Preparing for the Lord's Day It is easy to think of prayer as an inward-looking practice. However, what we see in the word of God is that there is nothing more powerful than prayer to send people out on a mission. This first Sunday of the year we will begin by looking at the power that prayer gives to move people out into the world on a God-given mission. This sermon will...

I think it's safe to say we all want to lead productive lives. We want to give ourselves to people and projects that add meaning and joy to our lives and theirs. That's why it can be frustrating when you come to the end of your day, and there are still things left to do. There are unfinished projects and plans. There are unreturned emails and phone calls. It can be frustra...

Preparing for the Lord's Day On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we focus our attention on the theme of love. Love is a difficult theme to grasp since its nature eludes simple definition. One simplistic expression of love is the feeling of attraction. In this manner one might say, "I love my wife Linda, my child John, my dog Farfel, Virginia Tech football, and chocolate chip...

Preparing for the Lord's Day This Advent season we have focused our attention on the theme of waiting. We have seen that we are to wait with hope and with peace, and this week we will look at how we are to wait with joy. Psalm 97 begins and ends with a command to rejoice. To give praise to the Lord with gladness and joy. And this command is rooted in the reality of the Lo...

Preparing for the Lord's Day In the sermon for this week, I make an important distinction between waiting for peace and waiting with peace. The difference between these two realities is expressed merely by a difference of preposition yet is experienced by a difference of magnitude. To wait for peace means that peace lies somewhere in the future. It is far off. It may even...