Advent Candles

This is the Advent wreath that my wife put together.  When I wrote my post What is Advent, the greenery hadn’t been added yet.  The wreath is a combination of cedar, pine, holly and one other everygreen plant (sorry).  We also collected a few very small pine cones.  The candles are traditional purple and pink, though [...]

What is Advent?

The advent of something refers to its first appearing.  In our culture, Christmas has turned into the Christmas season.  This year it started about a week before Halloween, and will run until December 25th.  The “Holiday Season” will actually extend until January 1st.  All of this “Christmas creep” has a quite a negative effect on Christmas.
If [...]

It’s been a good day.

This has been a really good day.  (Thanksgiving Day, 2008)  I started it off by sleeping in. 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”  -James 1:17

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  We may not have every single thing we might wish for, be we have been richly, richly blessed.  The unemployment rate is up to 6%, but in some nations [...]

Santa Claus Has Not Sold Out

One of my favorite quotes might need some explaining.  “The Fourth of July is not now, nor has it ever been, what it used to be.”  If you get it, move on to the next paragraph.  If not, it’s another way of saying that memory is generative.  Imagine being 9 years old.  4th of July is a [...]

A Thanksgiving Sermon

Tomorrow is Sunday, November 23, and Thanksgiving Day is the following Thursday.  I will be preaching this sermon in the morning, perhaps it will be a blessing to someone here as well.  Anyone may feel free to use this material in a way that brings glory and honor to God.
We are going to begin with [...]

The Abbreviated Jesus

When I started this blog, one of the secret little promises I made myself was that it wouldn’t be an Internet Monk fan site.  Listening to his podcast is one of the reasons I started blogging myself.  If you read this blog, you know that from time to time I link other blogs with posts [...]

PBS Documentary on Martin Luther

Over the years, PBS has produced a series of programs on the history of empires.  In 2003, they made 2 special episodes on Martin Luther.  (Liam Neeson provides the narration.)  Thanks to Hulu, these are available for your viewing pleasure at any time.   
 
Click to watch Martin Luther, Driven to Defiance
Click to watch Martin Luther, Reluctant Revolutionary
Each is one hour in [...]

The Invisible Sky Bully

The invisible sky bully; have you ever heard God referred to that way?  Even worse than calling him the “invisible man in the sky” is the notion that God pushes people around because he is bigger than them.  A real bully is often a coward, and throws his weight around or intimidates those smaller than [...]

Total Depravity/Gospel Sermon

This video well illustrates the point that it is our very nature to be evil.  He offers loads of scripture to back his claims.  Don’t give up on it too early; hang in there, it ends with a presentation of the Gospel.  They give you all of the bad news first, but the good news is in [...]