Category: Calvary
Complete Obedience Required
For the past few weeks I have been struggling with obedience. More specifically, my obedience to God. Truthfully, I don’t obey Him completely; only when it works for me. In July, my wife and I got a dog from a friend of a friend who wanted to give him a better home since they felt they could not adequately give him the fullest care that he deserved. Any pet owner can tell you what fun it is to own an animal, and in my completely biased opinion, dogs are the best. → Read more...
Ambassadors of Christ
The story goes a bit something like this… A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. → Read more...
Being Part of History is About Faith
This morning I just saw a Modern Marvels documentary on the great story of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was built during the crushing Great Depression and the local government didn’t have money to fund the project. So what did they do? They went around canvassing the San Francisco neighborhoods and asked if people would consider getting a lien against their properties to help fund this project. And they did en masse. On November 4, 1930 voters within the district went to the polls and put their homes, farms, and business properties up for collateral to support a $35 million bond issue to finance the bridge. → Read more...
Dwelling in the Past
dwell (verb) To live as a resident; reside. To exist in a given place or state: dwell in joy. To fasten one’s attention: kept dwelling on what went wrong. Over the past few days as Calvary’s staff has been talking about the vision of Calvary as a place where God heals people from the hurts they have suffered through their lives, especially over things that have happened in the past, I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the phrase “dwelling in the past.” → Read more...
Community, Pt. IV
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen community being born, how it benefits us in small groups, and it being alive in the church. Today, we’re going to conclude by looking at the eternal nature of community. I’ve written many times about how Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven has impacted my philosophy and my daily outlook on life. In one of the areas that impacted me the most was the truth that we will find and know the ones that we’ve grown to love and befriended here. → Read more...
Community, Pt. III
Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here. For the past two weeks, I’ve been dwelling on the idea of community. We saw the birth of it in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and then we saw it expand to include a small group of people that can help us along whatever journey we are on. I mentioned my wife and I participating in a small group for young married couples because that’s precisely where we are in our lives and it is great to be with others who are at a similar stage in their lives. → Read more...
Community, Pt. II
Part 1 can be found here. Last week we saw the birth of human community when Eve was created out of Adam’s rib. Together, they were able to share experiences and the world around them. They made mistakes together and learned together. They became so tied together that large sections of their life were inseparable. Most of their life could not have been possible if the other wasn’t around. This is known today as marriage, that can be viewed as a subsection of community. → Read more...
Community, Pt. I
This past couple of weeks I’ve been dwelling a lot on what it means to be part of a community, especially with Pastor Howard taking us through the book of Acts, a book all about the birth of the early church. Many of us have heard the adage that we come into the world alone and we will depart the world alone. While there is a small grain of truth in that, I think that saying is largely wrong. → Read more...
…With Our Offerings, Part II
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. → Read more...
Everyone Has Dignity
November 4, 2010
Calvary
Comments Off on Everyone Has Dignity
Matt
One a Tuesday a month, I have the awesome privilege of going to Autumn Leaves, a senior care center for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s and similar diseases. (It is across the street from our old building in Orland.) I am there with some of our high school kids in our youth group. Our goal those evenings are just to hang out and get to know some of the residents there and provide them with some companionship for a couple of hours. → Read more...
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