It has been difficult for me to choose a text to preach on this Mother's Day.  I thought I had picked my text a month ago, but God has been tugging me towards these goals:

• I want to suspend Children's Church and have them stay with their mothers in the sanctuary for the message. This of course affects what I preach on and how I tell the story.  I want to tell the children how important mothers are.  Since the people who work in Children's Church are all mothers (well, other than Zakk), I think they would be too ...

One principle I have stressed in my short tenure as a pastor is the importance of Bible study.  I am trying very hard to re-introduce my congregations to weekly group Bible study.  So far, I mostly have the same devoted folks who are also the same few who show up to Sunday School.

Most of these people are older, and they have probably been studying the Bible longer than I have been alive.  But as hard as it may be to understand, you never grow too old or too mature in the faith to stop studying God's word.

Especially helpful is the practice of coming together with others to study the Bible.  New insights are gained when a familiar passage is reviewed from a fresh perspective.  I'm amazed when I go to a monthly lectionary study/covenant group, and some "long in the tooth" pastor hear ...

I was reading the passage from Jeremiah 31:31-34 where God promises a new covenant and how God will write the law on the hearts of Israel.  I've been thinking on this one for some time, and I've come up with some interesting takes on how the law is written in our hearts.

I believe that we are created already pre-wired to want to know God.  I have spoken to atheists and agnostics who had burning questions -- questions that almost embarrassed them to ask.  I think this passage seeks to give some explanation for their curiosity.

I believe it is up to each individual to seek God and to learn more about God's ways through the study of the scripture.  But particularly in this day and age, you wouldn't have anyone converting to be a Christ-follower without the Holy Spirit drawing them nearer. 

When I was discerning my call to the ministry (who am I kidding?  I'll always be discerning my call) I ...

I was reading through the first coupleof chapters of the book of Acts this morning, and I was struck by Acts 2:44: "All the believers were together and had everything in common." I take this to mean that after the Holy Spirit came upon them, a closeness came into their community.

I was thinking about how many churches today really are together and have a lot in common, but that it isn't necessarily the same thing as found in Acts 2.  I believe the type of solidarity described in Acts 2 was a motivating, encouraging community that called the community to action.

I'm afraid that here in the 21st century many churches have a close sense of community that is centered on comfort and self-preservation.  It's challenging me to think differently about what it means to be the church.

I was an hour late to my appointment with the dCOM (District Committee on Ordained Ministry) this morning.  Not that I didn't have a good excuse ...er ... if there IS a good excuse to keep the dCOM waiting, that is!

Somehow, when daylight savings started back up, some of my appointments in Windows Mobile 6.1 got changed.  The weird thing is that it wasn't all of them.  A week or so ago I had a chiropractor appointment show up an hour later than it actually was, and Monday i thought my appointment with the dCOM was at 11 am.  Ooops, it was realy at 10 am!

I was on a service call (still doing the computer geek thing on the side to pay bills) at a medical facility in Chester, SC installing VOIP conference equipment when i got a call from my mentor wondering where I was.  So I high-talied it up to Rock Hill for my meeting.  They rushed through my meeting in like 5 minutes.  I think they were all eager t ...