Shepherd's Garage

Joshua gets to meet the commander of the Lord's army and then hear a word from the Lord.  Lots to talk about here but the main point for today:  Quit trying to get God on your side and make sure you are on God's side.

Ecclesiastes 7:9-13 continues the discussion about how to have a good name.  Two things are emphasized:  Control your anger and do not live in the past.

When is someone ready to be baptized?  Important question, let's explore.

Everyone has questions they want answers to and should try to get answered.  Why and I here and what should I be doing.  The Bible has answers to these questions and others.

In Joshua chapter 1 Joshua is taking over from Moses as the leader of the Israelites.  God gives him some instructions to be a great leader.  However, the advice God gives to him is not what you would hear in leadership seminars today in this world.  It's pretty basic.  Be holy and obedient.  Let's see why this makes all the difference.

Joshua chapter one describes the land that the Israelites will one day occupy.  Yet, to my knowledge, they never occupied all this territory.  Why?  Was it a failure on the part of God or the people or something else?  Let's explore.

Correction.  It's hard to give and hard to take but so essential to all aspects of our life, especially spriritually.

Luke 15:  The Lost Sheep, Lost Coin and Lost Son.  Tough being lost and tough being the one who lost something important.  What can we do about it.  This is not just stories about lost but asking us what we will do about the lost.

How is the day of death better than the day of birth?  Sound counter intuitive.  Very interesting passage from Ecclesiastes 7:1-8. Let's tak a look at what it means to have a good name.

For the Christmas story let's consider Joseph.  He was a righteous man and that made all the difference.

Why do we sing?  We sing for lots of reasons and singing is vital to our worship.  Let's explore why.

 started a short series about thanksgiving:   Being thankful for things we usually do not think about being thankful for.  November 9 was was this:  Be thankful that Jesus can redeem our suffering.  November 16 learned to be thankful that Jesus redeems our mistakes.  Today we talk about being thankful that Jesus teaches us about our diet.  We are what we eat and each week we have the honor of join...

This morning I want us to reflect on being thankful that God works in our failures.  With God, our failures do not have to be the final word on our lives.  God can redeem our suffering and he can redeem our failures as well.

November in my mind gets to thinking about Thanksgiving.  As I get older I find Thanksgiving to be a favorite holiday.  The theme of Thanksgiving is very Biblical so it is always appropriate to focus on it.  When we usually ask what someone is thankful for we get the usual and appropriate, answers like family, health etc.  I want us to focus on some other things we may not usually think of first. ...

The phrase Jesus uses about passing from death to life by believing is interesting.  We still will die but we have moved from death to life?  With other things in John, there is a deeper meaning than the surface one.  Could be that we now have eternal life and that is what is meant.  Could also be that we move from a dead way of living to a way of living that is fully alive.  Eternal life starts n...

It is good to be strong and to persist in something.  I admore who people who are persistent.  However, there is also a great strength in learning when to let go of something.  If it is something you need to let go of it's really going to hurt when god finally rips it from your hand.

Fear and faith with start with an “F” but with faith we should not fear.  That slogan sounds good but fear is with us all the time.  Maybe it is not so much about ever getting rid of fear as it is realizing that if your faith is in what is stronger than your fear then you should overcome your fear.  Maybe think not so much in terms of feelings, but action.  If we make fear about how we feel, then...

It seems like all can agree that the world is a mess.  We are like the prodigal son who told his father to give him what he has coming and he will do things his own way.  Didn't work out well for the prodigal and it's not working out well for us either.  It's time to come to our senses and return to the father.

The question has come to me about charging interest.  Is it right or not.  Let's take a look.

The question was brought to me about why we meet on Sunday and what about churches that meet on Saturday evening.  Is that all right.  Take a listen.

Why is contentment so hard?  Ecclesiastes chaper 6 has some insight as to why.

What does it take to get heard?  It seems like to really get attention you have to be over the top these days.  That should have an effect on how we listen and judge others as they speak in this day and age when pretty much anyone can pick up a mike and potentially broadcast their ideas to millions.

Jesus asks us to daily take up our cross and follow him.  Maybe to understand this cross should not be understood as a burden, but as a mission.  The cross is not a problem but a purpose.

The last in this series of looking at the Happy Lies book.  The last installment looks at seeker sensitive churches and her criticism of those.

This may be the sinner's prayer we all need to be praying.  "God be merciful to me a sinner."  Why?  Let's explore.