Eric Waters

Resurrection of the Dead

2012-01-30T12:15:00.002-05:00

We wrapped up our sermon series today on the Second Part of our Church's Vision (Build Up our Communities in Vitality and Numbers) with a look at the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

It seems that some in the Corinthian church were saying that "the resurrection of the dead" was just a metaphor. Just as we talk about "turning over a new leaf in life," so some of the Corinthians were talking about their new life in Christ as a "resurrection from the dead." Paul writes to correct their half-right understanding, listing five problems with a purely spiritual "resurrection" (1Cor 15:16-20) and expanding their horizons to take in the literal resurrection on the Last Day (1Cor 15:51-58).

It was one of my longer sermons, and I barely even scratched the surface. Listen here.

What Builds Up a Community

2012-01-09T11:49:00.002-05:00

We started a new sermon series yesterday. We'll spend January doubling back onto the Second Part of our Vision, Build Up our Communities in Vitality and Numbers. We'll do that by looking at Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, in which Paul tries to Build Up a church that has fallen on hard times.

We began yesterday by asking, "What is that Builds Up a community?" The Corinthians seemed to have been swept up in the expectations of their culture. The Greco-Roman culture put a premium on public speaking, and apparently the Corinthians thought they could Build Up their church through the power and persuasion of their preachers alone. Paul reminded them that it's not the messenger, but the message that counts -- the simple Gospel message of "Jesus Christ, and him crucified." That Gospel message is the only thing that ever has or ever will Build Up a Community in Vitality and Numbers.

Speaking up Building Up our Community in Numbers, we had 910 people in worship yesterday in the Mill Run Sanctuary! Our goal of 1000 is getting closer...

Listen to the sermon here.

Manure & the New Year

2012-01-03T14:13:00.003-05:00

Our lesson for New Year's Day was Luke 13:6-9, the Parable of the Fig Tree. It was kind of an odd lesson to start the year with, but in the end, it worked.

Jesus is like the Servant in the parable: he stands up for us before our righteous Judge and stands in for us, doing all the work himself.

As we start "one more year" with the Lord, we should ask ourselves:

What's the deadwood? What needs to be cut down this year?
What's the greenwood? What should we give our time and attention to this year?
What's the fruit? What can we thank God for this year?

Listen to the sermon here.

"Star of Hope" video

2011-12-28T19:23:00.001-05:00

Jack McClintock and Matt Maynard, sons of the congregation, Tae Kwon Do instructors, and occasional VBS cameos, have a new film production company called Grace and Peace Productions (www.gandpproductions.com). They've come out with their first narrative short film, featured on Sermonspice.com, a multimedia resource for preaching.

The film is based on New Year's Eve. "As the bright, shining ball drops on New Year's Eve, ushering in a new year filled with hope, remember the bright, shining star that led the shepherds and wise men to God's plan of hope for all mankind."

Take a look for yourself here.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T14:22:00.003-05:00

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve at UALC. Knowing that we would have many visitors to our church, I wanted to present a clear Gospel message. Here it is in outline:

The Baby in the Manger shows us sin. The world as it is, is not as it's supposed to be.
The Baby in the Manger is a sign of salvation. "This shall be a sign for you: you shall find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."
The Baby in the Manger is an invitation to come and see.

Here it is online.

Joseph: Husband, Father, & Son

2011-12-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

Joseph the husband of Mary is a character often overlooked in the Greatest Story Ever Told, but Joseph's story (Matthew 1:18-25) speaks volumes about his character. When confronted with a scandal, he resolved on his own to do the right thing: he would divorce Mary quietly rather than make a public example of her.

But then the Lord stepped in to guide him. The Lord sent an angel to Joseph in a dream, telling him that he could be a husband to Mary and a father to Jesus, because he was as son of the King. And that's exactly what Joseph did: regardless of the cost or of what people might say, he took Mary as his wife and called Jesus his son.

Men who believe in Jesus are sons of the King, too, and He calls us to be like Joseph: to love our wife, to love our children, to be the man he has called us to be as His sons.

Listen to the sermon here.

Jesus Reaches Out To & Through Peter

2011-11-28T09:46:00.001-05:00

Good day at church yesterday! We continued with our series on the Third Part of our church's Vision, Reach Out in Mission. The lesson was John 21:15-19, where three times Jesus asks Peter "Do you love me?" and three times tells Peter "Feed my sheep."

"Feeding my sheep" is how Jesus Reaches Out through Peter. Jesus had already made him a "fisher of men," but now he also makes him a "shepherd of souls." I wonder if Jesus had to tell him three times just to get the point across. There's something exciting, and dangerous, and adventurous about fishing; the same can't be said about tending sheep. And yet, feeding the sheep that are found -- whether a congregation or a family -- is no less important than finding the sheep that are lost. Both are doing the work of the Lord.

"Do you love me?" is how Jesus Reaches Out to Peter. If Peter is to be the Prince of the Apostles and the Shepherd of the Sheep, then he needs to be forgiven by the Good Shepherd himself. Since Peter denied him three times, Jesus gives him three opportunities to declare his love:

The first is comparative -- "Do you truly love me more than these?"
The second is emphatic -- "Do you truly love me?"
The third is simply declarative -- "Do you love me?"

this one hurts, for now Jesus has come to the heart of the matter, the thorn buried in Peter's flesh. He is willing to pull it out and heal the wound; all he asks for is our love.

Listen to the sermon here.

Caravaggio, "The Crucifixion of St. Peter"

One of the perks of the job...

2011-11-21T12:36:00.001-05:00

We've all got our bucket list. Thanks to a book fair for UALC's preschool, I was able to check "Dressing up as a mascot" off of mine.

I Post a 100, Jesus Feeds 5000

2011-11-21T10:37:00.001-05:00

I've reached a milestone of sorts today -- this is my one hundredth post. Never thought when I started last Summer that getting to this point would've been this much fun. Hope you've enjoyed it, too.

The sermon yesterday was on Jesus Feeding the 5000. I was surprised to learn that this is the only miracle (apart from the Resurrection, of course) reported in all four Gospels. It got me to asking, Why is this one so important? Here's my take:

Because the Feeding of the 5000 looks back to the Main Event of the Old Testament -- the Exodus, when the Lord redeems his people from slavery to Pharaoh and gives them manna in the Wilderness
Because the Feeding of the 5000 looks forward to the Main Event of the New Testament -- the Cross, when the Lord redeems his people from slavery to sin
Because the Feeding of the 5000 looks forward to the Last Supper, when the Lord feeds his people on the bread that is his body
Because the Feeding of the 5000 looks out to feed the people who were hungry right there and then, feeding their souls with the Gospel and their bodies with the bread

Listen to the sermon here.

See you at our Thanksgiving Eve sevice this Wednesday at 7:30...

Jesus Reaches out to Reconcile

2011-11-14T11:02:00.001-05:00

Nice to be back after a week of vacation.

We started a new sermon series, doubling-back to spend more time on third part of our Vision: Reach Out in Mission. The lesson this morning was 2nd Corinthians 5:14-6:2, which drives home the point that we Reach Out in mission to others because God has Reached Out to us in Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for all people. Now, that doesn't mean that all are saved. A person needs to have faith in what Christ has done for them. But it does mean that all people can be saved. There is not a man, woman, or child beyond the reach of God's grace or the love of Christ. Since Jesus died for all people, we live to serve all people.

Jesus died for all people once and for all on the Cross. That's when God reconciled the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them but burying the hatchet with us.

Problem is, we keep going back and digging it up. That's why Paul urges us to be reconciled to God, putting our faith in trust in what he has done for us.

Listen to the sermon here.

Neat apologetics video

2011-11-10T15:03:00.001-05:00

This video was made by someone with roots at UALC. I enjoyed both the content and presentation, and thought you might, too

Reformation Day

2011-10-31T11:10:00.001-04:00

Today is Reformation Day, the 494th anniversary of the day when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, launched the Protestant Reformation, and changed the world.

Though Reformation Day can and has been a celebration of division within the Christian Church, in recent decades the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches have made major strides towards reconciliation and mutual understanding. The Bishop of our new denomination was even warmly welcomed in Rome by the Pope himself.

Reformation Day is really about the recovery of the central truth of the Gospel: "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law" (Romans 3:28). There is nothing we need to do to make ourselves right with God, because there is nothing we can do. The cost is too high, the chasm too wide -- so God in his mercy did it for us through his Son Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul talks about Christ's work under three headings:

Redemption -- Jesus sets us free from our captivity to sin
Sacrifice -- Jesus' blood covers over our sin
Justice -- Jesus took our place and bore the punishment of our sin

Listen to the sermon here.

Branch Out Locally

2011-10-17T10:59:00.000-04:00

We're coming to the end of our sermon series on our church's Vision. Today we came to the fourth and final part -- Branch Out Locally. Just as disciples make churches, so too churches make churches.

That point was illustrated by our lesson today, John 4:28-38. The Woman at the Well becomes a disciple of the Lord, and goes into town to make other disciples. Meanwhile the 12 Disciples return from town and get a lesson from Jesus about doing the work of the Lord. When the town comes to see Jesus, the Disciples are there to reap the harvest -- but only because the Woman had already sown and labored in the field.

So too, UALC not only reaps what other churches have sown, but is called to sow and labor so that other churches and ministries may reap. Listen to the sermon here.

"What about Hell?"

2011-10-10T21:43:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to the second installment of the 60 Second Apologetic -- which I've re-named "3-Step Apologetic," because it proved to be false advertising...

The question was "What about Hell?" and here's my suggestion for an answer:

Jesus tells us there is a Hell. As a matter of fact, Jesus talks more about Hell than any other person in the Bible, Old Testament or New. So we Christians talk about Hell, because Jesus talks about Hell.
Jesus tells us Hell is not made for us. Hell is meant "for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41), not for any man, woman, or child. And no man, woman, or child is meant for Hell. Like a shepherd who leaves the 99 to go and search for the 1, "your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish" (Mt 18:14).
Jesus died & rose again to save us from Hell. That's why we call him "Savior." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish [in Hell] but have eternal life [in Heaven]" (Jn 3:16).

Blessed to be a Blessing

2011-10-10T21:33:00.002-04:00

We continued with our sermon series on our church's Vision. This sermon was on the third part of the Vision, Reach Out in Mission. The basic idea was that God reaches out to us so that we can reach out to others for him. We are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others.

Our lesson today was the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30). All of the servants are blessed, but the third servant refuses to pass that blessing along to his neighbors (which is a shame), and even refuses to let that blessing reach his own heart (which is a tragedy).

Listen to the sermon here.

God Reaches Out to Us

2011-10-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

We continued sermon series on the four parts of our church's Vision, and yesterday we turned our attention to the second part: Reach Out in Mission. The lesson was Genesis 12:1-3 (the calling of Abraham). We saw how we Reach Out to others because God has already Reached Out to us.

Listen to the sermon here.

Reaching Out to the Gierman Family

2011-09-29T16:50:00.001-04:00

Many people have asked how they can reach out and help the Gierman family following Jennifer's untimely death. In addition to prayer and support, our church is able to help the family financially in a number of ways:

1. UALC will work with the Gierman family to assess needs and will offer financial assistance from UALC’s Good Samaritan fund as necessary. The Good Samaritan Fund has long been the vehicle for UALC to support those in financial need and therefore we do not create separate funds in such situations. Gifts given to the Good Samaritan fund are tax deductible since they meet the IRS’s requirement of being given to the support and use of an exempt organization (i.e., UALC). A gift given to UALC directed to the benefit an individual does not meet that IRS requirement and therefore is not tax deductible.

2. You may give a gift to either of these funds created for the Gierman’s benefit. It is not known how these organizations are representing the tax status of these funds but, based on the clear requirements of the IRS, it doesn’t appear that gifts to either would be tax deductible.

a. The Gierman Children Fund (set up by the Jackson Township Fire Department of Grove City). Send donations to:

Huntington Bank
The Gierman Children Fund
Attn: Heather Sparks
2227 Stringtown Road
Grove City, OH 43123

b. Upper Arlington Christian Homeschoolers (UACH). Donations can be made in one of two ways:

i. Paypal sent to uachristianhsers@hotmail.com

ii. Check made payable to UACH, with Jenny's name in the memo line, and mailed to:

Elise Hagerdorn
8850 Surrey Lane
Plain City, OH 43064

3. You may give a gift in secret to the Gierman family through UALC. The gift would be not be tax deductible (as discussed above) but UALC would pass the gift on to the family.

If you would like further information, or to make a donation, please contact Becki Bork, our Director of Congregational Care and Ministries, at 451-3736 ext. 7012 or bbork@ualc.org

When the cat's away...

2011-09-29T16:28:00.001-04:00

A Night Off from G&P Productions on Vimeo.

God's Plan to Build Up His Church

2011-09-25T12:15:00.002-04:00

Last week we looked at our plan to Build Up the Mill Run Sanctuary Community in Numbers and Vitality. This week we looked at God's plan to Build Up His Church in Numbers and Vitality. Our lesson was from Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3:2-6 -- The "mystery" of God's plan to Build Up His Church in Numbers

One at a time
Once for all time
All together in One

Ephesians 3:14-21 -- The "power" to Build Up His Church in Vitality

Through the Spirit as individuals
Through the Spirit as a community
Through the Spirit working already

Listen to the sermon here Monday morning.

By the way, a visitor introduced himself to me this morning, saying, "I'm a Southern Baptist, and you preach like one of us!" I'll take that as a compliment...

ABCD

2011-09-18T12:18:00.002-04:00

The Second Part of our Vision is "Build Up our Communities in Numbers and Vitality." Today I rolled out my plan for how we're going to do it.

A stand for Alpha in the Fall: an excellent program that introduces people to Jesus
B is for Bible in the Winter:The Divine Drama gives people an overview of the Bible's "big picture"
C is for Credo in the Spring: an opportunity for people to learn what they believe and why they believe it, and to stand up and be counted for Christ
D is for Discipleship Groups at any time: a place for people to be connected to Jesus, to each other, and to the church.

We'll be launching our first Discipleship Groups in a few weeks. Sign up online at our Mill Run Sanctuary web page: www.ualc.org/mrs

Listen to the sermon here Monday morning.

UALC's Mission & Vision

2011-09-04T18:56:00.001-04:00

With the arrival of Labor comes the start of a new church year. This year, under the direction of our Senior Pastor, Paul Ulring, our church's preaching and teaching will focus on our church's Mission and Vision:

Our Mission: To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ
Our Vision:

Grow up strong in God's Word
Build up our Communities
Reach out in mission
Branch out locally

We'll be preaching on our Vision for the rest of 2011. You can listen to the first sermon here (after Tuesday morning).

To sign up for the Alpha Course, click here.

Tell Your Story

2011-08-28T12:49:00.000-04:00

We wrapped up our summer sermon series today with a look at Acts 22:3-21, Paul's talk in the Temple. When given the opportunity to speak to the people who tried to kill him, Paul didn't argue with them, or lecture them, or even preach a sermon to them -- he simply told them the story of how he met Jesus. Paul's story is a model for how we can tell our story, too:

What were you like before you met Jesus?
How did you meet Jesus?
How has your life been different after?

Listen to the sermon here Monday morning.

By the way, it's great to be back. We took a nice two-week vacation with the kids. I taught three days at beautiful Mt. Carmel Ministries in Alexandria, Minnesota. Then we headed over to northern Wisconsin for a week of rest and relaxation on the lake. It was good to be gone and rest a bit; it's good to be back in the saddle preaching again.

Lydia, Woman of Faith

2011-08-07T21:17:00.000-04:00

The sermon this morning was on Lydia, the first person in all of Europe brought to Jesus and baptized into his name. Lydia was a wealthy business woman who, after the Lord opened her heart to respond to the Good News, opened her home to the Lord. Lydia shows us that hospitality is a form of evangelism. As she said to Paul, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay with me." Women of faith should follow Lydia's footsteps and practice hospitality to their families, to the people in their lives, and to their fellow Christians in the church.

We took some time to look at other Women of Faith in the Bible: Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Mary, etc. So often the story of faith turns on a Woman of Faith, and I was both grateful to say thanks to my wife, Michelle, the Woman of Faith who brought me to Jesus 15 years ago and has helped me walk with him ever since, and gratified to hear the congregation give her a round of applause!

Read Michelle's Living Waters blog here.

Listen to the sermon here on Monday morning.

"Why are Christians such hypocrites?"

2011-08-01T13:50:00.000-04:00

I rolled out the first 60 Second Apologetic yesterday with the question more people asked than any other: "Why are Christians such hypocrites?" Here's my suggestion for how to answer...

We're hypocrites because we're human. Hypocrisy is one of the many sins that all people (Christians included) fall into. Hypocrisy is not unique to Christianity, but common to humanity. What is unique is the Christian response...
Jesus died and rose again to forgive our sin. We believe we are so self-centered, so self-righteous -- in a word, so hypocritical -- that when God himself came into the world, we killed him rather than listen to the truth about ourselves. But Jesus rose from the dead to forgive our sin and set us free from it. Faith in what Jesus has done -- not in what we do -- makes us different...
We know we're fallen. In our church, we get down on our knees and confess our sin every single week. That's not hypocrisy -- that's humility.

60 Second Apologetic

2011-07-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

The sermon this morning was on the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Stephen stood up for Jesus, and saw Jesus standing up for him so that he could stand before Jesus for those who don't know him. Listen to the sermon here Monday morning.

Stephen was not only the first martyr; he was also the first apologist, explaining and defending the Christian faith. I'm going to start a regular part of our worship service called the "60 Second Apologetic," in which I give two or three ways to answer one question about the Christian faith. But I need your help. What questions do people ask you about Christianity? What questions do you have yourself? How can I help you be a better witness to Jesus Christ?

Let me know. You can email me, or leave a comment:

click on "comment" below. A pull-down menu will appear
to post anonymously, select "anonymous" from the pull-down menu
to leave your name, select "name/URL" from the pull-down menu (leave the URL blank if you don't have a website)

Parking Lot Troubles

2011-07-18T12:42:00.000-04:00

We've had a number of thefts over the last few months. People have come out from church on Sunday morning to find their car windows broken and items stolen. It seems thieves have been targeting the Mill Run area. According to NBC4...

In the last year, 90 car break-ins have been reported along Park Mill Run Drive in Hilliard. That road is just inside Interstate 270 and connects to Fishinger Blvd.

In fact, the 0.7 mile stretch of Park Mill Run Drive is a hot bed for thieves.

"You sit here and you hear the call go out and you're like, not again," said Hilliard Police Chief Doug Francis.

To put that number of 90 car break-ins into perspective, Francis said the entire city of Hilliard averages only 600 to 700 theft reports in a year.

"That's about 15 percent of our entire amount of theft reports we take for the entire city," said Francis.

Our church has organized a parking lot patrol during our worship services, but, according the Police Chief, the best thing you can do is to not keep valuables in your car in the first place. Please keep your eyes open, watch out for one another, and report any suspicious activity to the Welcome Center right away.

Read the article or watch the video here.

Boldness in Prayer

2011-07-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

We continue to work our way through the Acts of the Apostles. Yesterday, we looked at how the church was confronted with the first obstacle to the spread of the Christian faith. They met that obstacle with prayer, not asking the Sovereign Lord to remove it, but rather asking for the power, strength, and perseverance to overcome it -- to do what He was asking them to do in spite of whatever obstacles lay in their path.

Listen to the sermon here.

Busy couple of weeks

2011-07-11T12:25:00.000-04:00

Wow, has it really been two weeks since I wrote my last post? Time flies when you're busy. Here's what I've been up to...

Started a summer sermon series on the Book of Acts.

We began by looking at the first Christian decision: what to do about Judas? Jesus chose Twelve Apostles. When the Book of Acts starts, there's only Eleven: Judas is dead, Jesus has gone back to heaven, and the Apostles have to decide on their own what to do. They turn to God's Word, God's People, and to God in Prayer -- good advice for us, too. You can listen to that (July 3rd) sermon here.
Yesterday we looked at the first Christian church. Times change, and the church changes, too, but there are four things about the church that never change: "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayer" (Acts 2:42). Listen to that sermon (July 10th) on the four marks of the church here.

Married three couples in six days
Read Ravi Zacharias' Is Your Church Ready?, about starting an apologetics ministry in the local church

My wife and I also got a nice mention in The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, so a special welcome to all you Big Green readers out there!

Truth About Love

2011-06-26T13:06:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I last wrote, but I've got a good excuse: Vacation Bible School. I haven't seen the figures yet, but we had hundreds and hundreds of students, served by dozens and dozens of teen helpers and teachers. It was a great two weeks of singing and dancing for the Lord.

The sermon this Sunday was all about what the kids have been singing about these past two weeks: "The Truth About Love." Jesus tells us "Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Lk 6:27-28). Love like that is not natural for us. Love like that goes against everything we know and have experienced. But sends us out into the world to love like that, because that's how God loves the world.

Listen to the sermon here Monday morning.

Vacation Bible School

2011-06-14T13:12:00.000-04:00

We're two days into Vacation Bible School 2011, and things are going well. The theme this year is "The Truth about Love." The story begins with a girl named Grace, who's writing a story about an imaginary place. Then, the next thing you know, she decides to enter the story itself! She meets a Gorilla (that's me!), Ostrich, Hippo, Mongoose, Lion, Dragon, and two Hyenas, and along the way she learns about the God who made us, chose us, waits for us, saves us, and moves us to love others as he loves us.

Thanking the Holy Spirit

2011-06-14T13:08:00.000-04:00

The Day of Pentecost is the one day of the church year set aside to thank, praise, and celebrate the Holy Spirit -- and that's just what we did this past Sunday. We wrapped up our seven-week sermon series on the Holy Spirit by giving him a great big round of applause. You can listen to the sermon here.

Resurrection of the Body and Eternal Life

2011-06-05T12:52:00.000-04:00

We wrapped up our sermon series on the Holy Spirit this morning with a look at the resurrection of the body and eternal life. We covered the waterfront by asking four basic questions:

What is life? God made us as a unity of body & spirit, with a soul meant to know and love Him.
What is death? Death is the separation of what God has joined together

physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body
spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God

What is the resurrection of the body? The physical reuniting of what death had parted
What is eternal life? The spiritual reuniting of what death had parted

The resurrection of the body is not the same thing as eternal life. Everyone will be raised, but only those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life. We ended with the sinner's prayer so that everyone had the opportunity to come to Jesus and have life.

Listen to the sermon here Monday.

The Holy Spirit & the Forgiveness of Sins

2011-05-31T09:35:00.000-04:00

What an incredible time of worship this past Sunday!

The sermon was on how the Holy Spirit works in us so that we can receive the forgiveness Christ won for us on the Cross. I asked my Prayer Team to join me in praying that "2 or 3 people will come forward to receive the forgiveness of sins." The Holy Spirit was moving, and close to 100 people came forward to hear the Good News eye-to-eye and face-to-face: "Jesus Christ died for you. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace." It was a powerful day of worship.

Listen to the sermon here.

The Holy Spirit Gathers the Church

2011-05-23T14:30:00.000-04:00

Turned out to be a great weekend to preach about the Church, what with that pastor in California predicting that the world would end Saturday night (it didn't). The Church is one of the hardest things to accept about Christianity.

The Church can be embarrassing, frustrating, even angrily annoying... but we can't just walk away from it. At every stage of the Story -- Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation -- God works to bring us not only into a personal relationship with himself, but also into social relationships with one another.

A Christian without a church is like a coal outside the fire: it'll burn bright for a while, but sooner or later it will sputter and die out. But bring that coal back to the fire, and it will come back to life. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings us in, and moves us back in when we've fallen away, so that together we can shine the light of Christ.

Listen to the sermon here.

Progress toward 1000

2011-05-16T12:15:00.000-04:00

Many of us have been asking the Lord to bring 1000 people to our services. Our prayers are being answered.

We started the year with an average weekly attendance of 660. We're up now to 740. We had 2,430 at our Easter Sunday services.

Keep praying, and keep inviting folks to come!

The Holy Spirit Sanctifies Us

2011-05-16T12:11:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since I've posted. Last Sunday was Mother's Day, which in a house with five little kids is a high holy day; plus, I didn't preach, so I didn't have much to say.

I was back in the pulpit yesterday, when we continued our sermon series on the Holy Spirit. We looked at the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. To sanctify means to make holy, and the Holy Spirit makes us holy in two ways:

he brings us to Jesus Christ. This is sanctification in the sense of conversion
he draws us closer to Jesus Christ. This is sanctification in the sense of transformation

You can listen to the sermon here.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

2011-05-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

We started a new sermon series this past Sunday. Having spent 10 weeks on the Great Commission ("go and make disciples"), then 6 weeks on the Great Commandment ("love God and neighbor"), we will now spend 7 weeks on the Holy Spirit.

We began this Sunday with an introduction to the Holy Spirit by means of Psalm 139. I wanted people to come away with a few basic points:

the Holy Spirit is God
the Holy Spirit is a Person -- a He, not an It
the Holy Spirit is one of the Persons of the Trinity

as Jesus is 1 Who with 2 Whats...

one Person with both a divine and human nature

...so God is 1 What with 3 Whos

one Divine Nature with three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

You can listen to the sermon here.

Easter Sunday

2011-04-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

It's Tuesday, and I'm still recovering from Easter Sunday. What an incredible morning of praise and worship. Last Wednesday night, about two dozen of us gathered around the altar to pray for the Lord's blessing upon our Holy Week services. We asked that the Lord would anoint the congregation, musicians, and preacher so that we could be a shining light to those who would be visiting us this weekend.

And wow, did He answer! Hands down, Easter Sunday was one of the best worship services I've attended. The music was "on," the place was packed, the Spirit was moving...what a joy to be a part of something like that. And what a vision of what could be... Many of us have been praying "1000 @ 10:00" for months now. This Sunday, we saw and felt what that looked like. Lead us on, Jesus!

You can listen to the sermon here.

Hosanna!!

2011-04-17T12:51:00.000-04:00

Great day at church this morning! Lots of people, lots of participation, excellent music, heartfelt singing, palms waving...this was one of those Sundays when I thank God for calling me to be a pastor.

Today was Palm Sunday. In my sermon, I spoke about how God promised to send his people the Messiah-King, and how he prepared them to recognize him at his coming. That's why Jesus made the pit-stop on the Mount of Olives, so he could come riding into Jerusalem exactly as planned. When crowd saw him riding that donkey, they knew that the long-expected King had come, and they shouted out with praise.

But I think something else may have been going on, too. I think Jesus was provoking his enemies, forcing them to kill the Lamb of God during the Passover, as prophesied.

I ended with four things I'd like to see us do to prepare for Easter Sunday:

Park your car in the wings and your rear end in the center
Invite someone to church
Pray for the Spirit's blessing on the preacher, the musicians and the congregation
Praise him with joy and loud singing.

Sermon can be found here Monday morning.

Luther's Small Catechism

2011-04-07T14:03:00.000-04:00

I'm preaching through Luther's Small Catechism this Lent. We're four weeks into it, so thus far we've covererd the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Baptism. Next week we wrap things up with a look at Holy Communion.

You can listen to the homilies here.

Midwest Homeschool Convention

2011-04-03T12:52:00.000-04:00

Michelle and I spent the last few days down at Cincinnati at the Midwest Homeschool Convention. It was a wonderful time. We homeschool our five children, and it was so encouraging to see so many thousands of other families who do the same. It's so good to know we're not alone.

We heard some great talks, too. I especially liked Chuck Colson and Sean McDowell on worldview, and Doug Phillips on family. It was another affirmation of my ministry to teach as well as preach.

Loving Mr. Grumpy Pants

2011-04-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

We continued today with our sermon series on the Great Commandment. This time, we looked at the Apostle John's version of it in 1st John 4:7-21. That's a long passage, and John has an awful lot to say about love, so we focused on two points in particular:

God is love -- not the other way around.
We show who God is by the way we love one another.

We ended with a call to love the difficult people in our life: those up close and personal who try our patience in small ways (like Mr. Grumpy Pants), and those who have seriously sinned against us (our enemies).

You can listen to the sermon here on Monday morning.

How to share your faith

2011-03-28T14:33:00.000-04:00

I like to think that after 10 weeks on the Great Commission, you understand that we as a church need to be telling people the Good News about Jesus. But how do you do that, exactly? Three godly men in our church -- Wyman Haskins, Dave Foster, and Steve Sikora -- have stepped up to the plate to show us how.

They'll be teaching a 3-session workshop on the practical side of telling people about Jesus. It starts this Sunday, April 3rd, 10:45-11:45, runs through the10th, and ends on the 17th. By the end, not only will you know what to say -- you won't be afraid to say it!

Greatest of these is Love

2011-03-27T12:42:00.001-04:00

We looked this morning at 1 Corinthians 13, that great chapter on Love. I spent some time going into what was going on at the time in Corinth -- how the Holy Spirit was moving through that church in special ways, through gifts like prophecies, tongues, and knowledge. We saw how Paul did not diminish those gifts, but did place them in context, reminding the Corinthians that the general gifts given to all Christians (faith, hope, and love) are more important than the particular gifts given to some.

Finally, we saw how love is "the greatest of these," because love is the one thing that will not pass away.

You can listen to the sermon here on Monday morning.

Learning to Lead

2011-03-15T13:03:00.000-04:00

Seminary does teach you how to bury the dead, visit the sick, comfort the bereaved, baptize, preside at Communion, and preach. But they don't teach you how to lead in seminary. That you've got to learn on your own.

I'm reading my way through John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I'd read it a few years ago, and caught some good out of it, but this time around I'm reading a version that uses biblical characters rather than businessmen to illustrate the laws of leadership. I like to think I know the Bible pretty well, but Maxwell brings out insights that I've never seen before. Turns out the Bible has alot more to say about leadership than I'd ever imagined.

Picking up Love for Lent

2011-03-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

Lent is a season of preparation. During Lent, we often give things up so that we can take other things on -- we put down something we love so that we can pick up something we need. This Lent, we're picking up Love.

Starting yesterday and for the next four Sundays, we'll be preaching on the Great Commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these," because "the greatest of these is love," and these are the two commandments about love.

Yet even if we were to keep the Great Commandment perfectly, we would still be only "not far from the Kingdom of Heaven." For it's not our love that brings us into the Kingdom, but God's love for us.

Listen to the sermon here.

Great Commission, Great Choir

2011-03-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

We finished up our sermon series on the Great Commission today. We've spent 10 weeks focusing on evangelism, and I for one feel like our focus is starting to bear fruit. But there's still a lot of fear -- we're still very afraid to go and tell people about Jesus. So I preached about that fear today and invited Jesus to come and stand among us as he came and stood among his disciples, turning their fear into joy. You can listen to the sermon here.

We were also blessed today with the Hilliard Darby Symphonic Choir. The 90 students in grades 10-12 sang three songs for us at worship. Verbum Caro Factum Est brought back memories for me: I sang that piece in high school myself, before I knew the Lord. But the Lord used that song to plant a seed in my heart that, in time, grew to faith in him. Thank you, Jesus, for your gift of music!

Mill Run in the News

2011-03-01T13:58:00.001-05:00

Our sermon series on the Great Commission is getting noticed! Mill Run was featured in the latest newsletter from Crossways International...

Mission News: USA

Pastor Eric Waters of Upper Arlington Church in Ohio recently ordered 700 copies of CI's fold-out 8-frame evangelism tool, The Divine Plan. As part of a sermon series on Jesus' "Great Commission" (Matthew 28:19,20), Pr. Waters distributed The Divine Plan among the members of his congregation and taught them how to use it. He encouraged them to practice using it with friends and family members--and then put it to work in the community at large.

His goal was to equip his flock with the basic tools needed to explain the Bible as a sweeping storyline that continues today and involves each one of us.

The initial effort proved so successful that Pr. Waters has ordered 600 more copies, along with 200 copies of The Bible's Big Story: Our Story for those ready to dig more deeply into God's Good News!

Judas' Remorse

2011-03-01T10:38:00.000-05:00

I'm reading through the Gospel of Matthew and have come to the story of Jesus' betrayal. As I was reading today, the thought struck me: "Why wasn't Judas forgiven?"

After all, the Bible says that Judas "changed his mind" (Mt 27:3) -- that's repentance.
Judas "brought back the thirty pieces of silver"(Mt 27:3) -- that's restitution.
Judas even admitted "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood" (Mt 27:4) -- that's confession.

So why wasn't Judas forgiven?

Then I saw the fatal flaw in Judas' actions. Who did Judas turn to? Not to God, not to Jesus, but to his fellow conspirators. Judas never tried to restore his relationship with the Father or the Son, so he died with that relationship broken. Judas never asked those he had sinned against to forgive him. That's why he wasn't forgiven.

5 Reasons to Obey

2011-02-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

Jesus sends us out to make disciples, in part by "teaching them to obey everything I command." Obedience has been a hard sell in every age, but especially in ours, where the concept is unpopular and the word is used only for dogs! Yet Jesus calls us to obey, and in John 14:15-27 he gives us five good reasons why:

because we love Jesus
to be led by the Holy Spirit
to be loved by the Father and the Son
to see more of Jesus
so the Father and Son can make their home with us

Listen to the sermon here.

Walking in the Light

2011-02-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

Jesus commissioned his Apostles to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything he commanded. This Sunday, we looked at how one Apostle did just that.

The Apostle John wrote his First Letter to the disciples he had made. He began by telling them, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (1Jn 1:5). We looked at three aspects of that light:

God is light -- he is holiness itself. Sin cannot stand in his presence.
God's Word is light -- like a black light, it exposes even our hidden sins
Jesus is light -- his blood purifies us from sin so that we can stand in the presence of God

We ended with an altar call to "Come to Jesus and walk in the light." Not many people came forward, but it was a good first effort and we'll keep at it. If we truly are to be a church that brings people to Jesus, then we have to give people the opportunity to come to Jesus, too.

You can listen to the sermon here.

First Prayer Meeting

2011-02-09T15:42:00.000-05:00

Our Prayer Teams met as a group for the first time last night, closing out the night with a powerful time of prayer around the altar. It is a blessing to lead a community so devoted to prayer.

Why do we baptize babies?

2011-02-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

The sermon yesterday was on that part of the Great Commission where Jesus tells his Apostles to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of he Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The Acts of the Apostles describes how they carried out his Commission. There are 9 baptisms recorded in Acts, and every one is the baptism of a believer, the baptism of an adult. If that's what the Apostles did then, why isn't it what we do now? Why do we baptize babies?

The short answer is that while the Acts of the Apostles tell us what they did, the Letters of the Apostles tell us what it meant. The Letters are their teaching, and in their teaching the Apostles tell us that, first and foremost, baptism is not our expression of faith toward God, but God's act of grace toward us. And so, if baptism is God's work, and kids need grace, too, then why can't babies be baptized?

Listen to the sermon here.

To all the Nations

2011-01-30T19:21:00.000-05:00

We continued today with our sermon series on the Great Commission. Today we looked at Christ's command to go to "all the nations." I emphasized that Christianity is not a European religion -- the faith spread from the Middle East to Europe, not the other way around. We saw how Christianity is the world's largest religion and the world's most widely-spread religion, and how in our lifetimes the center of gravity in the Christian church is shifting from the Northern and Western hemispheres to the Southern and Eastern hemispheres.

We ended by working our way through a pamphlet called "The Divine Plan," which I encouraged everyone to take and share with their One.

Sermon audio can be found here on Monday morning.

Sheep, Goats, and Light

2011-01-24T14:34:00.000-05:00

We continue with our sermon series on the Great Commission. Yesterday's focus was "make disciples." We looked at it from the perspective of Matthew 25:31-46, the Separation of the Sheep and Goats, where Jesus paints a picture of what it looks like to be a disciple.

The Separation of the Sheep and the Goats raises the troubling issue of Hell. So we looked first at the doctrine of Hell, asking three questions: "Is Hell real? What is Hell like? How could a loving God send people to Hell?"

We then ended with the ordinary, everyday works of love that spread the Good News of Jesus by shining the Light of Christ in the world. I challenged us to pay special attention to Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you invited me in." I'm counting on you to Notice the people who are new to our congregation and make them feel welcome.

You can listen to the sermon here.

Wednesday Word for Jan 19th

2011-01-20T12:09:00.000-05:00

The Word for this past Wednesday was Matthew 25:31-46, the Separation of the Sheep and the Goats. What does it mean to "make disciples"? Disciples are people who look like sheep: they feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, etc., not because they're trying to "do good," but simply because that's just what they do. Audio and hand out can be found here.

Great Response to the Prayer Teams!

2011-01-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

A great big "thank you" to all of you who responded to the call to join the team. As of today, we have 57 people signed up for the 3 prayer teams -- and that doesn't include the many others who've told me they're praying for 1000 @ 10:00.

The Holy Spirit is moving, and when the Holy Spirit moves, souls are saved and lives are changed. It's going to be a great year...

Prayer Teams

2011-01-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

When Jesus sent out the 72, the first thing he did was pray. We're beginning our evangelistic mission with prayer, too. I'm putting together four prayer teams:

Ten o'clock Prayer Team -- "1000 @ 10:00"
After-service Prayer Team
Response Prayer Team
Preacher's Prayer Team

I'd you'd like to join one of those teams, post a comment on this page. Here's how. First, click on the "comments" line under this post. A box will appear with a pull-down menu. There are two ways to post a comment:

If you want to remain anonymous, select "anonymous" from the pull-down menu
If you want to leave your name, choose "name/URL" from the pull-down menu just leave the URL blank if you don't have a website
Hit return and your comment will post to the blog.

Wednesday Word for Jan 11th

2011-01-13T12:20:00.001-05:00

Midweek at Mill Run is back up and running. We had a great turnout of 125 people at our first Wednesday Word.

We're looking at the Great Commission. This Sunday, the assigned text is "Therefore, go..." It's hard to preach on only two words, so I'm focusing on the secondary lesson instead: Jesus' Sending of the72 in Luke 10:1-20. You can listen to the sermon study audio here.

UALC on the Radio

2011-01-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Our AWANA kids were on 104.9 the River this morning, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. If you missed it live, you can listen to it on their website here.

Under Authority

2011-01-09T12:33:00.000-05:00

Pr. Paul preached this morning about the Centurion's Faith (Matthew 8:5-13), a faith so vibrant that Jesus himself was "astonished" (8:10). For the Centurion, it all came down to authority:

"For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant 'Do this,' and he does it" (8:9).

We are under Jesus' authority. He tells us 'Come,' and we have come to him. Now he is telling us 'Go' and 'Do this,' so we are going and doing this evangelism thing. The Centurion asked Jesus to come and heal one person. Who's your one? Ask the Lord to show you whom you should reach in his name this year.

Help with Sharing Your Faith

2011-01-05T20:13:00.000-05:00

UALC is blessed with many people who have real-life experience with evangelism. I met today with Bill Kern, who said that he would love to help anyone who wants to learn how to share their faith and disciple others.

Bill said to give him a call at (614) 319-3177 or send him an email at wkern@columbus.rr.com

Thanks, Bill! This is exactly the sort of thing I've been praying for...

Praying at 10:00

2011-01-05T14:40:00.000-05:00

Someone shared a great idea with me, and I want to pass it along with you.

I've set the goal for 1000 people in worship on a Sunday morning between our two MRC services. Why not send up a prayer every day at 1000 am, asking God to help us do it?

How encouraging it would be to know that at the same time every morning, hundreds of prayers were going up to God from all over Columbus, all asking for the same thing -- that more people will know Him because of us!!

Will you join me?

A New Start

2011-01-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the start of a New Year, and today is a new start in the mission of our church. Jesus tells us to "Go and make disciples," and today we took that first, critical step of obedience -- not knowing where our new focus on evangelism will lead us, but knowing only that Jesus tells us to do it and promises to be with us as we do it.

Don't think we can do it? You're in good company. Even some of the Eleven Disciples "saw him, and worshiped him, yet doubted." Who do you identify with?

Peter, who loved the Lord but was weak in his heart
Gideon, who loved the Lord but was weak in his soul
Moses, who loved the Lord but lacked strength
Me, who loves the Lord but feels weak in my mind

God changed Peter, Gideon, and Moses; God is changing me; God will change us. It's a New Start!

A list, printable bookmark, and blog of the Daily Readings through Matthew can be found here.
Sermon can be found here Monday morning.

"A Social Network Christmas"

2010-12-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

This YouTube video is a digital-age re-telling of the Christmas story. Well, well worth the four minutes it takes to view!

Shepherds out in the Fields

2010-12-23T13:28:00.000-05:00

USA Today has a great front-page article about real-life shepherds "living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night" here and now in the American West, much as they did there and then in the Judean Middle East. Well worth reading as we prepare to hear the "good tidings of great joy" tomorrow.

3 Kings

2010-12-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the day studying for the sermons I'll preach before, after, and on Christmas Eve. It strikes me that each will be about a king:

Ahaz, a foolish king who didn't ask God for a sign and wouldn't believe it even if he saw one
Jesus, the Newborn King who is that sign
the Wise Men, kings who saw a sign in the sky and came to find Him

Faith & Charity

2010-12-10T12:56:00.000-05:00

Two professors from Notre Dame and Harvard wrote an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal about Americans and charitable donations. The professors did a study and found that religious Americans give much more money to charity than do secular Americans. Among their findings:

the most religious 1/5th of donate an average of $3000 per year, compared to $1000 per year for the most secular 1/5th
as a percentage of income, religious Americans contribute four times as much as their secular counterparts!

In short, the primary driver of charity is faith.

Who What When Where Why and How

2010-11-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

The sermon today was on what happened after the Feeding of the 5000, according to the Gospel of John. We approached the lesson (John 6:22-35) as if we were interviewing Jesus:

Who is Jesus? The Bread of Life
What do we want from Jesus? Jesus himself, or only what he can do for us?
When does Jesus come? Right on time, every time
Where do we find Jesus? All who seek will find him and find that he's already gone ahead to prepare the way for you to meet him
Why do we come to Jesus? Because he alone can satisfy the hunger of our hearts
How do we come to Jesus? Just trust and believe, day by day.

Audio will be here Monday morning.

"How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?"

2010-11-11T11:12:00.000-05:00

At last night's "Ten Tough Questions," we asked ourselves what is perhaps the toughest question of them all -- "How could a loving God send people to hell?"

We began by looking at the Bible, and saw that Christians believe in the existence of hell not because we want to, or because we're mean and vindictive, but because the Bible tells us it's real. And most surprisingly of all, Jesus talks more about hell than any other single person in the Bible.

We then saw that, according to Jesus' own words and the Bible's own witness, God does not want anyone to go to hell. Since all sin is ultimately a rejection of God, people ultimately choose to go to hell when they hold fast to their sin and turn away from God.

Finally, we saw that it's precisely because God loves us that there is a hell:

Love must be free.
Some people choose not to love God.
God will not force himself upon them, insisting that their "no" really means "yes." Hell -- a place without God -- is the place where such people spend eternity.

Audio and outline can be found here.

All Saints' Day

2010-11-07T17:44:00.000-05:00

Today is All Saints' Day, the Church's "Memorial Day," when we remember those who have died. We celebrated this morning by reading the names of over 200 people who have passed away, encouraging each other with the the Apostle Paul's words from 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18.

"We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him."

Sermon audio will be here Monday morning.

Downloadable Handouts now Available

2010-11-04T18:43:00.000-04:00

The handouts for "Ten Tough Questions" can now be downloaded from our webpage. Enjoy!

Intro to Islam

2010-11-04T11:58:00.001-04:00

We turned a corner in our "Ten Tough Questions" last night. Having spent the better part of the last two months building the case for Christianity from the ground up, we'll spend the month of November looking at stand-alone topics. We began last night with an introduction to Islam.

We looked at the life of Muhammad; the Koran, sunna, and Hadith; the core beliefs of Islam; the Five Pillars of Islam; and jihad. We wrapped things up by answering 3 common Muslim objections to Christianity.

Audio file can be found here.

Speaking at UA 912

2010-11-01T14:27:00.000-04:00

I'll be speaking at the next meeting of the Upper Arlington 912 Group on November 11th, 6:30 pm at Hastings Elementary. They've invited me to come and preach my Independence Day sermon about the Biblical roots of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The meeting is open to the public. More information can be found here.

New Members

2010-11-01T14:19:00.000-04:00

Good things are happening at Mill Run Contemporar. Yesterday, we welcomed 7 families as New Members. In a few weeks, 10 young people will stand up and confirm their faith in Christ. Our attendance continues to go up. Slowly but surely, we're growing in numbers and vitality.

Leaving the ELCA

2010-10-31T19:54:00.003-04:00

Today is Reformation Sunday, the 493rd anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his complaints to the church door in Wittenberg and started a movement that would change the world. Our congregation celebrated by leaving the ELCA.

The vote to leave passed with 95% of the almost 600 votes cast. Where will we go from here? We reaffirmed our affiliation with the LCMC (Lutheran Congregations for Mission in Christ) with a 96% vote, and decided to join the NALC (North American Lutheran Church) with a 90% vote.

It's been a long time coming -- I've been expecting it since my first semester of seminary, 14 years ago -- and I'm relieved to have it behind us at last. Semper reformatio -- the church always needs to be reformed.

"What Did Jesus Teach about the Bible?"

2010-10-28T08:45:00.000-04:00

We've spent the last few weeks at "Ten Tough Questions" building the case for the historical reliability of the New Testament. Last week, we looked at the evidence from inside and outside the New Testament, and concluded that Jesus really did what he said he would do -- Jesus really died and rose again. The amazing thing is that we we don't need to make the case that the New Testament is inspired, just reliable, to prove that Jesus rose from the dead.

But now that we've made that point, what about inspiration? Is the Bible the inspired Word of God? The case for inspiration boils down to this:

Jesus considered the Old Testament to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God
Jesus provided for the New Testament to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God when he promised his Apostles that the Holy Spirit would inspire them to both remember his teaching and lead them into all truth
Jesus is God
Therefore both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are what Jesus tells us: the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God

Listen to the audio here

"Who was Jesus?"

2010-10-14T13:59:00.000-04:00

After two weeks spent on the New Testament, first establishing that the NT we hold in our hand is a reliable copy of the NT that was written, and then establishing the content as early, eyewitness testimony to Jesus, last night we were finally in the position to ask, "What does Jesus say about himself?"

We saw that Jesus claims to be God. We started with his indirect claims ("I am the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Giver of Life") and moved on to his direct claims:

Jesus claimed authority over God's Word
Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins
Jesus claimed authority to judge people and nations
Jesus allowed people to worship him

Finally, we looked at the Old Testaments prophets to see whom we should be looking for, and found that Jesus fit the prophetic bill to the "T" -- born of the right family, in the right place, at the right time.

Listen to the audio here.

Grace Giving & Wise Giving

2010-10-11T13:40:00.000-04:00

We're now halfway through our stewardship sermon series. We're using Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians as our guide. Paul had asked the Corinthians to contribute to an offering for famine relief in Judea. The Corinthians promised they would, but a year went by and they never did, so now Paul is writing to spur them on.

We started by looking at why we give (2Cor 8:1-9). Giving our money is one of the spiritual disciplines, often one of the last to be developed and therefore one of the most important. For if the Holy Spirit has warmed you to give your money to Jesus, then chances are He's warmed you to give your life to Jesus, too.

Then we looked at how we give (2Cor 8:10-24). As individual Christians, we should finish what we start and give according to our means, with the rule of thumb being the 10% tithe. As a Church, we should conduct our finances openly and honestly and thus avoid any criticism of the way we handle money.

"America's Four Gods"

2010-10-07T12:21:00.000-04:00

USA Today leads with a front-page, top-fold article about God today. Sociologists from Baylor Univ. in Texas interviewed thousands of Americans and concluded that though 90% of Americans believe in God, the God they believe in comes in one of four types: Authoritative, Critical, Benevolent, and Distant. Well worth reading.

Another interesting conclusion highlights America's unique position as an advanced nation with an ancient faith:

"one clear finding is that the USA — where images of a personal God engaged in our lives dominate — is an outlier in the world of technologically advanced nations such as (those in) Europe."

Finally, the authors found a strong correlation between what people believe about God and how they vote. Grist for the mill as we approach the mid-term elections.

Life on other planets?

2010-09-30T11:17:00.000-04:00

Astronomers have reported the discovery of a "Goldilocks" planet outside our solar system -- a place not too hot, not too cold, but "one just right for conditions that could support life."

What if we ever discover life on other planets? Would that challenge our faith? I don't think so. We believe that God is "the Creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, both seen and unseen." If life exists anywhere, the Lord of Life has created it.

It does, though, raise the intriguing question of sin. If there on other planets there are intelligent life forms capable of moral decision, could there be planets that have not fallen into sin? CS Lewis thought there could be, and wrote a trilogy of science fiction books about the idea. I myself disagree simply because the Bible says that humans alone are created in the image and likeness of God, and that when we fell into sin, all creation fell with us. So it seems to me that all life, everywhere, would be subject to sin and death, and in need of the redemption Jesus won for us on the Cross.

What do you think?

"Can We Trust the Bible?"

2010-09-30T10:55:00.000-04:00

Last night at Ten Tough Questions we asked "Can We Trust the Bible?" After all, we don't have the Gospel of Mark written in Mark's own hand, or the Gospel of Matthew written in Matthew's own hand. All we have are copies. So how do we know the copies are accurate? How do we know that the Gospel we read is the same Gospel Matthew or Mark wrote?

Using the science of textual criticism, we compared the New Testament to its peers from the ancient world and saw that the New Testament stands "absolutely and unapproachably alone" among documents from the ancient world. It's not just as good as anything else -- it's far, far better!

So can we trust the New Testament? Yes! We may not have the original documents, but we do have the original words. Listen to the audio here.

Live Free

2010-09-26T09:30:00.002-04:00

We looked at 1 Peter 2:13-25 to finish up our September sermon series on "Living Witnesses." Peter calls us to submit to our government, to our employers, to those with authority over us, not for their sake for for the sake of the Lord.

Submitting is hard, but it's necessary if we want the Lord to sanctify our lives and make us holy. "Live as free people...live as servants of God," writes Peter.

Submitting calls for wisdom, knowing what should be rendered to Caesar and what must be rendered to God. President Obama has asked pastors to sell his health care program. What would you do?

"Are Miracles Possible?"

2010-09-23T10:11:00.000-04:00

We continued last night with our Ten Tough Questions study by asking, "Are Miracles Possible?" We saw that if there is a God who acts, then there can be acts of God. As a matter of fact, miracles are not only possible, they're actual! The greatest miracle is the universe itself -- God created absolutely everything out of absolutely nothing. A God who can create something out of nothing certainly can turn water into wine.

We emphasized that miracles might be one way that God puts his "seal of approval" on a messenger and his "signature" on a message. If someone does something that only God can do, then that someone speaks with God's approval and authority. That sets us up for our sessions these next few weeks about the Bible and Jesus.

USA Today had an article about "new research which could give a scientific grounding" to the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.

The study...finds that strong, persistent winds could offer a physical explanation for the event, which was made eternally famous by Charlton Heston in the epic film The Ten Commandments.

I'd just like to note that the parting of the Red Sea was "eternally famous" long before Charlton Heston...

Living Stones

2010-09-19T12:33:00.000-04:00

We continue with our sermon series on First Peter. Today we looked at 1 Pet 2:1-12 to see that we are Called to Worship and Sent to Witness.

Jesus Christ has delievered us, called us his people, made us his priests, and the proper response is to worship him

Jesus Christ sends us out to bear witness to what he has done for us and is doing through us, not only as individuals but also as a congregation.

A Moral God & the Problem of Pain

2010-09-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

Last night at "Ten Tough Questions," we continued to ask "Does God exist?" Last week (scroll down to Sept 9) we saw how the beginning of the Universe and the end to which it was designed both point to a Creator.

This week we saw how Conscience points to God, too. There is a fundamental agreement through time and across cultures not of what is, but what ought to be. We know what we should do; we don't actually do it. Where could this sense of moral obligation come from, except from beyond ourselves, from a Moral Law Giver?

That led us into the problem of pain: If God is good, powerful, and loving, then why is there evil, suffering, and pain in the world? We saw how this difficult challenge to Christianity turns out to be one of Christianity's strongest confirmations.

For why do we insist that the world ought to be fair, and free of pain and suffering, when everything we know from our own lives and from history shows that the world is not fair, that people suffer, and everyone dies? Even unbelievers recognize that the world as it is, is not as it's supposed to be. The world cries out for a Someone to right the wrongs, heal our pain, take away our suffering. The world cries out for a Savior.

Listen to the audio here.

Living Word

2010-09-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

We continued today with our sermon series on First Peter called "Living Witnesses." Last week, Peter encouraged us with the assurance of Salvation. This week, Peter shifted gears to focus on Sanctification -- "You shall be holy, for I am holy," says the Lord. We looked at sanctification under three headings:

Gird Up the loins of your mind and get serious about your walk with the Lord
Look Up to the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment for motivation
Listen Up to the Word which is the power of God and endures forever

I asked people to follow along in their Bibles. Do you like that? Let me know...

Burning the Koran

2010-09-10T13:13:00.005-04:00

A Florida pastor's plan to burn the Koran has set off a worldwide brouhaha. Here's my two cents' worth:

Christians believe that the Word is a Person -- "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Muslims believe the Word is a book. So from the Muslim perspective, to burn the Koran would be like crucifying Jesus all over again. That's why this book burning set off such a firestorm.
The President, Secretary of Defense, generals, various Congressional Representatives & Senators, and many religious leaders contacted the pastor, urging him not to do it. I wonder if we can expect the same outpouring of opprobrium the next time someone burns a Bible or puts a crucifix in urine?
The Ground Zero Mosque and the Florida Koran Burning are similar in that while both groups have the right to religious freedom, neither is exercising that right responsibly. They are dissimilar in that while the one is the action of a small congregation of 50 people, the other is a multi-million dollar project funded by donors from across the country and around the world.

What do you think? Leave a comment (scroll down to Sept 4 to see how).

UALC in the News

2010-09-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

Christianity Today has an excellent article on the Lutheran CORE Conference we hosted a few weeks back, summarzing each of the speakers in 3 or 4 grief paragraphs. I especially liked the conclusion:

In summary, the theologians who spoke at Lutheran CORE's free theological conference saw crisis of authority in the church. The crisis resulted from an abandonment of the combined authority of canon, creed, and church—or less alliteratively, Scripture, a normative set of teaching that guide scriptural interpretation, and authorized leaders charged with faithfully handing on the faith.

"Does God Exist?"

2010-09-09T13:58:00.002-04:00

In last night's class "Ten Tough Questions," we asked "Does God Exist? How do we know?" We looked at two ways we can know for certain that there is a God, even without opening a Bible:

We looked at the Cosmological Argument (the argument from origin) under the acronym "SURE." We can be SURE there is a God because the universe had a defintite beginning, and everything which begins to exist must have a cause. This First Cause must be beyond time (eternal), beyond space (infinite), beyond matter (immaterial or spiritual), beyond nature (supernatural), and extremely powerful (omnipotent).
We then turned to the Teleological Argument (the argument from design) to show that this Cause must also be personal and intelligent (omniscient), since impersonal, blind forces do not produce anything like the design we find in the universe.

We also looked at the evidence of design in biology under the acronym "LIFE." Does evolution disprove God? Of course not -- just look at LIFE.

Link to the audio recording can be found here.

Living Hope

2010-09-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

Today we started our new sermon series on 1st Peter, called "Living Witnesses." We looked at what Peter says about salvation in 1Pet 1:1-12 -- the Greatness of Salvation, the Guarantee of Salvation, and the Joy of Salvation. We have a Living Hope because we have a Living Savior.

How to Post a Comment

2010-09-04T22:04:00.000-04:00

I've heard from several of you that you're having trouble posting comments. First, click on the "comments" line under the post. A box will appear with a pull-down menu. There are two ways to post a comment:

If you want to remain anonymous, select "anonymous" from the pull-down menu
If you want to leave your name, choose "name/URL" from the pull-down menu

just leave the URL blank if you don't have a website

Hit return and your comment will post as soon as I get to it. Thanks!

Stephen Hawking: "Gravity is god"

2010-09-03T17:39:00.001-04:00

The world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking has released a new book this week in which he argues that

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going."

Hawking sets himself up for the Road Runner Tactic: how could a law of nature have existed when there was no nature for it to be a law of? We'll be looking at just this issue next week.

A commentary about Hawking in the British newspaper Telegraph notes that

"in the end, a religious believer can always fall back on a faith that does not depend on verification... Religions will survive so long as they steer clear of making statements that can be shown to be factually wrong."

Here's another area where Christianity is different from other religions. Our faith is based on a historical fact: Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, proving that he was who he claimed to be -- the Son of God, the long-expected Messiah of the Jewish people, and Savior of all mankind. Either Jesus rose from the dead, and Christianity is true; or Jesus didn't, and Christianity is false. So how do we know that Jesus really and truly died and rose again? What's the evidence? Come to Ten Tough Questions and find out.

Truth, God, and Postmodernism

2010-09-01T21:35:00.002-04:00

Midweek at Mill Run started today (link to the audio file is here). In this first class, we learned that God is a God of truth who invites us to reason with him (Isaiah 1:18), commands us to love him with all our mind (Mark 12:30), and sends us out to give a reason for the hope we have in him (1 Peter 3:15).

We learned about the Modern and Postmodern worldviews. Like the Tower of Babel, the Modern worldview cuts God out of the picture ("Come, let us build ourselves a tower") while the Postmodern worldview degenerates into a babble of overlapping stories.

We saw that the Parable of the Elephant falls apart.

We chased down the Law of Non-contradiction with the Road Runner Tactic.

Finally we contrasted truth and belief. Truth is absolute, regardless of what we think or how we feel about it, or even if whether or not we believe it. I sincerely believed the rumors that Apple would release an iPhone for Verizon today, but my sincere belief did not make it true (bummer!)

Col. Gadhafi Spreads his Faith

2010-08-31T22:51:00.002-04:00

There's a great article in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal about Col. Gadhafi's efforts to spread Islam. Seems the Libyan leader hired 800 Italian women through a casting agency to come and hear him speak about how "Islam should become the religion of Europe." Scary thing is that "a few women" apparently were converted!

This is why I'm so excited about my Ten Tough Questions course, starting Sept. 1. Now more than ever, we need to know what we believe and why we believe it.

UALC in the News

2010-08-31T22:37:00.001-04:00

By now you've no doubt read the newspaper articles and seen the TV segments about the Lutheran CORE conference hosted at our church. I'm sure your neighbors and co-workers have read and seen them, too, and maybe you're getting some heat. Here's some talking points that might help you through those awkward conversations:

"We didn't leave the church. The church left us." Our stand for biblical authority puts in squarely in line with Christians across the country and around the world. We stand with 99% of Christians; the ELCA with less than 1%.
"We're small now, but not for long." Sure, at this point, UALC is in the minority. Many more congregations are choosing to stay in the ELCA than leave. But those numbers will begin to change soon and accelerate over the next few years.
"It's not just about sex." Sexual ethics is part of it, of course, but there's really not much that we see eye-to-eye on with the ELCA: biblical authority, biblical interpretation, religious pluralism, the right to life, the nation of Israel, global warming...we're on the other side of almost every issue the ELCA publicly commits itself to.
"Come and see!" Don't just talk about UALC -- invite people to come and check it out for themselves. An hour here on a Sunday morning or Wednesday evening will show who we really are and what we're really about.

Combined Services

2010-08-29T13:20:00.000-04:00

What did you think about today's Combined Worship Services? I loved it! As a preacher, few things are better than looking out on a Sanctuary filled with people and listening to them praise the Lord loudly in song. It was great to be outside for the later services, too. Not every day you get to worship the Lord in the open air!

I'd like to know what you thought, too. Leave a comment.

A Full Church

2010-08-25T16:36:00.000-04:00

UALC is hosting the Lutheran CORE Theological Conference this week, and what a joy it is to see our parking lot packed full and our Sanctuary overflowing! As I walk around, greeting people, I keep praying under my breath, "Lord, let it be like this every Sunday." I'm more and more convinced it will be if we Trust and Obey.

We start this Sunday with our Combined Worship Services at 9:30 in the Sanctuary and 10:45 outside. Chris Cakes will be making pancakes all morning, which gives us all an excuse to meet, greet, and eat.
Our Midweek at Mill Run starts one week from today: something for everyone -- kids, teenagers, and adults --and another time in the week when our church is humming with activity.
Alpha starts September 20th. Who do you know who needs a PINCH? Bring them to the Lord in Prayer and come with them to Alpha, and we'll watch the Holy Spirit bring people to faith.

This is going to be a great year for us -- a year we grow in numbers and maturity. Pray for the Lord's hand upon us, Trust, and Obey!

Testing of Abraham

2010-08-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

God tested Abraham to show Abraham just how much he trusted and obeyed the Lord. And in return, the Lord showed Abraham just how trustworthy He is. Our faith gives God the opportunity to prove His faithfulness. This year we will trust, obey, and see how God will provide.

MRC in the News

2010-08-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

Lutheran preaching proclaims the Bible as both a Word of Law, through which God convicts us of sin and threatens judgment, and aWord of Gospel, through which God forgives us our sin and promises life.

That's the theory, at least, but how to put it into practice? I was asked to write an article about just that, and you're all in it. Check it out at the Journal of Lutheran Ethics.