Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
Last Sunday my sermon was based on the book of Galatians where Paul’s main point is that we don’t live by rules anymore. If we rely upon the law then we rob the cross of its power. We rely solely upon God’s grace. But Paul also says that this does not lead to lawlessness, but … Read more
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
December and January can always be challenging months financially. Christmas comes with certain expectations. I am not speaking of the expectation of Christ born anew in our hearts, but the expectation of giving gifts. Christmas is a time of financial obligation that sometimes comes back to haunt us in January if we have overextended ourselves. … Read more
What an amazing Christmas this is already! It’s wonderful to experience things through the eyes of Ethan. Everything is new and larger than life! Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to. Weekend before last was the Christmas Parade in Clearfield. Tradition has Santa arriving by train. It was so cold, we looked for … Read more
Today was a special day in the Willis household. We traveled to the Cumberland County Courthouse in Carlisle and Ethan’s adoption was finalized. It was kind of a last minute thing. The lawyer’s office called Monday and said they could squeeze us in at the end of several other adoption finalization hearings if we could … Read more
From today’s marathon day, three concepts stood out from today’s sessions, which all come out of a desire to impact non-religious or nominally-religious people. Adam Hamilton, in some of his final thoughts, talked about his approach to preaching. While many of us were taught in seminary to follow something like this: Start with Bible Exegete … Read more
Ethan is now over 15 months old, and he’s growing. Here are a few photos from the past month …
Ethan is trying out several instruments in his young life. In July, we were impressed when he learned to blow into his recorder and make a tone. I guess we won’t be giving him a straw to drink from anytime too soon. He’ll probably blow bubbles rather than drink from it! (Cheap recorders are only … Read more
Ethan made his first trip to the beach on Wednesday. Ocean City, NJ is just a quick one hour drive from where my aunt and uncle live. We arrived late morning and spent the afternoon there. Ethan really enjoyed playing in the sand. We took a wagon of sand toys we had purchased earlier this … Read more
This kid sleeps at the darnedest times! He occasionally falls asleep in the car, on walks, and during his mother’s sermons on Sunday mornings. Here, Ethan is pictured on our day off. Last Friday, we went to walk at the local Rails to Trails (abandoned railways converted to walking/biking trails.) Almost immediately, he fell asleep … Read more