You may not be aware, our church is one of four that supports a local food pantry, the Joshua Tree Community Food Pantry. (Watch the video some of our kids made about it.) There are still hungry people in America: However, national food insecurity data reveal that about 45% of those struggling with hunger actually … Continue reading »
Posted in August 2011 …
Financial Status Update
We were all surprised (and I expect, very pleased) last month, when we learned that Desert Hills had received a large bequest. The gift was all the more surprising because the giver hadn’t been part of our church, except as the widower of a member who passed away in 2009. What you may not have … Continue reading »
Ordinary People
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. C.S. Lewis wrote that in “The … Continue reading »
Being less Biblical
I liked this point by Don Miller in his blog post “Being Less ‘Biblical’ and more ‘like the Bible.’” Even Christ’s biographers depict Him without sparing us His humanity. He gets angry, He gets annoyed, He is hard to understand (and indeed hard to follow) and while He seems to love the world, He’s as … Continue reading »
The Church and Working Class Americans
Here’s an interesting finding, reported by LiveScience today: In the 1980s, the researchers found, there was little difference in religious participation between high school- and college-educated whites. But by the 2000s, a gap appeared. Today, 46 percent of college-educated whites go to a church, synagogue or equivalent institution at least once a month, compared with … Continue reading »
Calvin on Tradition
Preparing for my last sermon, I found some choice quotes from Calvin on submitting to traditions. (These are from the Institutes 3.19.7-11, with tiny modifications for readability). We are not bound before God to any observance of external things which are in themselves indifferent (“adiafora”), but that we are now at full liberty either to … Continue reading »