preaching and hearing

Good morning sisters and brothers,
First, a reminder that Sunday in worship we'll be celebrating graduates, so if you're graduating from any program, we'd love to have you to celebrate with us on Sunday.

God has clearly brought Peter and Cornelius together, despite many religious and cultural barrier. So today we see what God does now that they are together.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 10:34-48

³⁴Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

³⁹We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. ⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, ⁴⁶for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ⁴⁷“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

times of refreshing

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Yesterday we read how Peter and John healed a man in the temple through the name of Jesus Christ. That quickly drew a crowd, and Peter loses no opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. Notice how he connects the story of Jesus with a familiar story for his hearers: the story of Israel and the prophets. I also love that he talks about faith in Christ as bringing "times of refreshing." Too often we think about faith and church as obligations, when really, they can be a joy.

Blessings on your day,
Sam

Acts 3:12-25

¹²When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

¹⁷“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, ²⁰so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, ²¹who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.

²²Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. ²³And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ ²⁴And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. ²⁵You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

growing in grace

Good evening friends,
I hope this beautiful Sabbath day has been a good one for you full of rest and community and joy. Tonight's reading comes from Paul's letter to the Colossians. Like in Ephesians, Paul lays the foundation for our life on our salvation through Christ and presents Christ as a goal for our growth. The way Paul outlines the Christian life is a good way to think about it. Christ was the agent of the world's creation. He reconciled us to God through the cross. As we come to faith we become one with God through Jesus and continue to grow as we follow him. We grow in faith not because we are afraid or because we want to earn forgiveness. Instead, we grow in faith because we recognize God's amazing love for us and respond with gratitude. That sounds like a good plan for me.

blessings on your evening and see you tomorrow,
Sam

Colossians 1:3-20

³In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel ⁶that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. ⁷This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, ⁸and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

¹¹May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

praise of God's glory

Good afternoon friends,
Today's reading continues yesterday's. Paul continues to give thanks for the faith of the Ephesians. What I notice is that he bases all the rest of his discussion on faith. Everything for Paul comes back to theology. When we know God and God's love, and live according to that love, everything else falls into place. I love the poetry with which Paul praises God. I hope it inspires your evening too.

God bless,
Sam

Ephesians 1:15-23

¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 

²⁰God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²²And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

God is love

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Tomorrow we'll be back at the Boulevard at 8:30pm for a discussion on asking big questions when you don't know the answers. Last week we had an engaging and wide ranging discussion talking about community, scripture and life experience. 


In a recent survey of non-church goers who were asked to give the first word that came to mind when they thought about Christians, some of the most common responses were: judgmental, hypocritical and close-minded. While those traits might describe some of the loudest public voices in Christianity, John makes it clear that they are not traits of faithful Christians. He says love is the point of our faith. God loves us so deeply and sacrificially in Christ that our first calling is to love others in the same spirit. If we truly follow that, we'll be on the right path.

God bless,
Sam

1 John 4:7-21

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. ¹³By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

God's gracious sacrifice

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Today's reading is challenging, so if you can, read it through at least twice. In the first two chapters of this letter Paul argued that everyone sins; he reinforces that point here. We have all sinned, so we all need God's forgiveness, God's grace. Paul says until Christ our sin was in forbearance like a loan we couldn't pay. God wasn't collecting the loan; he wasn't demanding the penalty for sin, but the sin wasn't forgiven either.

Then, amazingly, God offers Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. That shows righteousness because the debt of sin is paid for rather than just overlooked, but the debt we couldn't pay is paid by God. By paying our debt God offers forgiveness to everyone: Jews and gentiles, the whole world. We join ourselves to Christ by faith and so we trade in our sin for Christ's righteousness. We can't boast about our goodness because God did it for us. Our role now is to accept God's amazing love, to let go of guilt and fear, and to make our lives shine with love and gratitude to the God who loves us so much.

Blessings on your day,
Sam

Romans 3:19-31

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰For “no human being will be justified in his sight” by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 

²¹But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. ²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

not hard enough

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Hopefully you all remembered to set your clocks ahead an hour for daylight savings time before going to bed. This morning we'll be worshiping in Christler Hall with a more relaxed feel than usual (even though we're pretty relaxed all the time). Our service will include music from Bob Dylan, Neil Young and our own Alan Murphy. I'm excited about this morning, and I hope you can be there. After worship several of us will head across the street to the Boulevard to discuss the introduction of I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church. Even if you haven't read the chapter, you're more than welcome to join in.

Our passage this morning features Paul wrestling with his desire to do the right thing while the power of sin pushes him in the opposite direction. Paul's words apply to our life in general and to addiction more specifically. He reminds us that trying harder won't work, we need to surrender and accept Christ's salvation. We can't do what we want to do and we cannot save ourselves from sin. Come seek Christ in worship today.

God bless,
Sam

Romans 7:15-24

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

planting the word

Good morning friends,
Today's reading may take a couple times through to get it; don't feel bad about that, but do give it a second try. The idea is that we've been renewed and claimed by God's love in Christ. The seed of our new life is the word of God. That phrase, "word of God" can mean different things. For instance, John's Gospel tells us that Jesus is the Word who existed before the world began. Most often we think of the word of God as scripture, which is also true, because, through the Holy Spirit, God does speak to us in scripture.

In this reading Peter says God's word is the good news (that God loves and redeems us in Jesus Christ). That good news plants the seed of a new relationship with God and a new live of love and service. That seed is planted and watered with scripture and never dies.

God bless,
Sam

1 Peter 1:18-24

¹⁸You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. ²⁰He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. ²¹Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. ²²Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. ²³You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

²⁴For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, ²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever.” That word is the good news that was announced to you.

putting on Christ

Good evening friends,
Today's reading reminds us that when we become Christian it means finding our identity in Jesus and rejecting those parts of our old identity that are opposed to God's kingdom. That means taking off the prejudice, selfishness and consumer identity the world encourages us to wear and putting on the love, openness and justice Jesus stood for. It also means putting forgiveness at the heart of our relationships with others. Jesus forgave us, so we forgive others; seeking love in all that we do. Letting our faith transform us can be hard because the world keeps bombarding us with contrary messages, but if we allow God to do so, the Spirit will work inside us to make us new in Christ.

God bless,
Sam

Colossians 3:8-17

⁸But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. ⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

¹²As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. ¹³Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.