Presby-Musings

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you.

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine.

Today we're going to be offering up the challenging action item to Live Simply.

One of the most-watched shows on Netflix this month is the series "Tidying Up with Marie Kondo." Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and best-selling author, whose books have been translated into a dozen different languages and sold all over the world.

Kondo's method of organizing your house is to go room by room through your house, and then to put all your belongings through a test to see whether you really need them or not.  According …

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you. 

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine. 

Today the action item that we'll be exploring is one that might sound a bit odd at first, but we're going to unpack it thoroughly.  Here it is:  Step into the world.
When I was growing up in the church-y world of conservative evangelicalism, we were warned about the dangers of "becoming like the world."  

"The world" is a derogatory phrase that I still hear used today by many Christians when they describe the things about our culture they find offensive.  I recently heard a pastor bemoaning the state of "…

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you.  

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine.  

Today we're going to be addressing the kind of action item that seems simple on the surface but is actually a lot more complicated and messy than most of like to admit:  Be in community. 

Essentially, if we make the effort to be in community with others--to find a group of people to "do life with," to rely upon during tough times, to lift us up when we are flagging or failing--it will change us for the better.  

To begin, we will discover more about who we are, and who we are being called to be in community with others th…

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you. 

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine. 

Today we're going to offer up a challenging action item that can have a deep and lasting impact on your life if you choose to embrace it:  See differently.

Jesus once told his followers: 
22 The eye is the lamp of the body. You draw light into your body through your eyes, and light shines out to the world through your eyes. So if your eye is well and shows you what is true, then your whole body will be filled with light.What Jesus was inviting his followers to do was to learn to see the world differently.  Essentially he was telling …

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you.  

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine.  

The first step we're going to be exploring is one that might not make a lot of sense at the outset.  It's a bit of an oxymoron, to be honest.  But when you dig into it, you'll discover that there's life-changing truth embedded in it.  Here it is: 

Begin before you are ready. 

So many people spend their lives preparing for something that they never start because they don't want to start until they are "ready." 

I see this pretty often in my role as a pastor.  People will put off getting involved in a faith c…

Today we are going to continue our sermon series, "Home Wreckers: Guarding Your Family God's Way." 

The idea behind this sermon series is pretty simple:  Families in our culture are facing a number of issues--any one of which could completely wreck them. 

And Christian families are no different.  In fact, studies have shown that Christian families are struggling at as high or higher rates as non-Christian families when it comes to these issues--namely: Busyness, Lack of Communication, Financial Troubles and Lack of Spiritual Depth. 

So each week of this series we're going to tackle one of these home-wrecking issues as we learn how to guard our family God's way. 

Today we're going to be talking about talking. 

What I mean is, we're going to be tackling the issue of Communication, and more specifically how the right kind of communication can either make or break your family bonds.  Here's our big idea for today--the one thing I want you to remember if you fo…