ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 26, 2023The author, Nikki Rowe, wrote, “Solitude is where I place my chaos to rest and awaken my inner peace.” I love those words, but I cannot say for sure how I do that. I believe she is right, but like so many wonderful quotes, we can repeat them joyfully without a clue to how we live them. If you’re like me, a six-step process is
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 25, 2023Did anyone else open their eyes this morning, glance at the date, and realize that we are two months away from Christmas? And for the church, we are one month and one day away from decorating for Advent/Christmas. A week from today, the overnight low is to be 50, so that will help my mood and attitude. I need at least a few days of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 24, 2023With so many things, your starting place will determine your interpretation. I think of that in regard to how we approach scripture. On Sunday, we looked at the well-known and well-read words of John 3:16, yet so often the focus becomes on the words toward the end of the verse: “believe,” “perish,” and “eternal life.” Suddenly, people are arguing over what determines true belief, what
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 23, 2023Prayer for the WeekWe echo the words of scripture and joyfully declare that you, O Lord of the Universe, so loved everything, including us. You are the One who did not stand idly by and do nothing, and for that, we are thankful. As we celebrated in worship yesterday, you gave yourself to the world to make your love real. When words like unconditional and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGOctober 22, 2023The title of an article on CNN’s website caused me to pause and immediately open the article. The first line read, “A St. Louis youth football team had the rest of its season canceled after a player’s parent allegedly shot the coach multiple times for not putting his son as a starter for the team…” Now we do not yet know the whole story, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 21, 2023Today, a number of folks from Cypress Creek Christian Church will be at the Woodlands Pride event. I walk into this event thinking about the scripture for tomorrow’s sermon, John 3:16. There we find the familiar words, “For God so loved the world…” In that gathering today, we will try to make clear the belief that God’s love is unconditional, unlimited and relentless. That’s what
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 20, 2023“Do you think God loves…?” It might surprise you, but I get that question a lot. After the “…,” there are many different groups or individuals that might be referenced, but the question is almost always asked with great sincerity, often emerging from a discussion they had with someone who seemed very adamant that a certain person or group was outside of God’s love. Or,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 19, 2023This Sunday, we are going to play around with one of the best-known texts in the Bible, yet one that remains full of new life and new insight. I am speaking of John 3:16, the passage that begins with those well-used words, “For God so loved the world…” As I have said before and will mention again on Sunday, the Greek word we translate as
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 18, 2023Donna and I started watching a new series on AppleTV entitled Lessons in Chemistry. It is set in the early 1950s, and a chemist by the name of Elizabeth Zott finds that her gender seems to disqualify her from being taken seriously among other chemists. In fact, she is a lap tech whose only jobs are to get coffee and clean up the lab. When
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 17, 2023I have not written about the violence in Israel and Gaza since the events of October 7, in part because I have not really known what to say. In my prayer on Sunday, I spoke of hope for a third way, but I will confess to you that my usual hopeful attitude has been waning in this situation. In the past, I’ve been called naively