ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 11, 2024In today’s sermon, I am focusing on Tamar, the one mentioned in Genesis, but there is another woman named Tamar who is part of a horrific story in 2 Samuel 13. This Tamar was raped by her brother, Amnon, one of the sons of King David. Sadly, this story becomes a story of the anger between two brothers and their father David’s grief when one
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 10, 2024Why church? This is a question that has come my way many times, and once again, it was brought to me by someone who was genuinely seeking to understand. For those of us who have been doing church all or most of our lives, and for those of us who have sort of made it our profession, sometimes the WHY seems so obvious that it
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 9, 2024This coming Sunday, we will conclude the series on Jesus and his Ancestors. The sermon will specifically focus on Tamar (there are actually three of them mentioned in scripture), but I will play around with the notion of righteousness. It is one of those Bible words that gets tossed around a lot but is not defined well. And though I just wrote about eight sentences
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 8, 2024I am currently in NW Arkansas, visiting my father-in-law. He’s had some health concerns lately, though he’s doing ok right now. It’s still hard to be so far away from people we love, especially when they are experiencing challenges. We experienced this with my mother, and I know many of you reading this have your own stories. In fact, some of you may find yourself
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 7, 2024Have you been watching the Olympics? Like most Olympic years, I have not caught as much as I would have liked, though replays are available online. There have been some rather embarrassing so-called controversies that have been shown to have not been controversies. Like so often, some folks fanned the flames of outrage only to discover there was a lot of fake smoke without even
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 6, 2024In Deuteronomy 11:1, we read: “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.” I love God, but I don’t know if I’ll ALWAYS be able to keep the divine charges, decrees, ordinances, and commandments. The word ‘always’ makes me nervous, as I don’t know if I am capable of even hitting 85%…maybe 70%—on
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 5, 2024Prayer for the Week: O Spirit grace and wisdom, patience and creativity, today we give you thanks for all those who have been called and then accepted that call to serve you in the indispensable task of teaching. Sadly, there are many powers and principalities that are not supportive of those who give so much to the education of our children, often putting more and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 4, 2024Does God wait for humanity to figure it out before God acts? The answer is a simple but definitive “No!” Our vision and mission at Cypress Creek Christian Church are rooted in the words of 1st John 4, where we read how we are to love BECAUSE God first loved us. It wasn’t even a back and forth with God saying, “I like you, and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 3, 2024I know it is a text usually associated with Christmas, but the words from John 1:14 ring true even in the heat of summer. John was writing about the eternal Word that was with God from the beginning, and he wrote: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…” Some of you know that the phrase “lived among us” might not be the best
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 2, 2024In the opening words of the Prophet Isaiah, we read: Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth; for the Lord has spoken:I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib;but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity,offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly,who have forsaken the