(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on April 27, 2014) When you are learning Greek, the place in the bible that you often get asked to translate first is the letter we call 1 John. This is because it is sort of like the Dr. …
Read MoreEaster Deepening
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on April 20, 2014) There are lots of metaphors and pictures and images that describe Jesus and the victory of Easter. Lion. Lamb. Warrior on a white horse. But there’s one I don’t think of often, but that surprisingly …
Read MoreSteps to the Cross
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on April 13, 2014) Psalm 31:9-16 (TNIV) Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Thomas the Disciple
Vincent Kaminski now teaches business at Rice University, but he once served as managing director of research for Enron…the Enron that spectacularly crashed in bankruptcy in 2001. Before the crash, Enron had grown exceedingly quickly. They got to that place with smoke and mirrors, using …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Elizabeth Gurney Fry
Picture a young woman, filling her diary with her angst. She slowly slumps against the wall and a sorrowful sigh escapes from her mouth. The journal opens, and the desperate words quickly fall from her pen: “I am now seventeen, and if some kind and …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Billy Graham
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church, March 9, 2014) Today’s person in the Cloud of Witnesses series is Billy Graham. In this series, we are looking at people who help us to fix our eyes on Jesus; people who encourage and challenge us to, as …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Daniel
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on Feb. 23, 2014) Today I would like to give you the Sparknotes version, the Reader’s Digest version of my spiritual journey from birth to age 30. Ready? Born. Rapidly conclude that if I do anything anyone thinks is …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Gregory of Nazianzus
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on January 26, 2014) As I was thinking about this cloud of witnesses series, I wondered if some of the famous Gregorys in church history might be good ones to explore. This is me in St. Peter’s at the …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: Priscilla
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on January 19, 2014) Last summer, on our huge gift of a trip to Europe, we landed in Amsterdam. We had less than 24 hours there, and were dealing with jet lag. But we made the most of it! …
Read MoreCloud of Witnesses: The Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on January 12, 2014) I want to let you in on a little bit of my strategy for today. I figure the only way I’m gonna get people to stop teasing me about my Christmas Eve Service blunders is …
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