Blaise Pascal was quite the human being. Born in 1623, Pascal’s mother died when he was 3, and his father moved the family from Clermont-Ferrand, France, to Paris, where he homeschooled Blaise and his sister. By age 10, Pascal was doing original experiments in mathematics and physical science. To help his father, who was a…
I am extremely grateful for all the kindness shown to me and my family last Sunday. If you were not at Bethel on May 6th, let me fill you in. It was my birthday and we had a party at church. Not only that but we also celebrated the 20thanniversary of my ordination. The…
Sometimes we keep the sin in our lives well protected, guarded, covered over with lies. Sometimes we are not free enough to own our sin, so we cannot be healed of it. An unacknowledged wound cannot be healed.—MACRINA WIEDERKEHR, Seasons of Your Heart Sin always wounds the sinner.—CARYLL HOUSELANDER, The Reed of God Is sin a big…
April 22ndwas Earth Day. I didn’t have the chance to talk about it on Sunday because we are right in the middle of a sermon series on our core values. (These sermons are available on this website.) Although Earth Day is not on the church calendar, it is an important day because it reminds us…
As most of you know, the evangelist and pastor Billy Graham died earlier this year. Some saw him as a saint and others saw him as a sinner. As a Lutheran, I see him as both saint and sinner. He was a child of God and he had the same struggles with sin and being…
Let us go back in time. All the way back to 900BC. Life was different back then… very different. At that moment in Israel’s history, they had a king you probably never heard of. His name was King Asa. Over the course of 400 years Israel had both good kings and bad kings. King Asa…
Here we are. It is near the end of Holy Week. It is arguably the most important week in Christian history. For many the final days of Jesus’ life has no meaning. For some Christians this week has very little impact in their daily lives. All people are looking for freedom and empowerment but most…
We are about to enter Holy Week. The setting for the entire week is Jerusalem and Bethany. There is so much going on that we can’t possibly cover it all in worship. However, I wanted to give you an overview of the most important week in Christianity. Here is a possible timeline of the events…
If you were to ask Jesus about the relationship with his family at the beginning of his ministry he might have said, “It is complicated.” When Jesus began his ministry it wasn’t clear what his family thought of his career choice. Jesus’ step-father (Joseph) was either a carpenter or a stone worker depending upon the…
Once a year I participate in something called a Chrism Mass. It is a worship service that blesses and consecrates oil for anointing. We use anointing oil for baptisms but it can be used for other purposes as well. I did not go to this worship service for the oil. I went because it is…
