While studying today for the sermon on Sunday I thought of what has come to be known as the “Establishment Clause” in the Constitution. That term has been applied to the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights for the Constitution which reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” The connection for this and our present sermon series over the Kingdom of God is that as Kingdom Citizens, we are called to be Salt and Light in our world today. So how do we do that? We throw out salt and shine light by our actions and the way we treat others. But the reality is that we shine, or don’t shine with our words as well. Read the complete Post.
Yesterday’s service was exciting as we started the sermon series over the Kingdom of God. Actually, the whole morning was great and we need to give a huge thanks to our music team as they led us in corporate worship. I’m so thankful for our worship teams and really for our whole church family. For the sermon, we looked at an overview of the Kingdom of God and Heaven and yes I preached a bit longer than usual. But the topic of the Kingdom is just too enormous to quickly brush over. When we get a grip on this reality of God’s invisible kingdom being played out in our lives today, it just changes everything. So we will spend the next few weeks examining various aspects of this reality. Coming this next Sunday, we’ll look at the reality of the spiritual warfare that exists between the Kingdom of Light (God) and the Kingdom of Darkness. If you have any questions, thoughts, or comments about the subject or the sermon, feel free to leave them. If you were not able to attend the gathering yesterday, we have uploaded a copy of the message and you can check it out on the site. Have a great week and we’ll see you Sunday.
In the prologue to J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, it was the Lady Galadriel, Queen of the Elves, who said, “Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it . . . Victory was near, but the power of the ring could not be undone. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword. Sauron, the enemy of the free peoples of Middle-earth, was defeated. The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy all evil forever. But the hearts of men are easily corrupted, and the Ring of Power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur to his death. . . And some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost. History became legend, legend became myth, and for two and a half thousand years, the Ring passed out of all knowledge.” Read the complete Post.
Well this whole thing about Mike Huckabee and his position on Evolution and Creation took another turn the day after he finished first in the opening round of the Republican primaries. What began as just media sneering has now jumped to a “scientific” level on Friday as the Gilbert Omenn of the University of Michigan told reporters that “the logic that convinces us that evolution is a fact is the same logic we use to say smoking is hazardous to your health or we have serious energy policy issues because of global warming.” He went on to say that he “would worry that a president who didn’t believe in the evolution arguments wouldn’t believe in those other arguments either. This is a way of leading our country to ruin.” As I said a while back, I’m not into politics anymore, but Mr. Omenn and Mr. Huckabee do bring up a serious topic. Is the whole Evolution thing true or not and what are the ramifications? Read the complete Post.
Here we go again with a new year just a day away. My kids are growing, the church is growing and I’m getting older. Yes, I know there are some of you out there who laugh when I say I’m 38 as that’s nothing to you. There are others out there who can’t believe that I actually worked for $3.35 an hour for my first “official” job on a time clock. “Wow, that must have been back when they had black and white TV.” But it really is amazing how time flies and the seasons of life we move in and out of. Read the complete Post.
As the old song goes, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” That is especially true around the Hinton House. Last year my wife asked about our putting Outdoor Christmas lights up on the house. We’ve been married for close to 17 years now and we’ve never done that before. But I love my wife and up they went. This year the boys came to me asking when we could put the lights up. So last Saturday we did and it appears that a new tradition has been established in our family. Read the complete Post.
