Sermon Leftovers

On Monday, the Salon website ran an editorial entitled: I'm a pedophile, but I'm not a monster. (you can read it here .) What is your initial reaction to this? Then, once you've grabbed your breath, what is your secondary reaction? Any different? More importantly, how do you think Jesus would respond to Todd Nickerson (the author of the story). I'll be honest. My first thought was, "This isn't real. This is satire. It's a modern rendering of "A Modest Proposal." I even spent time googling the story to figure out if it was a joke. I don't think it is. So I began trying to process what this means. More specifically, I asked myself the question, "How should Christ's church respond to a person like this? What does it mean for Christians to embrace someone who is sexually attracted to little children? (if you have little children, these questions take on a whole other dimension)" We ALL have value and worth IN SPITE OF o

I originally posted this about 8 years ago. It still seems incredibly relevant to today. Enjoy a little light reading. Both "heroes" have a fiercely loyal and slightly simple companion with reddish hair. Grima Wormtongue and Peter Pettigrew (aka Wormtail?). Most of the blonde elves look like Malfoys. Magic. Gimly and Hagrid are pretty much the same, except for a seven foot difference. Nazguls and Dementors make the exact same sound. Way too much wide-eyed, wistful staring into nothing by both Frodo and Harry. Gollum or Dobby? You pick. The ring is essentially a horcrux, isn't it? Dumbledore and Gandolph look alike. *Now watching LOTR III and realizing I should have added in another one. Big Spiders.

This month I'm reading in Lamentations and last night I was back to chapter one. This is really a fascinating book as it is incredibly depressing, yet hopeful. Jeremiah certainly wrote from a place of despair. The world he knew had ended. His agony and grief bleed across the pages. The most glorious city every built lay in ruins and for Jeremiah there was no hope of restoration or rebuilding. Yet there is hope. There is hope because Jerusalem was not the first city to be destroyed, neither would it be the last. Throughout the history of the world, great empires have risen and fallen. Today, on every continent, we can walk in the ruins of once great cities. The Mayans, the Incas, the Romans, the Persians and many more have come and gone. No kingdom lasts forever. This doesn't sound hopeful? Today's kingdoms will fall also. America is just a baby. At a little over 200 years old, we've been around a far shorter time than Israel or Judah lasted. But just as Je

This is something I wrote about 10 years ago. I still miss my beagle greatly. We have new dogs now, and they do the same thing as the beagle did... For the last 30 minutes, I've been sitting at my dining room table working. My dog has been sitting at the door waiting for Marianne to get home. She did this last night as well. She just quietly sits there and waits. I wonder if that is what God does for us sometimes? Just quietly sits and waits for us to come home...

There has been much talk lately about the things that God HATES (the Bible does say there are some of them). I've also stumbled upon many conversations about what the Bible DOESN'T say about different issues. It seems to me that it might be nice to spend some time thinking about what the Bible DOES say... particularly, what it says about the things God LOVES. Recently I came across this infographic which is all about the things God loves, specifically, the things the Bible says God loves. Check it out. It might surprise you what is not included, but it will certainly encourage you when you discover that you're included... Discover more infographs at OVERVIEWBIBLE.COM

Photo by NBC News Kim Davis is the government worker in Kentucky who spent a night in jail because she refused to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples. My desire here is not to take sides or make political points, but rather to point out that sometimes our perspective as Americans might be different than our perspective as Christians. When that happens, my default is to choose my Christian perspective rather than my American perspective. How you respond... Is your choice. As a Christian If you claim to follow Christ, you regularly find yourself asking, "Will I be representing Jesus well if I do this...?" Sometimes the answer is an obvious "yes" or "no" and sometimes it is far less obvious. If I were in Kim Davis' shoes my answer to this question might be different than hers. There comes a time in many people's lives when they are forced to make difficult choices. Despite what Michelob light commercials might say, you can't

AN INIQUITY LIST! Who doesn't love a good list of sins, right? Maybe these aren't really sins, but this list of 13 Sins of a Dying Church is interesting. My guess is that every church will exhibit at least one of these characteristics. Very few will exhibit all of them. http://www.malphursgroup.com/13-deadly-sins-of-a-dying-church/ USE YOUR HEAD, NOT YOUR HEART! The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. "Following your heart" almost always leads to disaster. Wisdom is the foundation of the successful life, and a critical piece of the wise life is a choice to use your mind. Here are 4 Ways to get your gut to shut up and your brain to speak up when making decisions . http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248429 IF 10 COMMANDMENTS IS TOO MANY FOR YOU, FORGET ABOUT THIS LIST! A list of 17 small habits to make you more productive seems a bit like overkill to me. However, some of the items on this list are great ideas to help you

I often talk about the necessary endings we all need to embrace if we are to grow. When we breathe, we must exhale before we inhale. Exhaling eliminates harmful toxins from our bodies and makes room for the new and fresh oxygen we need. In the same way, we must sometimes remove habits, relationships, expectations and more from our lives in order to make room for the fresh, new things God will do in us.  Necessary Endings is one of the few books I recommend to everyone I know. You can buy it here . We all have dead things in our lives which need to go away. We all have unhealthy habits, patterns or imbalances which need to go away. Sometimes we need to let go of good things so that we can make room for the best things. Every rule has exceptions. Marriage is the exception to the rule of necessary endings. Marriage is a covenant among two people and God. Ending the marriage is almost never the best solution. Ending unrealistic expectations or unhealthy patterns wit