Mendham Hills

Jesus summed up all the Old Testament Laws and Prophets with two new commands: Love God and love others. One of His early followers, the Apostle Paul, went even further when he wrote, "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." For them, the command to love had nothing to do with a feeling. Jesus commanded an action, and then Jesus showed us how to love. This Sunday at Me...

Kickoff 2018 is here! Are you old enough to remember the classic and oft-repeated line that came over the public address system after every Elvis concert? That's right! "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building." Elvis stole that line. It was God's first. He used it a long time ago. Yet, we keep forgetting that God is not in a box - God has left the building. Try as we might, He just won'...

"Time rolls by the clock don't stop / I wish I had a few more drops of the good stuff, the good times / Oh, but they just keep on flying right on by like it ain't nothing / Wish I had me a pause button / Moments like those, Lord knows I'd hit it and give myself five more minutes." Found myself singing this song a lot this week as summer faded into fall and the kids went back to school. Time is goi...

This Sunday we wrap up our summer-long look at Jesus' directive to "pray this way." What if I told you the ending you know and love and sing of "The Lord's Prayer" isn't really the ending? Would it matter? Should it matter? The truth is Jesus actually ends His model prayer with a story about unlocking the power of prayer. Ever feel like you pray so much and see so little? The often-untold story of...

Life is complex. There are things that happen to us that can shatter our world. In the midst of our hurts and hurried lives, how can we stay focused and follow where Jesus leads? In our series on The Lord's Prayer, we reach a place where it is asked, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." So we are asking God to help us avoid some things, but where do we GO? The disciples followe...

As Blondie sings on their 1978 single, “One way, or another / I'm gonna find ya' / I'm gonna get ya', get ya', get ya'." What do you do when someone gets you? You get even. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. We sing about it and watch movies about it. We love the taste of revenge. But Jesus teaches something quite different - almost unthinkable. Find out why prayer is at the heart of one of Jesus'...

Growing up, many of the arguments between my siblings and I were ended with one of my parents yelling out, "Enough is enough already!" Turns out that was some of the best advice I was ever given. In fact, in His model prayer, Jesus encourages us to pray for simply that - enough. There are real dangers attached to believing in a world of scarcity and praying for more. What happens when we believe i...

If you have taken an international flight, you've seen the sign that says something like, "U.S. Border," and an immigration agent will ask to see your passport. If you're a citizen, they let you through with very little trouble. But if you are a foreigner, they might have a few questions about the nature of your visit. Airports are one of the places where the divisions between the various geograph...

How would you rate your sense of direction? When you're driving, do you always seem to know where to go? Or do you get lost going one town over? Remember the days of before GPS, when you would have to stop and ask for directions? Those were the worst. Now, thanks to my iPhone, I'm never lost. I might not know where I am, but with a few words ("Siri get directions for...") I'll be all set and back...

As Shakespeare's Juliet once posed, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And that might be true, but make no mistake about it, names matter. Some recent research suggests that names can influence choice of profession, where we live, who we marry, the grades we earn, the stocks we invest in, whether we’re accepted to a school or are hired for a parti...

At the beach this week with my five year old nephew, I noticed something he has said just about every day. When his older cousins were riding the waves, he would watch how they did it, how far they rode them, and then ask, "Can you teach me?" We were flying kites, making them dive towards the ground and soar back up, and again came the question, "Can you teach me?" He wanted to have the same fun a...

What impact am I making with my life? Am I making any difference in this world? What is my legacy? Legacy is not something we look at too often. But if we did, would it make a difference in the way we live our lives? Building our legacy means to live intentionally, seeking to make the most of every opportunity. This Sunday, we look at the life of Esther and take away some powerful and practical le...

As we conclude our series on Jesus's invitation to follow, we look at the power of godly leaders. Who is the leader of your pack...the one who sets the direction, pace, and destination? With a nod towards fathers, we examine the power of parents - specifically dads when it comes to the direction of future generations. In many ways, the direction Dad takes is the directions kids follow. If you foll...

One of the followers of Jesus, a disciple named Thomas, asked Him a pretty big question - one that anyone following someone would want to know. "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" It's a pretty common question, maybe humanity's most asked: "How do you get to heaven?" And when it comes to questions like this, they inevitably lead to more questions like, "Have I be...

Follow - Follow by Sunday Podcast

This Memorial Day weekend, we wrap up our Attitude Adjustment series with a look at what happens when our attitudes go unchecked and unchanged. Narcissism is the place where all bad attitudes eventually lead. Paul, an apostle of Jesus, told his "son in the faith," Timothy, "There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves." In a culture hyper-focused on ME, how do...

As the great philosopher Taylor Swift sang, "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." That's just what they do. Unfortunately, there is just a little bit of "hater" in all of us. We have a propensity towards critical spirits and judgmental attitudes. Why do we judge so quickly and harshly? We are commanded to have the attitude of Jesus and He has a pretty famous saying about judging. Does that...

This Mothers' Day Sunday, we take a pause from our attitude adjusting to focus on the women in our lives. Jesus, in His earthly ministry, championed the cause and value of women like no other. In fact, I would argue that in many ways, our culture is now just catching up. Yet, is it possible that in correcting one societal ill, we have created another? Jesus said, "Come ...all who labor and are hea...

Have you ever tried to use a fancy word and have it backfire? I have. It was pretty embarrassing. I thought I knew what it meant, but I was awkwardly and painfully wrong. In fact, I hurt someone's feelings and left some "carnage in my wake" all because I though I knew something I didn't. Turns out, the older I get, the more aware I am of my propensity to think I know things that I really don't, an...

Christianity remains the dominant religion in our country with about 75% of people polled identifying themselves as adherents. I would counter that there appears to be a more dominant faith amongst us. The religion of our day, which almost all of us seem to be following at one level or another, is cynicism. Cynicism is, in many ways, the complete opposite of faith or belief. It crushes hope and fu...

All of us, in one way or another, are in need of an attitude adjustment - but where do we begin? How about with the worst kind of attitude? The one attitude that all of us share, the one we hate in others but refuse to see in ourselves. There is no attitude that makes one more unpopular, and the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. It is, as C.S. Lewis wrote, "the chief cau...

Christmas mornings last a lot longer now that my kids are older. When they were young, it seemed like a month's worth of preparation was over in half a minute. They tore into the presents, barely looking at what they had unwrapped before casting it aside and picking up the next. No reflection, no appreciation, just pure consumption. It was like they felt entitled to all those things and when the l...

I really want to take control of my life. If I had my way, every step on the journey would fall exactly into proper place. Few of them do, though. The reason so many of us feel like our lives are out of control is...they are. Time has taught us a painful truth: there is very little in our lives we can actually command. What if there was one thing we could control that impacted everything we couldn...

One of the things I loved about being a dad was introducing my kids to new experiences - their first ball game, first amusement park, first ride on a plane. Of course, not every first was fun. There were also first shots, first stitches, first funerals. One common question they had that put every fear to rest and built up hope for what was coming was, "Dad, what will it be like?" Jesus proclaimed...

We've spent the winter looking at our Origins; it's time to look at our Destination. Where does our story end? What happens at my end? Our fear of death is supercharged by the fear of the unknown. What if it could be known? What if you knew what it will be already? Despite what you have been told, you are not getting wings, a harp, and going to an eternal church service in the sky. It is so, so mu...