Sunday, December 17: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 13:1–25 If you have never read The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis you really should get around to it. It’s an imaginary story centered on a group of children who encounter Christ – except in the fictional world of Narnia, Jesus is represented by a huge lion, named Aslan.In […]
Sunday, December 10: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 12:18–29 As we enter Advent, we tune our hearts toward expectation. We celebrate Jesus’ first coming because it reminds us that He is coming again. Jesus’ incarnation was a rescue operation: He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into his kingdom. We remember that […]
Sunday, December 3: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 12:3–17 A few years back I ran a marathon. Okay, it was a long time ago. Even though I was considerably younger it was still excruciating. It felt like running from Tacoma to the top of Mt. Rainier and back – barefoot. Your muscles ache, your lungs burn, […]
Sunday, November 26: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 11:32–12:2 “You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at stars you will find darkness is required.” Annie Dillard God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Is that true? The first part is, of course. God […]
Sunday, November 19: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 11:23–31 In Matthew 13, Jesus tells this story about a guy considering a piece of property. He goes out to inspect the land and decide whether or not it’s worth the asking price. While he’s poking around in the dirt, he notices something shiny. Curious, he digs around […]
Sunday, November 12: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 11:8–22 In Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about a guy who had two sons. One day, the younger son came up to him and said, “Dad, give me my inheritance.” Though undoubtedly hurt by the request, the father grants it. The text says, “Not many days later, […]
Sunday, November 5: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 11:4–7 In Hebrews 11, the writer introduces us to a long list of people who lived “by faith.” At the same time, these same people, were considered weird, if not crazy, by the world around them.Noah’s neighbors no doubt believed he was certifiable when he began building a […]
Sunday, October 29: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 11:1–3 There are a lot of ideas floating around about what faith is. Some are metaphorical: “Faith is the heart of the soul.” (Anonymous) Some are theological: “Faith is to believe, on the Word of God, what we do not see and its reward is to see and enjoy what […]
In Luke 12:35-46, Jesus tells this story about a guy who goes off to a wedding and leaves some servants in charge of his house. Jesus said that foolish servants would take advantage of their master’s extended vacation and think, “party time!” After all, if the master returned to a scene from Animal House, things […]
Sunday, October 15: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 10:19–25 In 2 Samuel 6, David is transporting the ark of the covenant from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem on an oxen-drawn cart. When one of the oxen stumbles along the way, a guy named Uzzah reaches his hand out to touch the ark, and God strikes him down for […]
Sunday, October 8: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 9:15–10:18 A question is sometimes raised about the Bible, at least in the last few decades, if not before: What is the deal with all the blood? Have you ever wondered about that?Judaism has been called a “slaughter house religion.” Christianity has been ridiculed as the “Gospel of […]
Sunday, October 1: Champs & Misfits Hebrews 9:1–14 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) The Bible teaches that there is an inner place in every human life […]
Sunday, June 25: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 8:1–13 This week we conclude our Sacred Spaces series by looking at Hebrews 8:1–13. Starting next week, we are launching into a summer series on Christology (what we believe about Jesus) called “Who Is This Man?” I am looking forward to spending the summer talking about Jesus!Before we launch […]
Sunday, June 11: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 7:1–28 “The gulf between God and us is still wider than we have so far considered. It is the chasm that yawns between us as rebellious creatures and God our righteous judge. It is not only that we lack the mental equipment to conceive him, but we lack the […]
Sunday, June 4: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 5:11–6:20 In Numbers 13–14, the Israelites come to the cusp of the Promised Land and send spies to check it out before they move in. While the spies return all agreeing that it is an amazing land flowing with milk and honey, ten of them consider the inhabitants too […]
Sunday, May 28: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 5:1–10 In one of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis, there’s a little girl named Aravis who has a slave girl. She treats her terribly. Aslan, the Christ figure in the Chronicle series, comes to Aravis and scratches her. She asks why he […]
Sunday, May 21: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 4:14–16 I am back from Bolivia and excited to teach again this week! We had an amazing time with Food for the Hungry and the people of Ushpa Ushpa. It was inspiring to see God work. If you see someone from the team, be sure to ask them about […]
Sunday, May 7: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 4:1–13 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. We live in a world that works really hard to wear us down. Perhaps you have noticed. Life, in our fallen […]
Sunday, April 30: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 3:1–19 Have you ever thought about walking away from your faith in Christ?The first readers of Hebrews thought about it. Living in, or near, Rome they were beginning to feel the pinch of religious oppression. We learn in the letter that no one in the church had yet died […]
Sunday, April 23: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 2:10–18 We’re in the fourth week of our “Sacred Spaces” series about the high priestly ministry of Jesus out of the book of Hebrews. In Jesus, we see a high priest who is able to fully understand us because he chose to become exactly like us. Our verses this week […]
Sunday, April 9: Bolivia Update We have spent the last few weeks in the Book of Hebrews in a series we have called Sacred Spaces. In it, we have been talking about ways to encounter God in the everyday. Encountering God means living the way that Jesus lived—with eyes open to the hurts of the […]
Sunday, April 2: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 2:5–9 We are in the third week of a series called “Sacred Spaces,” about the high priestly ministry of Jesus as described in the Book of Hebrews. When we speak of “sacred spaces,” we mean the places where we encounter God—the places where heaven and earth seem to overlap. […]
Sunday, March 26: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 2:1–4 I heard some funny lines on the radio awhile back. There was a long list, but I was in the car so couldn’t write them all down. By the time I stopped I could only remember three: If at first you don’t succeed; skydiving is not for you. […]
Sunday, March 19: Sacred Spaces Hebrews 1:1–14 Hebrews has a message for the people of God who live in a world that refuses to acknowledge God: God has spoken. Gareth Cockerill The Epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who found themselves hanging on to hope by their fingernails. Nero, the cruel despot […]