Lent: Preparing Our Garden for Growth

From the editor

Despite its rich history in the church, many of us don't observe Lent. Maybe it's time to reconsider. As Skye points out in his ...

Take the Risk

From the editor:

As the country sinks further and further into a time of recession, financial issues will be weighing heavily on the minds of listeners. ...

Focus

Introduction

There's good news and bad news about our gospel passage. First the bad news: this is one of the most difficult, disturbing, and surprising ...

Solomon's Wish

Introduction

If you could wish for anything in the world, what would it be? Some people wish they had different abilities. Others wish for a change in ...

Strong Grace, Hard Work, Good Memories

Text: 2 Timothy 2:1–9
Topic: A sobering look at what the Christian life entails

From the editor:

Every once in a while a sermon comes along that is ...

Cross Here

Introduction

One of the great ironies of history is that those who took Jesus to Calvary believed they were forcing him to his dead-end; in reality, Jesus ...

Cross Bow

Introduction

I recently turned on the news and found myself confronted with another one of those stories that have become so common; my great fear is that ...

Cross Over

Introduction

It was an ordinary day of commuting Cameron Hollopeter. The 20-year-old film student made his way down the steps into a New York City subway ...

Cross Out

Introduction

In August of 2003, the Church of the Holy Cross in New York City was broken into twice. In the first break-in, thieves made away with a metal ...

It's About the People

Introduction

Recently our church softball thoroughly trounced our opponents. The game ended with what's called the mercy rule: when one team is ahead ...

Taming the Beast

Text: Genesis 4:1–16
Topic: How to battle envy

Introduction

A few years ago, two high school girls in California—well liked, talented and ambitious—attended ...

What God Wants from You More Than Anything Else

Introduction

What does God want from you? What does he expect? Do you know?

That's a question that every person has to answer. Because if there is a God—and ...

Can Jesus Trust Us?

Introduction

The year was A.D. 155, and persecution against Christians had swept across the Roman Empire and come to the city of Smyrna. The proconsul ...

What God Wants From Us

It seems that there was once a clerk in a large candy store who always had people waiting in line, even when the other clerks were standing around with ...

Passion for God's Honor

Dr. Gerald Hawthorne was my favorite professor in college. He was a good professor because he loved teaching and he loved his students. He so communicated ...

The Ultimate Sacrifice

In the Gospels there are a handful of Jesus' sayings that seem to be so completely out of character for him—and seem to contradict things he said ...

Becoming Like Him in His Death

The previous message in this series was deceptively titled "Getting Out Of Matthew 27." It referred (as you may remember) to relinquishing the roles ...

Because

It was his first day on the job. He was a new clerk in the green goods department of a supermarket. A lady came up to him and said she wanted to buy half ...

Followership

 

Scripture records of Jesus Christ that on one particular occasion he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two Simon, who called ...

Blood in Bethlehem

Two weeks ago NPR carried a story about plans to spruce up Bethlehem, the dusty little Palestinian town of Jesus' Nativity. Tourists take the bus from ...

When God Bent Down

Before there were vast black holes sucking matter into the staggering abyss of interstellar space; before there existed stardust and subatomic particles ...