venice church

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Just Do It


Here is the follow up that I promised from Sunday’s message. To be blessed by God we must be in His Word, the Bible. I rattled off that list of things to look for when we read and study the Bible.

Here it is…
When we look into God’s Word we should look for sin to confess, promises to claim, attitudes to change, commands to obey, examples to follow, prayers to pray, errors to avoid, truth to believe, and something that is worthy of praise.

James is teaching us that maturity is not measured by knowledge, but rather by character. God’s Word is to be obeyed. This Sunday we continue and we make it to chapter two. James has some interesting things to say about how we treat people. I look forward to seeing you then.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

History Made


History was made yesterday. It was inevitable.
We were either going to have our first female presidential candidate or our first African-American presidential candidate. All political views and or biases aside, this is a time that all of us should be proud of. I am proud to have a man of color rise to this esteemed occupation. When so much about America is ridiculed and lambasted it is good to know that we are making progress.

Here is how we will know when we have really arrived. When we no longer find it necessary to mention a man or a woman’s ethnicity in the conversation we will be on the way. It will be a day of days when they are simply known as Americans and when we only refer to them as the Senator from New York and the Senator from Illinois.

I really dread the next 150 days. For the next 150 days we will tear at one another and name call and divide all in the name of democracy and liberty. While I can appreciate the democratic process I do not appreciate the politics. At the end of the day, my prayer is that as Americans we will be united in our desire to be great. Not great in the bully or police of the world sense, but great in our humanity and great in our morals and great in our love. Most of all I pray that we will be a people that will turn or return to Almighty God. What we need more than anything is the blessings of God on our country.

Celebrate this historic day. Participate in the process. Pray that God will be glorified in these United States of America.