Advent Reflection #2: Again and Again
Again and Again The Sons of Korah sing Psalm 85 while looking in the rear-view mirror. They’re reflecting on where they’ve been, on the road they’ve taken, on the missteps and the catastrophes and the grand vistas and the sun rises. And two things stand out: First, God has restored all that has been broken and lost. Hallelujah! As you review this last year, may you take great comfort in knowing that nothing surrendered to God is wasted. Nothing. Second,…
Advent Reflection #1: Cyrus, God’s Anointed
Our first Advent reading this year is from Isaiah 45:1-7. This is a powerful declaration of one of the primary themes of Christmas: God’s passionate desire to be known by us and to know us. As you read this, take note of all the ways God is making Himself known to His people. Remember that God’s ultimate act to know and be known is the incarnation: His literal coming to earth, in the flesh, as a person like us. There’s…
Searching for Shalom
Two things trouble me. First? The lack of peace. All the hatred and brokenness and senseless violence. It saddens me. I worry for my children. Second? The empty words. The shallow, unhelpful noise. The misguided guidance. The counterfeit “solutions” being offered to hurting people in need of grace-filled truth. Our souls are longing for true comfort. We need something real, something that endures. We desperately need broken things to be made whole and right again. This Christmas, we’re searching…
The Belief that Shapes our Worship Gatherings
Two beliefs shape the specific way we approach worship in our community. The first (I’ll address the second in another post) is this: We approach worship as a rhythm, not as an event. Increasingly, approaching worship as a rhythm, or a pattern, or a habit, or a ritual (in the best sense of the word) is rare in our culture. Our culture is shifting toward seeing worship as an event. What’s the difference? And event is an exception. A rhythm is the rule. Events can also…
A Call to Worship
I struggle nearly every Sunday to “want” to go to church. There’s a battle that happens in my soul while I’m showering and shaving early, in the dark, before anyone else is awake. Sometimes it’s pretty intense. But every single Sunday, by the time I step out of my truck and walk into the building, I’m ready. I’m excited. I want to be there. And this is why: I believe that what I’m about to do matters. I believe it…
Your church-free Christianity is like my fantasy football team
You’ve seen those shirts that say, “Football is life…” And you understand that for some, football spreads over all of life, colors all of life, becomes a pervasive reality, is always on their minds… But you also understand that, at the core, football is a very specific and well-defined experience. The game literally happens in a dedicated space: there are boundary lines drawn on a field, there’s a clock that marks the start and completion of the event. There are…
Rock to Satan
When Simon confesses the truth (Matthew 16:16), Jesus names him “Rock” (greek: Petra; or Peter).Moments later (16:23) when Simon’s own desires cloud the truth, Jesus calls him “Satan.”Fascinating, isn’t it, that our identity could be so rooted in our confession? -Nate
How Will You Use That?
Waiting is not passive; it is proactive. Good waiting requires imagination: the taking hold of a picture of what could be, what will be. In the early part of his prophesy, Isaiah envisions radical restoration. He sees a day when weapons of aggression and destruction will be re-purposed into tools of nurture and harvest. We can actively wait for that vision by living into it now. Rather than learning war, we can train for reconciliation. And the very things…
More Valuable Than Peace
Is there anything more valuable than peace? We’ve been studying the “priestly blessing” given to Moses by God, Himself, in the Old Testament book called “Numbers” (chapter six). It is a blessing that is wonderfully concise, powerful, practical and personal. It’s also progressive. By that I mean that it begins with a blessing for basic material provision and protection: “The LORD bless you and keep you.” In other words, “May God give you stuff and protect you…
Worship Is Like Football
Worship is two things. It is all of life. And, in a very focused sense, it is a specific set of activities at a specific time and place in life. It can be all of life. It can spread out to everything. It’s also a very specific, contained, focused experience. You’ve seen those shirts that say: Football is life… and we get that that means that, for some, football spreads out over all of life. But we also understand that there is a sense in…
A Third Way: Turn the Other Cheek
Normal.dotm 0 0 1 160 914 Emmaus Church Community 7 1 1122 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;} Turn the Other Cheek (Matthew 5:38-42) Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am. Man in Black: Then why are you smiling? Inigo Montoya: Because I know something…
Come O Lord!
One of the most important, most clearly-declared, and most universally-embraced Christian doctrines is the “Return of Christ.” Sometimes called “The Second Advent” or the “Perousia,” the idea that Jesus is coming back can be found throughout the earliest Christian sermons, is included in every major Christian creed, and has been the cradle of hope for Christ-followers for over 2000 years. But in many Christian churches (including ours – I have never preached about Jesus’ return at Emmaus) it is rarely…