The Blue Church

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.

⁸These are the names of David’s mighty warriors: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter. ⁹Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the Israelites retreated,

This week I had an occasion to dive deeply into the Word of God. I was blessed to spend days pouring over Second Corinthians and discovering some wonderful truths about God, the Apostle Paul, and human nature. Perhaps what struck me the most, though, was Paul’s love for God and His church. When addressing the church in Corinth he wrote, ”I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

“The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered” Proverbs 17:27

Boy, is that true!

“ A hot-tempered person must pay the penalty; rescue them, and you will have to do it again.” Proverbs 19:19