearfield, June 20-26, 2010. Who would think that 430+ youth from all around the U.S. would want to come to Clearfield to home repairs, let alone pay … Read more

See You at the Pole 2009

I participated in this morning’s See You at the Pole event at Clearfield High School. This is what I shared. Engage: Go and Pray “Go and pray to God for me and for the people …” (2 Kings 22.13a, The Message) Israel and Judah had a history of waning back and forth in their commitment … Read more

“Three Simple Rules”

So … have you made any New Year’s resolutions? I am grateful for the new beginnings in life. Most often beginnings come with endings. The endings, I don’t like. But the endings are inevitable. The year of 2008 is over. It is done. We cannot go back and undo or redo. We now look forward … Read more

The Blessing of a New Day

What if … we were to consider each day a blessing of God? Drew Carey debuted the new game show The Power of 10 last week. The public is asked different questions, polled and the contestants have to guess what percentage answered a specific way. The second airing asked a question something like this, “What … Read more

The Newness of the Morning

The mercies of the Lord are new every morning. The church is a short distance from home, so I usually walk there. Sometimes I haven’t taken a flashlight with me and when I get out of a meeting at night, a dreary night, I can hit a place of complete darkness. A bit of fear … Read more

Who am I?

Exodus 3.1-10 Moses and the Burning Bush, A sermon for Lenten Community Service I don’t know if you’ve ever done anything stupid before, but I know I have. And you might say Moses did. When he sees an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew, he reacts. That’s a good thing. He knew what he saw wasn’t right. … Read more

Navigating Life

Today, we concluded our series on “Navigating Life: Doing Life God’s Way!” We believe it was an important series; we certainly hope that it was helpful for the hrist followers in our congregations! We don’t always collaborate on our sermon series, but this series grew out of a conversation we had while traveling to Tennessee … Read more