John 1:14

John 1:14 

 The Message 

  I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and every good wish and blessing as we look forward to the new year!  I love this Message version of John's prologue, because it captures perfectly in modern language what God did -- take on flesh and move into the neighborhood, so that we encounter Jesus in our daily lives, because God is in our midst.  God is not distant, waiting for us to decipher the map to undertake a journey to discover God.  No, God comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ, walking among us, so that we might know the light.

  Look forward to journeying through Scripture with you all again next year - feel free to let me know if there are any particular books of the Bible you'd love to explore. 

Sermon for December 26, 2021

Galatians 6:1-5

Galatians 6:1-5 

English Standard Version 

  People sometimes make statements about how the Bible is outdated and doesn't have anything to say to modern life. 

  To those people, I humbly submit Galatians 6:1, a verse that should be placed squarely above and below the login box for any social media site.

  Seriously -- how much of a better world would it be if, just before any comment was made on social media, someone had to consider whether their response was done in a spirit of gentleness?  

  Maybe the church can set an example and be the people leading our society into an era based on gentleness and bearing one another's burdens.  I think that would be a wonderful gift to the world for Christmas!

Galatians 5:22-26

Galatians 5:22-26 

English Standard Version 

  I've always loved how Paul keeps 'fruit' as singular -- all these things work together.  We don't get to pick our favorites and ignore the rest.  It's like asking God to transform part of our lives and ignore the rest!  Tim Keller talks about how we often treat God like an interior decorator, inviting God into our lives but hoping God just shows up and moves around some things in the living room, when in reality God enters in and starts knocking down walls, doing a total renovation, because God wants more for us than we can possibly ask or imagine.

  When we live by the Spirit, God transforms us, day by day.  It's not a linear path, an easy road.  We slowly and surely, over the course of our lives, become more and more like Christ, and the fruit of the Spirit become apparent, each breaking out in different ways, but they all work together to reflect the image of God within us!