Skip to main content

2022: A Year of Growth

At the beginning of last year I preached a sermon, a subsequently posted a blog, about my theme word for the year. Every year I try to have a word or theme to focus on and better understand. Last year's word was grace, and boy was it appropriate. With our society, and sadly many Christians, unable to have meaningful disagreements and conversations anymore it was easy to forget that we need to show people grace and depend upon God's grace and not our own righteousness.

This year my word is growth. I want and need to grow. I want to grow closer to Jesus. I want to grow personally in many areas. I want to expand my horizons and push myself to grow as a Christian and as a man. I want my congregation to grow closer to God. 

I'm keeping it short this week, but I encourage you to find a theme word for the year. It doesn't mean limiting yourself to just things that directly have to do with that theme, but it does help focus our attention a bit. We can't do everything at once and sometimes need to take things one step at a time.

Pray for me as I try to grow in all areas of my life. I would be happy to pray for you and your endeavors and striving to be more like Jesus. May the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Augustine of Hippo: Historical Friday

We pause our overview of the history of Christianity to talk about an extremely influential figure, whether we realize it or not. Augustine of Hippo, so called because he lived in the town of Hippo Regius, has had a tremendous amount of influence on Christianity in the western world. Many of the theological conversations we have in our churches today have been directly shaped by this man. Many of the terms and ideas we throw around originated with Augustine.  Today we are going to look at SOME of the ideas that Augustine has shaped. In reality this man has touched in some way or another every aspect of Christian thought. If I had to choose the most influential people on Christianity outside of Jesus and the Apostles, Augustine might very well be number one alongside Martin Luther. Before we get into the theological ideas, a brief biography is in order. Brief Biography Augustine's story is actually very interesting, one I cannot hope to do justice here. If you are intereste...
Post a Comment
Read more

Christ is Risen

This is the manuscript of a sermon I preached on Easter Sunday, 2021. All around the world people of every tribe, nation, and tongue gather to celebrate the pinnacle of history. Almost two thousand years ago to the day everything changed for the human race and indeed the cosmos. The word went out that death had been broken because Christ is Risen. Blessed by Providence we gather here today to celebrate the triumph of life over the powers of death and darkness. We gather to participate in the Resurrection Body of our Lord. We gather to behold the beauty of God displayed in the trampling of death by death on the cross, a victory of which we can be assured because Christ is Risen. Glory to the Father, glory to the Son, and glory to the Holy Spirit. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts overflow with adoration and praise for our Almighty God. We can rest assured in the comfort of his grace because Christ is Risen. Dear brothers and sisters if Easter Sunday is about ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Justice

Our view of justice is narrow and limited. Typically when we, as Christians, talk about justice we are really only referring to punishing wrongdoers for their crimes. While that is certainly a part of justice that isn't the only thing. In the Bible justice consists of much more. Consider the book of Amos, one of the minor prophets and therefore a book that most Christians barely touch. Amos is announcing judgment against the nation of Israel for their infidelity to their covenant with God. What do you think is the most repeated indictment against Israel? Interestingly it's not idolatry, sexual immorality, or war although these things are mentioned. The primary sin of in Amos is Israel's neglect of the poor and their oppression of the needy. Over and over again Amos declares that judgment is coming to Israel because of their treatment of those less fortunate. The poor are trampled and the needy are crushed. There is no justice in the land. Biblical justice includes both crim...
Post a Comment
Read more