Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

I am not ashamed to admit that I absolutely LOVE the movie The Greatest Showman. The soundtrack sold me on this movie. I wake up every morning with a different song from the soundtrack playing in my head. The music is catchy and somewhat addictive (for me at least). If there is one song that I come back to over and again, played as loud as possible, it is This Is Me. It is performed by Keala Settle. I had not heard of her before this movie. She performs this song as the anthem of the story. The Greatest Showman is about P.T. Barnum and the beginning of his famous circus. It started out as a freakshow, according to the movie. Barnum collected those whom "polite" society regarded as freaks, oddities, and cast them out. Barnum offers them the chance to be something more. In This Is Me, the Bearded Lady (Settle) is confronted with that polite society as she sings about the life that she and her fellow circus attractions claim for their own. This song hit me hard. It came ...

October 1, 2017 I preached a sermon that concluded my series on Sharing Your Faith Story. The final sermon was Living a True Story. It is about the final step in sharing with another person the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. The point was that if we are saying that Jesus Christ is lord of our life and all things are centered in him, and we have a  hope that gets us beyond the difficulties of life, then our living must bear that out. How we live, our behavior, matters in telling and sharing our faith story. Due to emotional issues that came to a head, the sermon and the response to the sermon got beyond my control. There were some issues that developed. There were some emotional burdens that I took upon myself that weren't necessarily mine to bear. And I wrecked my soul. I am working to be better now. But I still stand by the sermon. I stand by its word as prophetic and Holy Spirit inspired. It is not easy to hear. It is easier to read. So I am presenting bo...

One week ago, I got some strong affirmations for a sermon I preached on Christians and Protest. In that sermon, I stressed that there are times when Christians need to raise their voice in protest against or for certain subjects. There were very strong affirmations about that sermon. Stronger than I typically receive. It was nice. It also told me that it was a likeable sermon. Yesterday I preached an unlikeable sermon. I decided to narrow in on one subject that the Bible consistency tells the people of God they should be attentive of. It is a subject that God protests about. It is a subject that is highlighted in the commandments and statutes of the Covenant. It is a subject that the prophets hold the people of God accountable for. It is something Jesus refers to in his ministry. It is something that the letter writing apostles bring to the attention of Christians. The subject that God protests and expects Christians to protest about is how the poor are treated. Due to an elect...

As I have been dealing with the current sermon series on prayer, I have had to learn some things that I hadn't known before. I have had to evaluate some things that I have held close over time. And I have found some comfortable assurance regarding what I believe about prayer. I felt that putting some of those thoughts down (the ones that I have made the effort to make note of) would help me move into the deeper understanding I have of prayer. So, in no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on prayer. Speak from the heart When I enter prayer, it is with a very clear assumption that God knows everything about me. The seeds of my thoughts, long before they become the fruit of my action, are known to God. God has already watched me hatch thoughts and conceive plans and execute deeds. So when I come to prayer, there is no reason to hide behind anything. Justification is hollow. Reason is noise. Speaking from the honest places in my life is the only authentic prayer to bring....

My current sermon series is focused on offering realistic guides to improving the prayer life of people who feel that it is important. The last sermon was on models of prayer. It was grounded in the model of prayer Jesus taught the crowds on the side of mountain and taught the disciples when they asked. We have come to call this The Lord's Prayer. And it is repeated throughout churches and homes on a regular basis. I drew the implication out of what Jesus says in those passages relevant to the prayer (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4) that this was not THE prayer that followers were to pray, but a model to prayer. That is my take on that passage. It can be read in the sense that this was the prayer that they were supposed to pray. The disciples seemed to take it that way and commend early Christians to pray that same prayer (plus the line "for yours is the power and glory forever) three times a day. The point I wanted to make is that models of prayer are useful guides in enteri...

I am sitting here working through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. It is the foundation for my sermon Sunday. I am cruising along doing some work in Greek (yes, I still have a little functionality in the language). I am working down through some alternate translations to squeak out subtle meaning that is lost in the rote recitation we sometimes fall into. There is some interesting things for study and preaching. The one thing that is stopping me to write this is one little word: epiousios. The familiar phrase is "give us this day our daily bread". Every word in that phrase is common and easily understood except for epiousios - daily. All my life I have visualized and understood this phrase to mean that God is providential to the level of taking care of our daily needs. And it is a refreshing thought to know that our creating God is also compassionate toward our insignificant needs of daily providing. That is the kind of God we have. The word, though, is strange. It app...

Before we get to life after death we should have a clear understanding of life here and now. Jesus spoke the words from Matthew 6 to a gathering of people on the side of a hill. They were people who wanted more out of life. He reminded them that life was more than the everyday grind of life. We are prone to lower our eyes and look at life as only going from one day to the next. But life is more than providing for day to day necessities Genesis 1:30 – life is the very breath of God inside of us. We are animated by the breath of the very same God to spoke creation into existence. Our lives are more than just mundane day to day existence. We have within us life that comes from God. Even that is not the full meaning of life Jesus speaks a lot about life and eternal life. John 6:35 – the bread of life that brings eternal life. What many people often confuse is what eternal life means. This is also part of the confusion with heaven. Eternal life is not about some existence afte...