Prepare Ye

Today (well, yesterday, but I have been writing {note the use of the Greek perfect tense} a paper and let the time slip by) is the One Year Anniversary of the start of Prepare Ye. So I'm giving myself paper. And starting a new feature: Random Seminary Conversation "If Baptism and Communion are both Sacraments, why can we do one only once when I've had the other the other 9 times in the past week? And why do you have to go through a class for one, but don't for the one that makes you a member of the church?" If any of my seminary brethren and sisteren want to borrow the idea to post some of the interesting conversations that you happen upon in Seminaryland, please do so. They should be, to quote former late night talk show host, and wearer of a mean hi-top fade, Arsenio Hall, "Things That Make You Say Hmmmmmm."

This comes from Team FCA's Daily Impact Play devotional email. You can sign up here . READY: "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." -Luke 19:10 (KJV) SET: The NFL Draft is coming up in April. This year, the experts say that the number one pick will be either Arkansas' Darren McFadden or LSU’s Glenn Dorsey. Could you imagine being the number one pick? Well, surprise… You are! You are a top recruit! God is recruiting you for His team, but the enemy is trying his best to keep you from joining "TEAM JESUS." Psalm 51:5 says that we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity (or evil). That means that we have to make a decision to join God's team. If we leave this world without accepting Christ, we cannot enter His Kingdom. The Bible tells us that God wants us to be a part of that Kingdom. He has our jersey and our hat, and He is waiting for us to shake His hand and accept the terms of His contract. He's recruiting each of us

Since I'm living in the center of the political world (at least for the next 6 weeks) the commercials have already started. I've heard a couple of Obama commercials, and while listening to me I was reminded how much he sounds like someone else. The next time he is being interviewed, when the reporter asks a stupid question, I want Obama to ask, "What network do you work for?" It DOESN'T Matter what network you work for."

I gave the sermon as teaching parish's part in an eccumenical service on the Last Seven Words of Christ. Below is a version of the sermon I gave. I did not give all of the examples listed, because I had to cut for time. And stuff I wanted to say, but didn't feel comfortable saying from somebody else's pulpit. John 19:28-29 -- After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. There is a man who has been nailed to a cross. His whole life has led to this moment. He left his family and friends and journeyed all across his country. He tried to teach people there is a different way, a better way. He taught people to take care of one another. As he traveled, he healed many people. But he threatened the powers that be. Now they are taking care of him. They know he will never be a threat to

Last Sunday, I preached on the lesson from John, the raising of Lazarus. The sermon I gave, was not the one I wrote in January. I rewrote large parts of it on the way back to Michigan. I’m posting both of them below. Final Version I first wrote this sermon in January as part of one of the classes I had on preaching. My instructor, Dr. Loy, was teaching a narrative form of preaching, that is, to start each sermon with a story from outside the Bible, from real life so as to engage the congregation. You tell a story to draw them in. Then you tie the story into the lesson, or pericope. That way, you help to bring the Bible into everyone’s daily lives. When I wrote this sermon back in early January, the story I wrote was about flying back here and how flying was physically less draining but mentally more taxing for me. It’s because I don’t like to give up control, or at least the illusion of control. When I looked at the text and my sermon two weeks ago, that story seemed trite and superfic

Posts this week may be more infrequent than usual because I'm on Spring Break!!! I'll be working on my tan from the exotic sunny shores of Michigan. I'm must be really dumb. Rather than going to Florida, Texas or Mexico and evangelizing the heathens there, (Hey, Christ went where the sin was) I'm spending the week in 20* Michigan.

Karaoke can be scary, or wonderful when done right. Last night's karaoke was very well done, especially by my vote for the young man most likely to be named Bishop, or start his own boy band.

Now that the fate of the Democratic nomination will be (not) settled in Pennsylvania, I'm prepared to see a flood of TV commercials between Hilary & Barack. I've openly stated my preference for Obama and am afraid to see what Hilary's camp is willing to do to win the nomination. Is she prepared to destroy the village in order to save it? Will she take Obama down in an act of mutually assured destruction? During the Cold War, that strategy was called MAD for a reason. I'm interested to see what happens in my home state's "primary." What the rest of the country doesn't realize, it wasn't that they both didn't campaign there. Obama, as well as Edwards and Richardson, took their names off of the ballot. When I got my absentee ballot, my choices were Hillary, Kucinich and Uncommitted. Hillary, running unopposed got 55% of the vote. Uncommitted got 40%. Seating those delegates is blatantly unfair. The only fair thing to do is to not seat Michiga

The Official Family Law Lawyer/Future Pastor of the Prepare Ye blog, Law & Gospel (there needs to be a cer-chunk sound effect here) tagged me, and I didn't say "Not It" fast enough. So, here goes. The rules for the meme are: --Link to the person who tagged you. --Post the rules on your blog. --Share six non important things/habits/quirks about yourself. --Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. --Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. So here are the six non important things/habits/quirks about me: 1- I am physically not thoroughly organized, by electronically very obsessive. My room or office will have piles, and file folders will not be really well organized. My computer has folders within folder within folders. 2- Big Disney fan. Have most of the movies on DVD and nice sized collection of musical Disney snow globes. 3- I have a circle of friends that I will go to with various decisio