We asked two weeks ago if we thought that we had the power to surprise God -- that is, does God move with us into an uncertain future in which we might do something surprising to him, or does God know how the story ends? In other words, are our lives a book that God is reading with us or a book which God has read?
My feeling is that God has the answers and knows how it will play out. We have a part to play in the creation of a loving God. All of it, from the oppression of Pharaoh to Jesus' prediction of his own death plays out as it must, as it always has, as it always will be. Knowing this, we can turn our attention from "What must I do to be saved" to "What must I do to faithfully play my part in God's great creation." To do so turns our attention from "what's in it for me?" to "What can I do for God and others?" That is the beginning of the kingdom.
Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, KY for this week's sermon from Exodus 3 and Matthew 16 titled "Inevitable God" by clicking HERE, or read the sermon online by clicking HERE.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
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Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
God Within
Sixty years ago I was taught about the "Gotcha God" the God way up there in heaven who watched over everything I did so as to assure that I'd be punished for everything, including those things I got away with because my parents were distracted and didn't notice them. The Gotcha God is God Without -- an external force that just judges.
This week, the Chapel of St. Starbuck received a visit from the Hon. Jeremiah Bainworthy, a candidate for the US Congress, and a believer in dominion theology -- the understanding that Christians are called to a task of world domination. Join the congregation of the Chapel of St. Starbuck and Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, KY for this week's sermon from Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16:13-20, "God Within" by clicking HERE.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
This week, the Chapel of St. Starbuck received a visit from the Hon. Jeremiah Bainworthy, a candidate for the US Congress, and a believer in dominion theology -- the understanding that Christians are called to a task of world domination. Join the congregation of the Chapel of St. Starbuck and Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, KY for this week's sermon from Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16:13-20, "God Within" by clicking HERE.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Boo!
One of the congregants at the Chapel of St. Starbuck asked me last Tuesday if I thought of myself as a spiritual creature having a physical experience or a physical being seeking spiritual experiences. That's a heck of a question! If the real "me" is a spiritual being, a spark of God if you like, I would approach my time on earth differently than if I thought of myself as a hunk of meat trying to have a spiritual experience. What do you think? Join the congregations of the Chapel of St. Starbuck and Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte while we examine if it is possible to slip up behind God and surprise him in our sermon, "Boo!" from Genesis 45:1-15 and Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 by clicking on the title above.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Unlikely People
You don't have to ride around the sun very many times to realize that the world is filled with an awful lot of unlikely people. Even our churches contain folks you wouldn't think of as fulfilling God's promise. It has ever been so...as far back as the Patriarchs, anyway. Those who think that God works only through the nice people really need to read this week's text, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28. Join the joint congregations of the Chapel of St. Starbuck and Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, KY for a celebration of the remodeling at the Chapel of St. Starbuck by some pretty unlikely people in our sermon from Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 and Matthew 14:22-33 titled "Unlikely People" by clicking on the title above.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.
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