Prepare Ye

This is my manuscript for my sermon on August 30th using Psalm 13 as a text. This is what I wrote, and may be different than what came out of my mouth. This is a song of someone who is suffering. This is a psalm of lament. Psalm 13 is a cry for help. How long? How long do I have to wait? How long do I have to suffer? How long, O LORD, will You forget me always? How long hide Your face from me? How long shall I cast about for counsel, sorrow in my heart all day?  How long will my enemy loom over me? Four times the psalter asks God, How long? Four times the psalter asks God, where are you? Four times the psalter asks, don’t you care? Four times the psalter asks God, how can you let this happen? About a third of all of the psalms are prayers for help, cries of lament. They are more prevalent than any other type of psalm. More than songs of praise, more than pleas of penance, more that gifts of thanks, more than statements of trust, more than any of those, the ancie

This is the text of my message for Sunday, August 23rd, using Psalm 27.1-6 as my text. Have any of you driven through the Upper Peninsula? Have you ever crossed from the Upper Peninsula into the Lower Peninsula, or vice versa? Unless this was a long time ago, and you took a ferry, if you have, then you’ve almost certainly driven across the Mackinaw Bridge. The Mackinaw Bridge is one thing that I am very much afraid of. If you’ve ever gone across it, you know that the roadway for the suspension bridge has the outside lanes made of concrete. The inside lanes are metal grate. That is for two reasons. One, to allow for expansion given the temperature extremes the bridge faces; over 100° in the summer, into 30° below and greater in the winter. Second, it is for aerodynamic purposes. The grating reduces the wind resistance for the fierce winds that roar through the Straits. One of the things that having the grating does, is allows you to look straigh

his is my written text for my sermon at our Joint Worship Service on August 16th at Longwood Park. I didn't stick to the script, but this the intent of the message I gave. The lesson for the day is Psalm 40, which is in a series of images at the bottom of the post. The video - which I didn't play, is the song, " 40 " by U2.   I first time I heard of Psalm 40 was as a song. And I heard the lyrics wrong. But I actually got it right. Before I got it right, it changed my life. While I was in college, my roommate introduced me to the music of an Irish rock band, U2. I remember listening to their albums over and over my senior year. Well, as much over and over as can be when you had to get up to turn the record over to hear the other side. I noticed on one listening that the last song on the album mentioned God. Here are the lyrics to the U2 song, “40.” I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry. He brought me up out of

from the August 2015 Messenger While my Big Guy was away gathering up youth in Detroit, I went to camp. I stayed at a house that had a whole lot of dogs. It was scary to get to know so many of them at one time, but after we sniffed around, we got to like each other and played a whole lot. When my Big Guy came to pick me up, I felt strange. I was SO HAPPY to see him, because I missed him. He is cool, even though he’s a big nerd. But I was going to miss my new friends. From what he was told me about this Gathering, it was the same for him. It’s fun to go to and get to meet new people and do new things. He said that he enjoyed their Mass Gatherings, and it was a wonderful way to worship God. But, he’s happy to get back here to leading worship. I guess when you do something new and exciting, you wish that it could always be that way. But the important thing is to find a way to take what you learned while you were away, and apply it to your regular life. My Big Guy was praying

from the mid-August edition of The Messenger. Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe. – Hebrews 12:28 I want to refocus my efforts here, and what I am called to do. I want to focus on building and growing disciples of Jesus Christ. I need your help. This isn’t to say that I haven’t been doing this, or at least trying; but this is an intentional dedication to this effort. A disciple is someone who learns from, and follows someone. So to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means to learn from his life, death and resurrection, and to follow what he taught. We are all called to be disciples. The things we promise to do in our baptism and affirmation of baptism are the duties of disciples. If we are going to build and grow disciples, I need many of you to know that you need to do more. You need to come to church more often. I know you are busy. I know you have a lot of