Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Genesis 12:1-3 Mark 1:14-20 Rob Bell, in his book, What We Say when We Talk about God , asks this intriguing question: "Is God progressive, with a better, more inspiring vision for our future than we could ever imagine, or is God behind, back there, in the past, endlessly truing to get us to return to how it used to be?" How we answer this question may show a disconnect between what we say we believe and what has been proven in our lives and throughout the history of humanity and God. I don't know about you, but I am definitely not the same person I was when I graduated from college.  MIT's study on young adult development shows that our brains don't reach maturity until at least our mid twenties.  ("Young Adult Development, http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/brain.html#text).  At that point, we are capable of making more sound judgements, understand the consequences of our own actions, empathizing and understanding other people's points

John 3:16-17 Jonah 3:1-10  Did you hear the one about the church that provided hard hats for first timers and long absent members as incentives to come to Church?  Believe it or not, there are people who think God is hiding around the corner, waiting to catch us at doing something bad so God can punish us.  What is the truth?  Is God for us or against us? Jonah was furious.  After all, it had been a rough week, and now it seemed pointless.   Admittedly the three days in the belly of that fish was his own fault for not following God's orders.  Truth be known, he really didn't want to go to Ninevah because they were pretty nasty to the people of Israel.  Even after repenting and being thrown up on the beach outside of Ninevah, Jonah still had a chip on his shoulder. For three days, stinking like fish vomit, his skin and clothing bleached by the stomach acids of the fish, Jonah walked across the city of Nineveh shouting, "Forty Days, and God's going to destroy

Psalm 139:7-18 Romans 8:35. 37-39 There are three questions every Christian needs to be able to answer -- Why God?  Why Christ? Why Church?  -- because you never know when someone will ask you.  The answers they seek aren't in a theology text.  They are in our stories of our life with Christ, and it doesn't hurt to understand their stories, how they perceive God and the world, too. "Why God?  Why should I believe in God?" How would you answer that question? One way would to be to point to the natural world.  There are some weird, wacky and breath-taking things going on.  Take atoms, the stuff you and I and the universe are made of.   On the sub-atomic level, scientists have identified or theorized the existence of 150 sub-atomic particles.  As amazing as that is, they can't explain how or predict why they act the way they do. Think about the mystery and wonder of the human body.  Soren Solari, who has a Ph.D in integrative neurolog

  Matthew 2:1-12 I was struck this week that in the middle of Christmastide is New Year's Day, the time we celebrate a new year full of opportunities for change and personal improvement.  It happens during a time when we are celebrating the birth of Christ, who came that we could have new life, new beginnings -- to become, through God's transforming grace, a "new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17) We follow the Christmas star to the end of Christmastide to Epiphany and the story of the Magi.  We sing "We three kings of orient are ..." and name the gifts they brought.  What stands out to me in this familiar story is Matthew 2:12.  "And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road."  They went back home a different way. The Magi were committed, I have to say.  It took them approximately two years to make the journey.  It couldn't have been an easy journey, following the star across d