on the walk

I have been working to maintain a healthier weight lately. In particular this means that I am being careful in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know that at Christmas I will have the opportunity to eat the best of foods, and I so I don’t want to waist myself on Chicken nuggets now and be too gorged to enjoy the true delicacies of Christmas when they arrive.

I was reminded of a corollary of this as I have prepared for our advent service tomorrow night. Continue Reading »

I appreciate straight-forward advertising. So many ads try to confuse me. They don’t say that drinking Captain Morgan will make me young and snide and clever, they just show a bunch of young, snide and clever people drinking it and ask if I have “A little Captain in me.”

In contrast, consider this sign which my brother brought to my attention.

I appreciate this add, because it reminds me that there is an alternative to the gospel of Christ. I want to be careful this year at Christmas. I want to celebrate in a way that makes it clear that I believe that Christ has brought “Joy to World” and not that Christies brings “Joy to the Worldly.”

I wonder though. What would that look like? Continue Reading »

It was challenging day of worship today. We were challenged to recognize that Jesus went to hell to care for those far from God and we are called to do the same thing. You can hear it all here.
This sermon has just added to some serious soul searching that I have been doing about how to increase my service to God. But before I blog about that I want to share a poem from my Father that describes Jesus motivation and practice of going to hell. I encourage you t find a time when you can read it slowly and aloud.

Continue Reading »

I went on vacation.  It was wonderful.  I am grateful and was glad for the opportunity to give thanks.  I have several things I long to post on but first I wanted to direct your attention to the conclusion of James Street’s series on gratitudians.

You can read it for yourself in Part 2 and Part 3.

In his post the addresses something that is of particular interest to me.

I don’t think you can think about water or anything else in this life as gift without simultaneously thinking that there is a Giver.

This theistic dimension of thanksgiving is so very important to me.  Like many modern Christians, I often live as a practical atheist. (That is a person who believes in God but often ignores God in everyday life and decisions.)  Thanksgiving prevents that.

This is why I think that Thanksgiving is so hard to corrupt.  Continue Reading »

I am eager for the rest of the story on this beautiful post from James Street.  He says there is more coming and I hope he keeps his word.  (I have no reason to doubt him.)

Jim was the preacher at the church of my youth.  He had a profound influence on my development as a Christian and on my subconscious definition of great preaching.

He did a series on prayer that focused on the phrases of the Lord’s prayer.  It has been lost to my conscious mind, but it shaped me, and occasionally unbidden phrases from that series will float to the front of my head.

This post is a powerful reflection on the intimate connection between practice and grace, and between discipline and character.

on the walk

-Ethan

I was grateful to be able to preach this morning on thanksgiving. It was a good morning to give thanks to God and remind ourselves that thanksgiving is a critical discipline for the Christian life.

I loved being able to discuss 1 Chronicles 16.  I find that to be a wonderfully inspiring text.  David as king could have easily turned that victory into an event that was all about him.  The people have already shown their readiness to sing his praises and proclaim his greatness, but he does not let the situation move in that direction.  Instead he focuses the people on God.  I want to be that kind of leader.

on the walk

-Ethan

I don’t take love seriously enough. In particular, I don’t take 1 Corinthians 13 seriously enough. In that masterful text, Paul teaches that nothing has value apart from love. It is like the Christian “Ecclesiastes.” Without love, all is vanity.

I have long been taught the being right but with the wrong spirit is no better than being wrong in the first place. I just haven’t lived it out lately. Greg Boyd has a challenging post entitled, “The Worst Heresy Imaginable.” He reminds us that if loving others is the central theological truth of the gospel, then the failure to love others is the worst heresy. This of course is what Paul teaches us, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2)

Take a moment today to read Paul’s teaching and then Greg’s challenging reminder, and let us decide to take love seriously.

on the walk

-Ethan

Here is the opening clip of a interview with Billy Graham conducted by Woody Allen. What a wonderful example of how we should engage culture with truth and love.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iAaxOAHCM[/youtube]

on the walk

-Ethan

We are approaching the final sermon in our series on finances. As we have tried to “Get a Grip” on our finances, I have been pondering. This is a series that goes beyond teaching about materialism and generosity. We have been discussing specific financial situations and offering some specific financial advice. This has left me wondering about a few basic questions.

Should we preach about specific financial crises?

How much advice should the church offer for those struggling with finances?

Is it appropriate for the church to give specific suggestions about financial strategies? Continue Reading »

I got to preach this week. As always it was a great honor and I was glad to be able to preach through one of my favorite texts: 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

In my final edit to get my sermon down to the right length, I had to remove an illustration that was important to me personally, so I thought I might share it in this forum. (As an aside, that final task of removing good material to focus a sermon and bring it to an appropriate length is my least favorite part of sermon writing.) It was valuable to me but ultimately it was not essential to the sermon.

Before I do that however, I want to draw your attention to a post that recently went up. Due to technical difficulties, gripping talk – four did not make it up at the right time. It is up now if you want to go back and check it out.

Now on to my illustration. Continue Reading »