Presby-Musings

When I was in my late teens and early twenties I was part of a subculture of mostly young men my own age who were referred to back then as a "metalheads."   We all listened to hard rock or "heavy metal" music almost exclusively.  We all attended the same heavy metal concerts and generally, all wore the same kinds of jeans, shoes and black concert t-shirts when we did.  We all thought we were such unique individuals.   You see, we lived under the illusion that we were special even though we did everything we could to fit into a group with which we longed to be associated.   Most of us live with these kinds of illusions every single day in a culture that is constantly creating them at a feverish pace.   And so, far too many of us become part of a desperate and mad scramble to fit in with our chosen tribes by any means necessary.   We do this, even if it means silencing our questions, blindly accepting the ...

Today we're going to be launching a brand new sermon series entitled Created For A Purpose: God's Great Plan For Your Life What does it mean to be "created for a purpose?"  In our culture, discovering your purpose is a billions dollar industry.  I did a quick search for the wealthiest self-help gurus in America today and there were at least a dozen who made $15 million or more a year---giving people advice on how to discover their purpose.  Here's a sample of the kind of advice that landed some of these gurus on that list:  Write down your values every six months.  Compare them to the ones you wrote down six months ago.  And... And... create a personal purpose statement.   Passion + Action = A Purposeful Life.   Get out of your personal bubble.  Stretch yourself.   If you want to be be successful.  Do successful things.   I am not making this up.  You can take your pick from a plethora of people who...

A little animated video showed up in my Facebook feed this morning, informing me that I have now been on Facebook for 10 years.  I first joined on June 20, 2007.  Ten years ago, I was not yet 40 years old, and had just stepped into the role of interim pastor of the church were I had been ordained as an associate.   Merideth and I were praying fervently about whether God was calling us to leave Florida or to stay.   My oldest son Jay was in seventh grade at the time, and his brother Jackson had just turned two. My youngest son Jacob was not yet a twinkle in anyone's eye.   A lot has happened in those ten years.  And as I look back on it all, I am overwhelmed by the unbelievably complicated, intricate way in which God has been at work in my life throughout the last decade.  It's dizzying to think of all of the winding paths I've taken, the circumstances that just fell into place, the too-perfect coincidences that have been a part of my journ...

Evangelist E. Stanley Jones once told the story of a traveler who asked for directions to a certain destination.  He got his response from the local man he asked: "If you go on the way you are headed, it will be about 25,000 miles. But if you turn around, it will be about three."   That story reminded me of pastor Andy Stanley's "Principle of the Path," which essentially states, "It's your direction, not your intention that determines your destination."  Regardless of your good intentions, if you are headed in the wrong direction you won't get to where you want to go.   The difficult bit sometimes is figuring out which is the right path.  There are times when it is clearer than others, to be sure.  When choosing between self-destructive behavior or life-giving habits--the right way is not that hard to figure out, even though we often choose poorly, and find ourselves in need of repentance.   But what about those moments when it's h...

This week we are continuing the sermon series that we've been working on together for the past few weeks--it's the third installment, to be precise, of a series on the book of Jonah.   I believe that the very heart of this book is about understanding and doing the will of God, which is not an easy task.  I asked this question last week, but it bears repeating.  How many of you here have struggled sometimes to understand to do the will of God?  Maybe you just struggled trying to figure out what God is up to... I feel you.   When we last left Jonah, he was being regurgitated on to the beach by a whale or a large fish.  And when I say regurgitated I mean regurgitated.   He was slimed. Covered in goop.  And all of this happened after he was told by God to go prophesy to the city of Nineveh to tell the people there to repent.  Instead of doing God's will, he got in a boat heading the other direction, and the boat is nearly sunk by a storm...

This week I am launching a brand new sermon series for the month of August, based on the book of Jonah.  In fact, we are going to be studying the book of Jonah chapter by chapter--which isn't a lot, to be honest.  There's only four chapters and I think there's only like 48 verses total.   But it's hard to find a story in the Bible that isn't as well known as the story of Jonah and the Whale, right?  When I was a kid, I was fascinated with this story.  If you have no idea what I am talking about--the story basically goes like this:   God tells this guy Jonah to go tell a city full of wicked people that unless they repent they are going to be destroyed. Jonah decides to run away and gets on a ship going as far away as he can get.  A storm ensues and threatens to destroy the boat.  Jonah has the guys in the boat throw him overboard and then he's swallowed by a big fish / a whale / a large sea creature...   I know.  It's sounds kind...