FaithIsland

Do you know how I know someone really loves me? When I am sweaty and stinky and look like I haven't showered in a month and someone says, "give me a hug!" And I respond, "I stink!" And they say, "so what - give me a big hug anyway!" - that's when I know they love me. They don't love me only when I smell good or do the right things or act a certain way - they love me for who I am. We always picture...

The first time I remember hearing about postpartum depression was when a famous singer - someone who is my age and who I listened to when I was in high school - left her baby with the babysitter, got in her car and drove off with no real intention of ever coming back. Because she had a loving family and they didn't give up - she got the help she needed and worked through the depression. She noted...

And that is why we came back this morning. To be among people who understand what we’re going through - because they are going through it as well. We aren’t any different than the people who aren’t here to day - it’s just we might be a little more honest about it. We came to make sure Jesus was still here - that His defiant light of hope was still shining. We can go back to our families, our phone...

We aren’t Mary or Joseph - but we are cancer survivors, prodigal sons and daughters, the sick and the dying, the lost and the lonely, the anxious and the hurting, the wondering and the confused. We are imperfect - and yet unique and unreproducible at the same time. Your imperfect story - all the things that were in your control that you messed up - and all the things that were out of your control...

The angel tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife, name the baby "Jesus" and that's it. It's not a lot of information. There may have been more - but Matthew didn't write it down. One of my questions is: how is Joseph supposed to explain all this to his friends and family? And that may be the point - it's not up to us to explain God. The greatest explanation comes in us following and trusting Him -...

Curiosity is a curious thing. It killed the cat - but it also inspired the greatest inventions of our time. If you have ever seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie, you understand when he says: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." Likewise, quite often we discover the anticipation of something is far better than whatever we were anticipating. Why THIS Child? Babies get born ev...

There is still light and holiness and love and hope - but the darkness presses in and threatens to vanquish them. We hear John's Gospel every Christmas, " the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it ." God promised He is going to return - no more darkness, death, sin or pain. But we wonder if that's true. We light a candle each week - a little more light pushing back the...

If all those books and videos are right and my only choices are: my faith isn't good enough to win the lottery, cure my cancer and deserve an ice cream cone OR my faith is so poor God has to punish me even if I'm just a five year old kid in Kindergarten - then I'm with Martin Luther who said, "if I...had seen such dolts and blockheads teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog tha...

Only one leper runs back to Jesus. He completely violates Jesus' personal space - falling at Jesus' feet. Social, religious and even personal boundaries go out the window. And all Jesus can say is, "where are the other nine?" Jesus wasn't worried they hadn't been healed - He knows they were. And it wasn't like my grandma who used to call and say, "I mailed your birthday card yesterday - did you ge...

I know what you're thinking - if God is so great and so powerful - why isn't He fixing everything? Turns out - God is asking us the same question. He says, "I have given you everything you need - everything - so why aren't you using it fix the world?" How should we answer Him? To an anxious people wondering not just about the future - but even whether the world will survive today - Isaiah starts o...

On occasion, when I am meeting with the family of someone who died, they ask the unanswerable: "are they are in heaven?" The problem with the question is - I'm not God. I do not know the secret things or their last thoughts or if they just pretended to believe or if they were the "very model of a modern major believer." God has not let me look at the names in the Book of Life. All I have is what I...

When someone says that all religions are the same and lead to the same place - that is like saying all drinks taste the same because they are all water based. To believe anyone can believe anything and wind up in the same place is illogical and dangerous. It does matter what you believe and why you believe it - not just because Jesus says, " no one comes to the Father except through Me " in John 1...

Frederick Buechner said, “their sainthood (and ours) consists less of what they have done than what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that St Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that St Augustine prayed, "Give me chastity and self-control, but not now," that St Francis started out a high-living rebel in downtown Assisi, and St Simeon Stylites spent year...

The time to read God's Word - to let it dwell in your heart and soul and marinate - is not when the lightning is flashing and thunder is booming and the world is coming apart. The time to read God's Word is when all is well - or at least a few things are well with the world and we have five minutes every other day or so to spend with God. Then, when the lightning flashes and thunder booms and worl...

To sentimentalize something is to cling to how we feel about something or someone instead of holding to the truth. The greatest challenge is accepting that WE are the problem. We may try to point to a particular person or group or church or belief system and how they need correcting - but the truth is none of us are perfect and we all need correcting. That is why Jesus left heaven, get born in a s...

We carry around the darkness and sin and pain of this world like a snail carries his shell. We know it's there - but we don't have to look it. We feel the weight of the shell but can still pretend it isn't there. We occasionally try to slide underneath something and discover we don't fit because our shell is too big - but even then we just look for another way in rather than deal with the reality...

It takes faith to trust in this Book and I know that doesn't always come easy. Just a reminder - this book doesn't save you - no book on earth or in the heavens can do that. What saves you is Jesus and only Jesus. This book just opens up your heart and soul to the amazing story of God's love for you. When you get to heaven you won't need a Bible any more - because as St. John said in his Gospel, "...

Can you see what Jesus is sharing with us? If we want to build a perfect kingdom on earth - and put a big gate around it to keep all the bad people out - God will let us. But it may be all we get. Lazarus didn't have to be poor or homeless or dying - he could have been me or you waiting at the bus stop outside the gate on our way to work or driving past the gates taking our kids to school. It isn'...

One of my favorite Eugene Peterson quotes is, "when Jesus told parables the people all stood around listening and applauding and when He was done they shouted, 'great sermon - loved it - really spoke to my heart.' The truth was they weren't really listening and had no idea what He was saying - until later that night when they were sitting around relaxing and suddenly - like a time bomb - the truth...

That's where I had my aha moment. The reason the value of the sheep is more than $2.15 a pound is because the value is not decided by the sheep or even decided by the market. The value is determined by the shepherd. The shepherd said I will come and find you. You - even though you are a lost sheep - are important enough to me that I will do whatever it takes to bring you back.

The words of Frederick Buechner from his book, A Room Called Remember. "The words 'You shall love the Lord your God" become in the end, less a command than a promise. And the promise is that, yes, on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, we will come to love him at last as from the first God has loved us - loved us even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, because he h...

When you get to heaven - and Jesus says there will be an amazing banquet waiting for you - everyone will know everything about you. No secrets. No hidden agendas. And the person sitting next to you might be Jon Bon Jovi - or it might be the homeless man you see on the way home who is picking through the rubbish can looking for something to eat. It might even be that kid with the bloated stomach on...

One of the biggest questions we will ever wrestle with is: can we be absolutely, unfailingly certain we are going to heaven when we die. Working through that is one of the fundamental questions in life of a Christian - but even not-believers ask, "what happens when I die?"

When Jesus says, " Do you think I came to bring peace ?" Our immediate reaction is, "yes - Jesus - Isaiah said you are the Prince of Peace - so we assumed you came to bring peace!" Jesus continues, " I have brought division ." And that stops us cold. When He continues, " families are going to be divided over Me " - and gets very specific - we are lost and confused and hurt all at the same time. Wh...

This whole Gospel is about Jesus’ giving us a glimpse into the heart of God. And when I say heart - I'm not talking about the blood pumping organ - I'm talking about the very core of God's being. When St. John said, " God is love" - he wasn't trying to create a branding logo for God's Instagram or TikTok - he was stating a facet of who God is at His core. Far too many people complain they don't kn...