First in the series, “Earn, Save, Give: Wesley’s Simple Rules for Money” I Kings 3:1-14 Wow, can you imagine God coming to you tonight and saying to you, “Ask for whatever you wish, and I’ll give it to you?” What would you ask for? Some would ask for wealth, no doubt, others for better health. …
John 15:12-17; Romans 8:9-21 We’ve come to the conclusion of our “Marks of a Methodist” series. So far, we’ve talked about the fact that a Methodist loves God, a Methodist rejoices in God, a Methodist gives thanks, and a Methodist prays constantly. These are all wonderful marks and foundational to who we are as the …
Romans 8:18-31; Luke 11:1-13 One of the interesting parts of getting up early on Sunday morning is listening to the radio in my truck on my way to church. Usually, I’m listening to classic rock or sports talk, but before 7:00 on Sunday morning every station that I listen to has a public service program …
I Thessalonians 5:18; Philippians 4:11-13; Luke 17:11-19 So far in this series we’ve looked at two of the marks of a Methodist that John Wesley laid out in his 1742 tract, The Character of a Methodist. The first mark is that a Methodist loves God—that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts …
James 1:2-8; Matthew 5:1-12 A few years back when I was serving another church, the Staff-Parish Relations Committee decided that I needed more “people skills” (hard to believe, I know) so they recommended that I go to a Dale Carnegie course. Some of you have taken this course—you know, “how to win friends and influence people.” …
Part I of the series “Marks of a Methodist” Deuteronomy 6:1-9; I John 4:7-20 What is a Methodist? That’s the first question that confronted me when I took my first ministry job as youth director at Faith United Methodist Church in Bellefonte, PA. I got the job, I think, largely because I was still and officer …
Jonah 3:1-10; Matthew 12:38-42 We have arrived at the third chapter of the Book of Jonah, and when we last left our dubious hero he had been barfed out on to the beach by the fish—this after his self-justifying prayer in chapter 2 and his flight from God’s presence and his mission in chapter 1. …
Jonah 1:17-2:10; Luke 18:9-14 So, let’s catch up on the story of Jonah. Last week we talked about Jonah as an advice tale for people in exile, living in a foreign culture and we learned that Jonah has a lot to say to us about how we Christians should live in a post-Christendom world. We …
Jonah 1:1-10; Matthew 28:16-20 A lot of people have asked what the Kaylors do on vacation. The answer is, not much. Some people go to exotic locales. We usually go to Pittsburgh. The upside of that, however, is that you do have a lot of time to read on the long flight and this year …
Ask most pastors which they’d rather do—a wedding or a funeral—and most will tell you they’d take the funeral every time. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I like to explain it terms of focus. At a funeral, everyone is focused on their own mortality, so their attentiveness to spiritual things is …
Lessons from the Jesus Trail, Part III Mark 3:31-35 The trail from Nazareth down to the Sea of Galilee winds downward through small villages and gentle valleys dotted with dairy farms and groves of olive and banana trees. We don’t know for sure what route Jesus took when he left his childhood home and went …
Part III of “From Nazareth to Capernaum: Lessons from the Jesus Trail” John 2:1-11 One of the things that you discover when you travel to Israel is that people in the Middle East like a good party. I’m not talking about the “whoo hoo” kind of par-tee that we tend glorify in films and beer …
From Nazareth to Capernaum: Lessons from the Jesus Trail (Part I) Scripture Readings: Isaiah 61; Luke 4:14-30 A couple of years ago, I came across an article in Backpacker magazine about The Jesus Trail, which was established 8 years ago by an Israeli couple, Maoz and Schlomit Inon along with an American named David Landis. …
Pentecost and the Future of the Methodist Movement Acts 2:1-21 There are weeks in the life of a preacher where a lot of things come together at once that seem like an intentional convergence that requires some comment. This was one of those weeks. Yesterday, for example, we had the convergence of three holidays—two that …
We began our last day of hiking with a marvelous breakfast at the Shavit family guest house featuring some of the cheese and fruit that they grow right there in the Moshav (a different sort of collective than a kibbutz). It was tasty and plentiful and fueled us up for what promised to be a …