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...

Halloween. Whether or not people admit it, it is a holiday that is filled with controversy within the Christian church. There are those who believe churches and Christians should stay out of it; and there are others who believe that since Christ overcame evil on the cross and resurrection, we have the freedom to participate and have good Christian fun in it. No matter what we believe, the one fact we have to admit is that there are those who celebrate Halloween as an evil holiday. I used to work for the Denny’s that was located right next to Six Flags in St. Louis. One of the assistant managers there was of the Wicca religion. If you are not familiar with it, they are witches and warlocks. They literally protect themselves with spells, superstitions and their big holiday is Halloween. In addition, a server there was of the satanic worship religion. He did not practice sacrificing, but Halloween was his big holiday as well. To see their excitement arise as the holiday got closer was a l...

If you have been around children for any amount of time, the words “oh for crying out loud” have come out of your mouth at one point or another. Have you ever really stopped to think about that phrase? I mean, seriously, what does it really mean? When you say it, it usually has something to do with crying, fussing, whining, griping, arguing, fighting…I could go on, but I won’t. Pretty, much it’s ridiculous. That’s my take on the whole saying. A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email addre...

(If you're reading this and you are either gay or lesbian, thank you for trusting me enough to come and read it. The first section is geared toward pointing out Scripture that talks about same sex relationships, if you bear with me and continue reading, you'll find out that I challenge Christians to change their thinking as well. No one is perfect, especially Christians. It is my firm belief that everyone deserves to be loved and accepted despite anything else. That's all any of us really want right? Thank you for your trust and understanding. May God Bless you.) I know what you're thinking. Ok, another preacher going off on another Biblical rant on same sex relationships and marriage. But wait, don't judge a book by the cover! Give me a few minutes of your time and I'll present a case as to why we, as Christians should be embracing and loving these people instead of condemning them. Ok, I know, I know. Yes, you are right, the Bible speaks out against same sex r...

Before you read this, I made a sound recording of the sermon, which I will start doing every week. If you would like a copy of it, leave your email address and I will send you a copy. If not, here is the manuscript. God Bless! Since we have been in the New Testament for about 3 months, I figured that over the next couple of weeks, we would take a travel back to the Old Testament until the holidays. These days, we get wrapped up in making plans for the future, and we have a certain set of expectations we hold in mind prior to arriving at a particular appointment or event. For example, there is a story that goes like this. A man dressed as a cowboy walks into an office building in New York City. The front desk receptionist, having never been out of the city, saw the cowboy walk in and gave him the quick once over like so and asked rather sharply, “can I help you?” The cowboy, with full grace replies, yes, I am looking for the offices of Berkley and associates.” The receptionist guides h...