Expeditions

Podcast of Sunday's Message

Click on the link below to listen to Pastor Chuck's message "To Pharisee or Not to Pharisee" from Sunday, January 29, 2012.

Jan 29 To Pharisee or Not To Pharisee

Absolutely Brilliant: Crazy Logic

I recently received the news that Alaska Airlines will discontinue the prayer cards that they have provided for a number of years. While Alaska Airlines has that right, I believe that the reason provided is bogus!  If something hurts your business to provide it, then say so and discontinue the service.  To say that a service is offensive to certain religions and discontinuing that service on that basis is like saying that the squeaky wheel religions get all the grease, but I digress....

I personally found it comforting that during potentially scary times (flying), there were prayer cards available.  I now find it disturbing that those who oppose prayer cards and have urged Alaska to remove them are the very ones who make flying scary!  I mean come on man, where does this crazy type of logic end?  I imagine that to some in prison those darn bars and guards are offensive.  It only seems reasonable that we should remove them....

"Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man" (Luke 6:22 NASB).  Does this encourage me?  No, not really, but at least I know that sometimes I’m doing the right thing.

I say to Alaska that you can do what you like, but I find this choice weak.  Go back to what once was.....Absolutely Brilliant!

Absoutely Brilliant: No Pain, No Gain

There are some things in this world that just don't make sense to me.  Besides the college football BCS ranking system, programming a universal remote, and my wife, there is the whole concept of faith.  It seems so simple, yet the more I learn - the more deep it appears to be.  Like so many things of God, for example the cosmos, at first they seem simple, but the longer - further - deeper you look, the more you see, but I digress....

Have you ever said or heard someone say "If only God would do this one small thing, I would know what to do or I would believe or I would...(insert condition for God here)".  It is a sad thing, but when we ask for God to send us a sign so we can believe, it is contrary to basic doctrine.  'For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?' (Romans 8:24 NASB). 

Basically it is only faith if you believe what you can't see.  If you see it, it's like you're cheatin! 

I hate to state the obvious, but faith is difficult to (fully) understand.  It is very much like a bicept muscle.  God gives you a little, and then by it testing it and exercising it, it grows.  Exercise hurts a bit, so be prepared, no pain - no gain!

A fully programmed universal remote......Absolutely Brilliant!

Podcast of Sunday's Message

Click on the link below to listen to Pastor Chuck's message "Hot Water & Lasers" from Sunday, January 22.

Jan 22 Hot Water & Lasers

Absolutely Brilliant: Not Puppies and Kittens

I heard a wonderful sermon awhile back that made me re-consider my thoughts on just what God is capable of.  This post is almost sure to make you think hard, hopefully to the point of an epiphany.  If it does, then that is great news and you can explain to me what epiphany means.

God does not cause evil.  I’m pretty sure we can all agree on that.  Well, maybe not all of us, but most Christians would say that God does not cause evil. 

Now we see things almost every day that we call evil and we know that God does not cause them.  First of all, we know these events are evil because we are experts on what evil is, and second we know that God is not involved with them because…we are experts on what evil is.  If someone dies, no way it is God because someone dying is evil.  If a house is destroyed by a hurricane, it can’t be God because a hurricane is evil and everyone knows…God does not cause evil.  If I lose my job, the survey says that is evil, God is not evil, so the bottom line is not God.

I have looked and looked through the Bible and I see events that ‘appear’ to not be puppies and kittens, yet at the same time they look like they come from God.  Is God evil?  If God is truly not evil, then it must be our perception of events that is wacked!

Here is my entire point.  In Hebrews 5:7, Christ prayed to God to not die and the verse says that God heard the prayer.  To let anyone die is evil, right?  Especially if you heard their prayer to not die!  Of course not, we can look back and with our 20/20 Christian hindsight, we know that this death was necessary.  OK then, what about the guy that died and that caused his family to be saved?

Anyway, the sermon I heard made me think and I believe that it was……..Absolutely Brilliant!

Podcast of Sunday's Message

Click on the link below to listen to Pastor Chuck's message on "Re-Imagining" from Sunday, January 15, 2012.

Jan 15 Re-Imagining

Podcast of Sunday's Message

Click on the link below to listen to Pastor Chuck's message "Re-Imagining" from Sunday, January 8, 2012.

 

Jan 8 Re-Imagining

 

Absolutely Brilliant: Flexibility

This time of year is so depressing; you know having failed all my New Year’s resolutions and all.  Sure it is only the first week of the year, but I have been a bit distracted and haven’t been able to really concentrate on my….never mind! 

I have decided that making unrealistic goals is no longer the way to go.  Set that bar down where I can see it and step over it without spilling a drop of my leftover eggnog or dropping any of my Christmas cookies is what I always say …. but I digress.

There is the passage from James that talks about making your own plans, but not really knowing or listening to what God has planned.  Let me tell you what I think it all means and you can take it or leave it.  It is all about knowing God, making plans, and being flexible, which was (by the way) another one of my goals.  I had to give that one up when I was stretching across the sofa to grab more cheese and crackers and pulled a muscle! 

I hate to just sit in a spot until God makes me move, but there has to be some sort of ‘middle ground’ where I am moving, but I’m not so focused on doing just one thing that I can’t change direction when God nudges me.

I don’t know about you, but writing this feels like I’ve put in about a year’s worth of……..
                                                                                                                                                        Absolutely Brilliant!

Podcast of Sunday's Message

Click on the link below to listen to Pastor Chuck's message from New Year's Day, 2012.

New Years 2012