Why Would You Want To Live Any Other Way?
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalms 73:25–26 I love these words of the Psalmist, they are one of my go to scriptures for reassurance, redirection and courage. If you read the entire Psalm (and I encourage you to – here is a link) you will see that Psalmist does not start where he ends up. He starts with his eyes on others, ungrounded and untethered and just as angry and bitter as everybody else in the world, not light or salt, but just more noise,...
Read MoreThe Story: Grounding Your Life In The Narrative of God
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good. Genesis 1:1–4 A week ago we looked back at our life as a church and as individuals and families and leaned into the intentional practice of remembering how we had seen and experienced God during the past year. How easy it is to forget to remember. How important it is to set intentional pieces so that we do not. Seeing...
Read MoreDon’t Forget To Remember
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them . . . . You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today . . . . When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they...
Read MoreConquering Your Warped Wall
Hi friends! (Forwarded from Becky Watson) James 1:19-27 Listening and Doing 19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his...
Read MoreBaptism, Blessing, Invitation
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 This past Sunday was Creekside’s annual baptism service at Tolt McDonald Park in Carnation. It is always one of my favorite services of the year. If you were with us you know that this year, like the previous ones, was outstanding. We sang and we celebrated. We listened to commitments made by those being baptized and made committed ourselves to helping them live out theirs. We walked together to the river, gathered together on the shore and...
Read MoreFearless Love
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:16–18 For the past three weeks at Creekside, we have been talking about Lessons From Improv. Starting with the realization that sometimes Christians can be a bit ridged and scripted, we looked to the art of improv comedy for lessons on how to...
Read MoreImprove Rule 3: Making Confident Statements with Love
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.1 Peter 3:15–16 Two weeks ago at Creekside we started off our exploration of lessons from the life of improv by looking at the first two lessons: 1. “say yes” and 2. “say yes and.” It is a call to change our posture from looking for things that are wrong in the world to...
Read MoreLove and Yes
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 When God calls you to himself, when you begin to follow Jesus, when you become a Christian you are — the Bible — tells us “a new Creation.” How are we to live as new creations? Many people get this wrong, isolating themselves from people who believe differently then they do, being antagonistic to people and ideas. How are we to hold ourselves then in a world that is not our home? Jesus says the short answer is to hold ourselves in a posture of love, to ask, regardless of the circumstances, “am I acting out of love?” Immersed In Love That sounds...
Read MoreStopping Injustice
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female...
Read MoreCreekside’s Summer At The Table
Jesus spent a lot of time sharing meals with people. So much so, in fact that he was called a glutton, a drunkard and a friend of sinners. I wonder how many of us are in danger of a similar charge because of our love and investment in people? The Bible calls us to hospitality, which it defines as the love of strangers — it’s a great thing to have good friends and family over to a meal, it is an even better thing to include people you don’t know so well. When I think of why meals were so important to Jesus and why they should be so important to us, a few things came to mind, things that shape...
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