The Blue Church

I know a woman who is up in years who loves to have people over to dinner. She is a widow who lives by herself, yet cares for her home beautifully. When people come over, she prepares a delicious meal and then refuses to let anybody clear the table or wash one dish. The whole time you are with her she makes you feel loved and attended to. She has been inviting people to such dinners for many years and her guests are always treated to stories that are always seasoned with grace and garnished with humility and a servitude.

Lisa and I are celebrating our thirty year anniversary this year. We don’t consider ourselves “experts in marriage”, but we do believe that by consistently doing certain things we have built a strong foundation. Perhaps you will be blessed by practicing them as well.

1. Stay connected – our schedule often takes us in different directions but we talk all throughout the day.  During these times we express our love for one another, listen to what is happening in our respective days,
   

This past weekend I was blessed to preach at my church again. I am always appreciative of the kind things people say to me after a sermon is completed. When they compliment me, I try to always respond by saying, “Praise God”. There are two main reasons why I respond this way. First, I am praising God that what was shared impacted them in a positive way. Since the sermons I share are filled with God’s word, and the comments I make are almost always about God’s Word, God indeed deserves the praise.

Hi everyone,

I am on vacation this week (“stay-cation”) but I still want to encourage you in your faith. So today I want to share with you an excerpt from a commentary on the book of Romans that I have been working my way through. The actual commentary is called, “Romans, verse by verse” by William R. Newell. I highly recommend it if you are looking to go deeper into Romans. Anyway, here is the excerpt. It is not very cheery in the beginning but stay with it, there is wonderful news at the end!

My Father-in-law has taught me many things through the years, but recently I really heard his words echoing in my mind. He once told me, “Rob, you never how a repair job is going to go. It always takes longer than you’re thinking because something always goes wrong that you’re not expecting.” Last week I was faced with the task of replacing a bathroom faucet. The job was known to me because I had completed it several times before in different bathrooms so I believed that I was in for a thirty to forty-five minute job.

To say there are a lot of opinions around the topic of U.S. immigration policy is an understatement. Some find the idea of sending refugees back to their homeland to face inhospitable conditions an approach that flies in the face of who we are as a country. Others say that we can’t just ley let “everyone” in, because that would cause tremendous problems for our nation. People vehemently argue the pros and cons of each side.

³² Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God^[a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

When I was thirty-two years old, I was working a job that I really enjoyed as a psychotherapist for a private agency in Northeast Philadelphia. At that time I was blessed to provide individual and family therapy as well as to work with teenagers in high schools all across Philadelphia, including some of the poorest and most crime-laden neighborhoods in the area. I loved my work and my co-workers and had no plans of leaving my job. Then….the call came….from one of my graduate school professors and he said, “Rob, I think I have an opportunity you might be interested in.

For many, Easter is their favorite celebration. For those who hold this view they cite the glory of Christ’s resurrection and the joy of “seeing” Jesus triumph over evil as the reason why they are so joyful.  At Easter, it is often easy for believers to feel that they are rejoicing in not only Christ’s incarnation, but His finished work on the cross.  They rejoice that God has indeed saved them from the wrath to come.