Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Isaiah 43:18-21  (CEB) Look! I’m doing a new thing;      now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert,      paths in the wilderness. 20  The beasts of the field,          the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,      because I have put water in the desert      and streams in the wilderness      to give water to my people,      my chosen ones, 21       this people whom I formed for myself,          who will recount my praise. Today is a day of new beginnings; let's celebrate! “Look, eyes wide open,” says God to us through the book of Isaiah, “I am going to do something new.  I am preparing a road for you to travel into new territory.  With living water, I am going to bring new life to a barren wastela...

John 2:1-11 There seems to be to be two times in a young woman's life when people go out of their way to share their personal horror stories.  One is during the pregnancy of her first child, and the other is when she is planning her wedding.  There seems to be no end of well wishers who are eager to share the details of a wedding ceremony or reception that went wrong. If I understand the high value put upon hospitality during biblical times, the wedding at Cana was about to turn into a social and cultural disaster.  During the festivities, they ran out of wine.  At that time, this was not going to be seen as a comment on the drinking habits of the guests; it was a statement  on the generosity (or lack there of) of the groom. I guess it would be like the wealthiest man in town serving fish sticks, tater tots and watered down Kool-aid at his daughter's wedding reception -- cheap, stingy and inhospitable.  No one wants to go through the rest of their ...

Part III of "Why the Church?  Because God So Loved the World" Luke 15:11-32 Revelations 3:14-18 We started this series with the Parable of Lost Sheep, the first of three parables in Luke 15 which remind us of God's mission to redeem the lost, and the God's joy in each person's return to God.  Unfortunately, as the Parable of the Prodigal Son shows us, sometimes the lost don't know they're lost or what they have lost. There was a man with two sons ... and both of them, in their own way, were lost. The younger son lost only money, but the older son lost something more important -- relationship.  He had placed so much importance on being the good son, that he had forgotten that he was a son and brother .   His response to the news of his younger brother's return, filled with anger, judgement and entitlement, showed that there was little love for his sibling and no understanding of his father's joy. And in their own way, the pharisees who ...

This will be the last in the series, "Why the Church." Matthew 10:1-10 Matthew 28:18-20 Every year in early September, our community plays host to a rodeo.  Cowboys are part of American history, culture and lore.  It's important to remember, that along with the cowboys and cattle drives were also traveling preachers like the Methodist circuit riders who traveled from town to town with only what  they could carry in their saddle bags as well as camp meetings and revivals where people invited their neighbors to come and experience God's love and saving grace.   Hardy pioneers, cowboys and gunslingers may have won the west, but it was those people who understood what it meant to be sent by Christ to share the good news, who possessed the spirit of apostleship, that brought truth and life to men and women.   How are we, today, called to be apostles? Times have changed since the circuit riders covered their assigned territories.  Chur...