Doing God's work, one step at a time

Luke 1: 26-38, traditional Advent week one reading: 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. S

*Remember, if you want a copy of the audio sermon from Sunday Morning, leave a comment here with your email address and I'll get it to you!* When bad things happen, how many times do you wonder why? It seems like when one thing goes wrong, the floodgates open and it is all you can do to stay afloat. During these times it is so easy to get lost in translation. I got an email a while back about a bagpiper who played many funerals. He was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky backcountry. As he was not familiar with the backwoods area, he got lost and, being a typical man, he didn't stop for directions. He finally arrived an hour late and saw that the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. He felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. He w

*Before you start reading the sermon, I have a sound byte file of the actual sermon given Sunday morning. If you want, please leave me a comment here or on my facebook page with your email address and I will send you the file. Have you ever thought about decisions as you make them each day? Have you ever thought about the weight of each issue as you decide one way or another? Whether or not we realize it, each moment makes a difference. I want to tell you a story about a young man. This young man was divorced recently from his wife of a year and had gone off to the big city in order to start his life over. He had problems with women in the past, dating and finding someone who was fit for him. Soon after the divorce, he was back trying to find the hole missing in his life. He thought it was a woman so he went to different websites to try and find someone that would fill the empty place within him. Through it all, he eventually met a girl on the dating site and they conversed back and f