Why are we here? Sunday Sermon

“In Christ” Sunday Sermon

Psalm 24 The Message (MSG)

A David Psalm 24
1-2
God claims Earth and everything in it, God claims World and all who live on it. He built it on Ocean foundations, laid it out on River girders.

3-4
Who can climb Mount God?  Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed, only the pure-hearted; Men who won’t cheat, women who won’t seduce.

5-6
God is at their side; with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens to God-seekers, God-questers.

7
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.

8
Who is this King-Glory?
God, armed and battle-ready.

9
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.

10
Who is this King-Glory?
God-of-the-Angel-Armies: he is King-Glory.

Ephesians 1:1-14 (the Message)

1 1-2  I, Paul, am under God’s plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.

The God of Glory

3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

Prayer: Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, hear our prayer this morning.  Grant us hearts that understand, that literally behold the glorious life you have given us, the abundant freedom you have gifted us, so that we might know who we truly are.  With honor, glory and praise we ask, Amen.

Corthians 4: 13-5:3

Sunday June 7, 2015

REV-IT-UP on WDIY’s LV Discourse

I recently had the good fortune to discuss my book REV-IT-UP with John Pearce for his radio show LV Discourse on WDIY. We talked about my experience in truck-stop ministry, exploring the ins and outs of the trucking industry as well as the intriguing personal lives of the individuals I meet on a daily basis. It was a great time.

Hope you have some time to enjoy this podcast of that show. It’s available on their website here→

Photograph © marvinjvds, used in agreement with CC BY-ND 2.0.
View more works on his Flickr page→

Luke 24:13-49

This is one of my favorite passages in Luke.

The Walk to Emmaus

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,
16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.
18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.
22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,
23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”
27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.
29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.
32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”
35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread

April 18 Sermon

Sunday Sermon

Trucking Moves America Forward

I heard once, a young child was asked by their teacher where does bacon come from and they responded, “the super market.” Well we all know the answer the teacher was hoping to hear but I think we all forget the journey from farm to market isn’t possible without America’s truck drivers.

Truckers Move America Forward

I encourage you to visit Trucking Moves America Forward; a really great website.

The mission of Trucking Moves America Forward is to establish a long-term industry-wide movement to create a positive image for the industry, to ensure that policymakers and the public understand the importance of the trucking industry to the nation’s economy, and to build the political and grassroots support necessary to strengthen and grow the industry in the future.

Field Notes

Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go.
I Corinthians 16:6

 Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
Maya Angelou

The following is an excerpt from REV-IT-UP.

I am a truck stop chaplain at the bend in the river, at the gap between mountains, not far from a major city. The truck stop is a way station for cross country drivers and for travelers seeking brief respite. It is a refuge, a place to refuel, a place to recharge.

Hot meals are ordered up, big rigs repaired, clothes laundered, and small necessities–milk, Pepto-Bismol, audio books, DVD’s, even gifts–whatever is needed for the long haul, are sold in the convenience store. Weary drivers can shower, plunk down into theater seats to escape into a wide-screen television, or kill imaginary villains in the arcade. Almost everything drivers do, they do alone, not so much in solitude, as much as in solitary confinement.