Rick Nier...Woo!

There’s no getting around spending time with God in order to know about God. This is a gut check moment on how much we really want to know God. (As opposed to just wanting a get-out-of-hell-free card.) It is by making and taking the time to be with God that we will begin to know Him. There is a voice in my life that I have learned to listen to with a bit of skepticism. It belongs to Greta, the name I gave my GPS. I named her so I would have someone’s name to yell when she gives me wrong directions. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences. On a youth trip several years back, I was attempting to lead our youth group to one of the leader's family in Kentucky. Either my GPS hates Kentucky and wanted out as quickly as possible. Or this family lived so far out of anything that satellites have not yet discovered this place. After several wrong directions, Greta’s screen finally just showed a question mark, giving up on ever finding our destination. But apparently we’re not the only ones...

In the opening of John’s gospel we see this (John 1:18): No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. This is an interesting verse, especially for anyone who has stayed awake long enough to read the Old Testament. What about when Jacob wrestled God? Did he not get a good look at His face? What about when God mooned Moses up on the mountain? (look it up, people, it says God showed Moses His back.) What about the visions of Isaiah or Ezekiel? I think, without us spending the next 2 hours thoroughly dissecting OT passages, we can begin to get what John is getting at. No one has ever seen God, not like this. No one has ever seen God, looking into His eyes and sensing His approval by the looks on His face. No one has ever seen God, to watch His every move, experience the power in His words, the love in His actions, the desire for food and water and company. No one has ever seen God, not like thi...

I'm still plugging away in my sermon series while my senior pastor is away. The next few days will offer snippets of this past Sunday.  It’s confession time. I’m a recovering American Idol fan. How many of you have ever watched the show, or still watch it? I know many people who have really gotten into the show, cheering and voting for their favorites to win it all. I once called in to vote, but that was a long time ago. But my favorite part was not the end, where all the great singers were. My favorite part was the beginning, when they would parade in the tone-deaf crowd for our amusement. You know, the people who couldn’t carry a tune if they had a bucket. I think most of us see God as one of the American Idol judges. No, not the current ones that are such a hot mess. The originals. Too many of us fear a Simon Cowell-like judge, the surly brit who was rarely kind. (That was absolutely horrible.) On the other hand, too often we treat God like He is going to respond to us lik...

A few weeks ago I shared bits and pieces of King David’s life in my sermon. If you missed it, it looked like this… No, David’s life looks more like this; get told you’ll be king while still a boy, slay a goliath, join the king’s court, have the king suspect you for treason and try to kill you, marry his daughter, have the king try to kill you again, eventually become king, have enemies try to kill you, experience victory over enemies, see a pretty girl taking a bath, murder her husband, get caught, lose 4 sons, one of whom was trying to kill you and take over, even causing you to run for your life… After the service, my kids came up to me and asked me the deal about David being a murderer. In case you need to be reminded, these are pastor’s kids. These are kids that have picked out their favorite spots to play in the church building because they are here so often. These are kids who don’t understand why others miss, since they are not given that option. They had never heard the story...

Current viral video plus upcoming holiday plus a good cause = Win. Here's how the creatives from Relevant Magazine report it. If you’re going to construct an intricate Halloween-themed, animated light display synchronized to Ylvis’ "The Fox", you might as well raise some money for a good cause while you’re at it. If you happen to be passing through Leesburg, Va., and want to check out the show for yourself (directions can be found  here ), all you need to do is tune your FM radio to a designated station and enjoy. The residence of The Fox house are also asking that visitors contribute $10 to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital via a text donation … http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/double-win-halloween-light-display-synchronized-%E2%80%98-fox%E2%80%99-and-raises-money-children%E2%80%99s-hospital

Peter. Ah, sweet, innocent, dumb Peter. We turn to Acts 10 to find him hungry and dreaming about food. Sounds reasonable, right? But this dream has a purpose and God shows Peter all sorts of animals that first century Jewish people would have said was unclean. God tells Peter to kill and eat, and in normal fashion for stupid people from the Bible, Peter tells God no and why he can't.  God tells Peter why he can. Check it out...  But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”   The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. ~Acts 10:15-16 This happens three times!  But the best part is found in the very next verse.  Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? ~Acts 10:17 What could the vision mean?!? Are you kidding me? What are you confused about Peter? I think it means that God doesn't want you to call anything unclean that He has made clean. I d...

If you're just getting to my blog this week, what have you been doing with your time? Working? I'll let it slide, but you can find part 1 and part 2 if you want to catch up.  The long view goes something like this; We want to be known. But does familiarity have its limits? Our knowledge of good and evil means, of course, that we have knowledge of evil. We’re very capable of anger, selfishness, lust. So, deep down, do we really want to be known for what we truly are, with our hidden flaws and our secret sins? Of course, the people who know our dark sides and flaws and STILL love us are the ones we’re most comfortable with.  While we come to know God a little bit at a  time—through His Spirit, His Word, circumstances—God has always fully known us,  and He still loves us. This is something we come to embrace more and more as we collect the scars from battling our knowledge of evil.    In all honesty, you might simply be asking “…and God still lik...