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Romans 12:9-21 Recently Patty and I took off some time to celebrate her birthday by going to the beautiful state of Hawaii. Of course we had a grand and beautiful time on that gorgeous Big Island. We swam a lot, snorkeled the corral coves, hiked many of the hills, and we shopped!  One of the days we took a long hike that began about 1000 feet above sea level and proceeded down the lava flow areas all the way down…

Romans 12:1-8 We are now on what I have categorized as the last section of the book of Romans. This whole year we have studied Romans and Our Calling this series the gospel truth. The theology of what the gospel is in full detail is so well explained in the 1st 11 chapters of the book of Romans. But around the 12th chapter of this amazing letter in our New Testament we begin this section which is often considered to…

In January 1925, Nome Alaska was very, very cold! Now this should be of no surprise to anyone as Nome is that little Arctic town that sits out near the Bering Sea and essentially looks across to the far East tip of Russia. It is a native Alaskan settlement that expanded a great deal in the early 20th century due to the gold rush and other economic reasons. But a crisis had emerged in this Arctic village. And it is…

Quite soon after I made a decision for Christ, a pastor friend told me about a debate going around in the Christian world called the Arminian versus Calvinist debate. I don’t want to go too deep doctrinally here, but the Arminian position emphasizes free will, believing that individuals have the choice to accept or reject God’s salvation. On the other hand, the Calvinist position emphasizes God’s sovereignty, believing that God predestines certain individuals for salvation. The way my friend said…

When Apollo 8 was launched in December 1968 it was the very first ever manned flight to reach the moon and they orbited the moon on that mission.  They did not land on the moon (that was Apollo 11 in July 1969). But it was the first ever to have flown out of earth’s low orbit and circle the moon, which they did 10 times and were within 60 miles of its surface! This mission set the stage for the…

When the Seattle Seahawks have their season opener this coming September at Lumen Field, everyone in the downtown region will know there is a game about to happen because the Seahawk blue jerseys, shirts, hats, and even face paint will be everywhere! The shouts from the crowds of thousands of people who were all strangers to one another just an hour before, are now all yelling in unison — “SEA —- HAWKS!”  They are all high fiving one another and…

About ten years ago Patty was asked to paint about 25 portraits of famous people who would be considered ‘peace makers’ in the world. Individuals who stand out as people who brought something better for a nation and the world. She was asked to do this by a missionary who served in a difficult place in Asia to be put into a coffee shop there. It was actually called the “Peace Café.” The intent was to foster conversations among the…

One of my favorite movie series is “Band of Brothers.” It came out about 20 years ago and has been branded as one of the most realistic views of the challenges in war time. It follows the story of real American WWII veterans from the D-Day Normandy invasion into France all the way to the end of the war.  I know that Army bases when training soldiers actually require their troops to watch this series to teach them lessons of…

We have a ‘lost and found’ box in the church lobby. You might think at first glance that there are many different kinds of items in this ‘lost and found’ box.  Bibles are the most common. But there are hats, gloves, glasses, notebooks, coats, umbrellas, and plenty of other common items that get left behind with no name on them and are unclaimed. But if you really think about it, there are only two kinds of items… there are LOST…

I have always considered Romans chapter 8 as one of the favorite chapters in the Bible for me. That’s honestly difficult to truly evaluate because I don’t want to lose any of the chapters. They are all God’s Word and inspired. They are all profitable. But undeniably there are a few that really stand out to me and just have always spoken to me in a very special way. This Sunday we are going to begin the first of four…

Not unlike the GIC week in the fall (GLOBAL Impact Celebration) we are using this coming Sunday morning March 3 as a commitment Service to our CIC (COMMUNITY Impact Celebration) week at LifeWay. There are some differences though – as well as some strong similarities. The differences: So what is unique about our CIC commitment? As you prepare for this coming Sunday morning, I ask you to read and contemplate from a couple of important places in the book of…

At our Tuesday evening prayer meeting this week, Rik Budd was our leader, and he asked that we focus our attention and prayers to the CIC week (Community Impact Celebration) at LifeWay. And as he began our prayer time, he read from Acts 20:24 which is a strong testimony from the Apostle Paul as he was accounting for the purpose of his life. Acts 20:24  “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the…

If we are forced about the battle of good and evil, some of us would first consider the original movie Star Wars. The cosmic battle of good and evil is the centerpiece of this blockbuster movie series. The “good guys” (Luke Skywalker and Princes Leia) versus the really – really – really bad (evil) guys Emperor Palpatine. But in between them is the conflicted character that was good, then turned to the dark side, before FINALLY at the last minute…

Hello Lifeway! Thank you for having me this coming Sunday, I’m looking forward to being together again! We’ll be continuing your current series in Romans. For those who like to prepare, we’ll be looking at chapter 7 verses 14-25. In this passage the apostle Paul addresses that age old question many of us have yelled in traffic, “what the heck is wrong with these people?!” No, he wasn’t really addressing traffic, but something of much greater significance; the nature of…

One of the challenges of jumping into a sermon series is trying to figure out how to address everything that I want to address within a given passage because of the richness and depth of God’s word. There is a part of me that wants to spend a few weeks on only a few verses diving deep into scripture. But unfortunately, that is not an option in this season for this passage. But with such complex passages as Romans 6:15-23…

There are different shapes that biblical sermons can take. The late great Haddon Robinson, who was a professor on preaching, talked about this in his book, Biblical Preaching. Among other shapes, Robinson talked about a sermon being a proposition to be proved, a principle to be applied, or an idea to be explained. It is that last shape that I believe Paul is utilizing in this section of the letter to the church in Rome. Though perhaps he wouldn’t have…

In the world of literature and writing, one of the ‘hooks’ that is often used in the opening line of a story or in the title of the book is a question.  In the famous children’s story book “Charlottes Web,” the opening line is… “Where is papa going with that ax?” (as the spider is saving the life of the pig friend). I  drove by a church property this week and on the reader board out front was a sermon…