What are the advantages of preaching consecutively, chapter after chapter, all the way through a book of the Bible? There are five reasons…
The essence of Christmas is the mysterious, glorious and profound claim that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. To this astounding truth one might be compelled to ask: did it have to be this way? Was there any other way for God to redeem us? The second chapter of Hebrews gives us three reasons why God had to become a man:
Next Saturday (April 19, not tomorrow) is Record Store Day. This annual celebration of independent record stores has been taking place since 2007, and gives special attention to the vinyl record, which happens to be the main reason independent records stores are still in business. As music consumption moves away from CDs and increasingly toward MP3 downloads or direct streaming, there has been a movement back toward buying records the old fashioned way. Vinyl sales have been on the increase for the last few years, and show no signs of slowing down.
The end of August marked my 10-year anniversary of serving as pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Yorktown. As I reflect on the mistakes I’ve made and the fruit that has been borne from my ministry, I offer five things that I’ve learned about pastoral ministry during the time God has graciously given to me to serve as shepherd of God’s people. This of course is not all there is to be said about pastoral ministry; these are simply things that stand out as lessons that are easy to overlook:
There has been lots of talk this week about Richard Sherman’s wild rant on national television Sunday night. Sherman, a defensive player for the Seattle Seahawks, had just caused a game-saving interception in the NFC championship game with San Francisco when a Fox Sports reporter put a microphone in his face. Sherman proceeded to call 49ers player Michael Crabtree a “sorry receiver.” He boasted that he (Sherman) was the “best corner in the game.” He yelled to the camera that no one should ever talk about him. He was defiant. He glared. And then he stormed off.
