A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Newsletter (Page 5)
Pens. Books. That 20 dollar bill. Even that favorite college sweatshirt that I lent to that girl I was dating. It’s hard not to let the resentment settle in. I lent this to you. I didn’t give it as a gift. I feel like I was pretty clear. But it’s still gone. Not to be…
It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! This week we start off reading two chapters of the Gospels every week! The Gospels are a combined 89 chapters, and so we’re looking at about 45 weeks of reading the Gospels together. This should bring us right up to the end of this annual focus year on…
Whenever I go to a Florida Georgia District event, there’s a good chance that whatever meeting or speaking event I’m a part of, that there will be a morning interruption at 10:02am. At 10:02am, it is very likely that an alarm that plays the NFL Monday Night fanfare will go off. The offending phone belongs…
I remember growing up and having my mother tell me that writing thank you notes is an important thing to do. I have not done a great job of writing them in the past few years. While I have been very thankful for the many generous gifts I have received, sometimes it seems hard to…
There’s a Chinese story about a woman who comes to a doctor with an odd request, she wants him to give her some poison to kill her mother in law. The doctor refuses, but the woman persists. Finally the doctor leaves and goes to a back room, coming back out with some herbs in a…
In Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” there is a character named Shylock who lends money to a deadbeat named Bassanio. Bassanio also agrees to name his friend, Antonio, as a guarantor for the loan on Shylock’s advice. Shylock gives this advice because Antonio has wronged him, and he wants revenge. When the debt comes due,…
This past Sunday after worship, we debuted a new thing at University Lutheran. As a part of our “A Jesus Centered Community” annual focus we’re asking people to join us on a weekly “Red Letter Challenge”. This is based on the book and work of LCMS pastor, Rev. Zach Zehnder who encourages us to think…
My two eldest girls have this thing at their school that is called “All Pro Dads,” that they finally convinced me to attend. The program actually seems to be a great thing. Myself and a bunch of other dads of kids in the school sat at the cafeteria tables and talked through some good virtue based…
As we round out the end of our “True Presence” annual focus, we can start to look at what is coming with the new annual focus year. Our annual focus for the 2023-24 Church year that will start on December 3rd is going to be “A Jesus Centered Community”. That phrase hopefully sounds familiar. It…
Our annual focus year for “True Presence” is coming to a close. As we look back on the past year, there has been an attempt to show that God is truly present with us, and also that we, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirt, are the presence of God for so many of our…