I Have ALREADY moved

Not to be unstable or anything, but my blog has now moved...Randy, you were right...it didn't take long to see the limitations here.  My new address is

http://dan-grpc.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there.  I have continued what I started here!

Journey To Jesus

            One of a pastor’s main concerns is really rather simple.  He is always asking himself, “What am I going to preach on next Sunday?”  And this might seem like a simple question, but it carries a lot of weight.  What does God want to say through His Word to His people that are gathered on this particular Sunday?  And the humbling part is this—how can God possibly use me to communicate His Word?  

            We are getting ready to enter into the “Christmas Season”.  The malls entered into it sometime around Halloween.  However, traditionally, the Church always begins to celebrate sometime after Thanksgiving.  And now here we are once again.  In some ways it is pretty simple to answer that pastoral question of what that congregation needs to hear at this time of year.  

            In a society full of commercialism (just check out the Charlie Brown Christmas from 1965 to see how far we really have come…was Charlie Brown a prophet?), it is hard to work through the artificial trees, Playstation Three’s and church going wannabees to really get to the meat of the advent of Jesus Christ.  That is why I feel the Lord is directing me to take this “Journey to Jesus” and to gather however many people I can to take this journey with me.

The Journey to Jesus is a sermon series I am delivering at GRPC over the next five weeks.  We are starting in Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac) as we take a look at "The Lamb of God", we will move on to Isaiah 53, the prophets words about the Suffering Servant, then on to the words of the Angel of the Lord to Mary in Luke 1, on Christmas Eve we will look at John 1 which really is the true story of Christmas in just a few simple words (THE WORD BECAME FLESH!) and finally we will take a look at why Jesus is the Son of God.  Of course this is just a very brief outline.  Hopefully, I will have some time to post my thoughts as I develop the sermons over the next few weeks. 

Hope all is well!  Grace and Peace.

Romans 6: Sanctified or not?

I have recently been preaching a series on Romans 5 called "Standing in Grace: The Blessings of Justification".  When I was finished preaching the series, I decided to just move on to Romans 6 and begin a series.  WOW!  Last week (the week that I began the series) was frustrating in many ways.  There is so much to preach from in Romans 6!  Which direction would I take?  I imagine that Paul wrote his letters the way he would have spoken.  I love how he begins a thought and then just takes off on an exposition of his point before he even finishes a thought.  But that also makes a preacher's life difficult when the preacher wants to make the meaning of the passage the message of the sermon--ya know, the whole idea of preaching what God's Word actually says.  But I digress..

I was particularly frustrated on Saturday night as my wife and I were out to dinner to celebrate my 31st birthday.  I didn't know where the sermon was headed.  As I was talking with her she encouraged me to just take 1 or 2 verses and unpack them.  That would surely be enough!  And SO, that's what I did.  Romans 1:1-4, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin how can we live in it any longer?  Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were also baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."   

A Quick Intro

Well Guys,

I have heard so much about all of this weblogging that I had to sign up myself!  Thanks Michael and Randy...another addictive hobby to get involved with...oh yeah!  Usually, today, I would be studying and preparing for a sermon on Sunday at the 9:15 service.  But I received a call from a fellow pastor in the area who offered us a visit from Isaac Shaw, a church planter and native missionary in Northern India.  I heard Isaac speak at another church a few months ago and was truly blessed by him.  So blessed that I used part of what he said in a sermon that I had to deliver the following weekend on short notice.  So for now, I am able to just focus, at least for a week anyway, on my ordination trials as I continue to have a date with Louis Berkhof.  Looking forward to talking some Scripture in the future!