Fruit of the Spirit 4: Freedom

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This Sunday begins our fourth year in ministry together, and I’m excited about the future. At this moment, we don’t know exactly what our future looks like, and that’s a wonderful-but-scary thing. We have great opportunity before us, but it’s a future that requires faith. But are we not people of faith? Therein lies the … Read more

Holiness

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"Be holy, because I am holy" (1 Peter 1.16) Holiness.  What do think of when you hear the word "holiness"? Women in dresses, conservatively dressed, little or no jewelry?  List no’s: no movie theatres; no dancing, etc. Last week we talked about “Boundaries.” God places boundaries that are “good and pleasant,” so that we prosper, … Read more

Fruit of the Spirit 3: Holiness

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What do you think about when you hear the word “holiness”? If you’re like many people, words like rules, judgmental, “holier than thou,” may come to mind. Holiness has gotten a bad wrap in recent years (some of it perhaps justified). Holiness is necessary to talk about because sin entered into the world. My favorite … Read more

Ephesians: Mastering the Art of Community

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During the summer of 2004 (before I began posting sermons here), I did a series on the book of Ephesians called, “Mastering the Art of Community.” If you’d like more info, or to request a copy of the PDFs, leave a comment or email me (see About page for address).

Boundaries

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Psalm 16 Don’t Eat the Forbidden Fruit (by Rev. Morgan Murray)Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God’s omnipotence didn’t extend to God’s kids. After creating  heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was: "Don’t." "Don’t what?" Adam replied … Read more

Fruit of the Spirit 2: Mission Passion

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As we continue our look at some aspects of the fruit of the Spirit, today we look at mission passion. Passion is a deep, yearning desire in your heart, and mission passion is a passion for God’s mission. We’re going to look at an event that took place early in David’s life, and is one … Read more

CPC 2005 Annual Conference

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Today, the lay member from our charge and I, shared our thoughts and reflections on Annual Conference, which took place during the last three days. This year’s theme is "Claiming God’s frontiers across central Pennsylvania … and beyond!" It builds on the theme from the last few years of "building bridges." Now that we have … Read more

Waiting with Purpose

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Acts 1.1-5 I’ve never heard anyone say, "Oh goodie, we get to wait in line at Wal-Mart!" or "Oh look, there’s road construction signs ahead. I wonder if we’ll get to wait!" Waiting is probably one of our least favorite things to do. It’s a waste of time. We want to be doing something. We … Read more

Fruit of the Spirit 1: Have You Good Fruit?

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There are all kinds of tests that we encounter in life: tests at school, job tests, vision tests, cholesterol tests (and other physical tests), driver’s tests. Speaking of driver’s tests, there was a study released in recent weeks which reported nearly 20 million Americans (about 1 in 10 drivers) would fail a state driver’s test … Read more

Burning Hearts

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This past Tuesday was the anniversary of the day John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed, an important day in Methodist history. So today I want to talk about the importance of the heart, that it ought to be a burning heart, a heart ignited by God’s power and love. First, let’s talk about heart disease. … Read more