Transformed Nonconformists
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give . . . . I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. (Matthew 10: 5-8;16) Every follower of Jesus is called to justice. Christians are called by God to be people who are not ok...
Read MoreCalled To Justice
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40) This past Sunday we entered into our series Called to Justice. For this weeks next step I want us to just wrestle with a piece of scripture. Read it several times. Sit with it. If should bother you a little bit — if it does not, then read it again. As you read it ask “what are the implications for me and for Creekside in the words of Jesus?” Try to be specific. Write something down and share it with me or someone else. Go to the Creekside Blog and...
Read MoreKingdom Stories
All of history finds its setting in the story of God, with its beginning in the mystery of the mind of the Author, God, and its end in eternity in his plans and purposes. In the midst of this ongoing story you enter the stage, a unique actor, collaborating with God in the writing of your part of the story. Eugene Peterson puts it this way: “Every day we wake up in the middle of something that is already going on and has been going on for a long time, genealogy and geology, history and culture, the cosmos — God. We are neither accidental nor incidental to the story.” Our shared stories are...
Read MoreOnce Upon A Time
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . and she wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (John 1:1-2; Luke 2:7) When we read the story of the...
Read MoreRigorous and Charitable
The Bible is not written to you, but it is for you, and about you. Klyne Snodgrass, a professor of mine at North Park Theological Seminary probably said that to me (and every other student at NPTS) a hundred times. Klyne is one of the hardest working people I’ve met, and one of the hardest professors: he demands a lot from his students, any student of Klyne’s will tell you that taking a class of his means that you are in for a lot of late nights, thick books, and careful hard work. He’s not power hungry, or sadistic, he wasn’t trying to torture us lowly brained Seminarians to see which of us...
Read MoreRigorously Dwelling in the Story of A Baby Messiah
Fall on your knees. Oh hear the angel voices, Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born, Oh night divine, Oh night divine We come to the second week of Advent dwelling in the story of the coming Messiah, the King of Kings, God saves, come in the form of a little baby on a night divine. As I mentioned last week, during Advent we are focusing on how we as the people of God are called to be a people of the word, called to Scripture. We enter into the story of Christmas from the pages of the Bible with the aid of the Evangelical Covenant Church’s teaching on how we are to read...
Read MoreReading The Christmas Story A New
O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel; That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee o Israel! Advent is the expectant waiting for the coming of the Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us. This year, Creekside’s four week Advent journey flows within our year long journey of leaning into what it looks like for us to live a life worthy of calling we have received as followers of Jesus. During Advent we are focusing on how we as Christians are called to be a people of the word, called to Scripture. We enter into the story...
Read MoreA Song of Gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving Week! This week’s Next Step is a bit different – a song, a reminder of the basis for gratitude and thanksgiving. Our culture tells us to gauge our happiness not by what we have but by what someone else has. But a life of comparison is a life without joy, a life without thanksgiving. http://ecreekside.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Gratitude-Nichole-Nordeman.mp4 Peace, hope and love...
Read MorePraying When Life Does Not Make Sense
Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7) Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. (Psalms 55:17) My mom passed in August and our family made the unexpected trip to SoCal for the memorial and to spend a few days with family. The day after the service, we went with my dad to church. The sermon was on Jacob wrestling with God and was entitled, “Struggle: When life makes no sense.” Pastor Rick Warren, whose son had committed suicide earlier in the year, spoke from a place of personal experience with life not making sense. As I...
Read MoreA Plan & A Prayer for Peace, Love and Happiness
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9–13) The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ answer to the question asked by every person in every culture: What is the good life? Who are the blessed? What is the pathway to happiness? Jesus burst onto the scene, was baptized, proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was available to everybody — right here, right now, and...
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