(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on March 22, 2015) For those of us who have been in the church and around Christians for a long time, I think we tend to forget how strange and foolish the central part of our faith sounds. This season …
Read MoreWearing the right clothes
I ran out of gas last week. As these things usually go, it was a series of wrong choices. The warning light went off on the way to the hospital, but I wanted to get there ASAP for the visit. I forgot about getting gas …
Read MoreLent: Choosing Sacrifice
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on March 1, 2015) Mark 8:31-38. I’ve often thought of Peter rebuking Jesus as a great reminder that everyone makes mistakes. Peter has just had such a high point, being the one person who correctly identifies Jesus as the …
Read MoreLent: Facing Sin
(Message given February 22, 2015 at Newberg Friends Church) Psalm 25: 1-11 I love the fact that I’ve lived 23 out of the last 29 years in Newberg. There’s something beautiful about getting to be a part of a smaller community for that long, to …
Read MoreChrist’s Life
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on February 15, 2015) Last Sunday after the service, I had a great and very honest conversation with someone. Talking with him cemented something in my own mind, and that’s what I want to share with you today, my …
Read MorePut Them Into Practice
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on February 8, 2015) ‘Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds …
Read MoreIntegrity and Wholeness
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on February 1, 2015) Do you ever look at a word, and stare at it, and then all of a sudden the letters just make no sense any more? It just looks weird and wrong? Pageant. Pageant did that …
Read MoreDistilling the Sermon on the Mount
(As part of today’s message, I tried to interpret and condense the Sermon on the Mount. Several people asked for a copy, so I’m putting it here on the blog. Read for yourself in Matthew 5-7 and see if it works for you.) Here is …
Read MoreTrees and Fruit
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on January 25, 2015) Play a little game with me–one of these things is not like the other. Can you find the unique one? Some of those were subtle, some really obvious. For me, after all these months we’ve …
Read MoreWho Makes it Narrow?
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on January 18, 2015) The two things Jesus teaches in today’s section of the sermon on the mount are pretty much at the core of the things I most often speak or write about. One is to reclaim an accurate …
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