Category Archives: Bible
“Allow Me to Introduce Myself” – Jesus
Imagine you are an actor, who has moved to Los Angeles, is sharing an apartment with four other people, working odd jobs, and waiting for your big break. One day your agent calls. A famous director is looking for someone to play a role in his new major motion picture. The audition is at 3:00.
So, you call your part-time employer, tell him you’re going to miss work today, and you go in for the audition. You’re given a script with the lines: “Don’t even think about it. Please. Please. You’ll ruin everything.”
You ask, “So what is this scene about?” and are told, “The Director isn’t telling anyone. Just do your best.”
You don’t know if your character is a scientist, working in a lab with highly explosive material or a spouse whose partner has threatened to file for divorce. How can you know how to act if you don’t know the story?
That is the same kind of problem many people have in trying to live as a Jesus-follower: They don’t know what story they’re in. This text will help us understand our story. This message is based on John 1:1-18, and is meant to open the new series, “Allow Me to Introduce Myself” -Jesus. Each week of the series, we will be introduced to a truth about Jesus from the Gospel of John, revealed in Jesus’s fascinating “I Am” statements. Continue reading
Jesus Stories
Kevin Looper preaches from Mark 4 and 5, with insights into who Jesus is and what he is like. In the heart-pounding adventure of the turbulent night at sea and in the heart-stopping horror story centered around the tombs, Kevin points out the startling insight that the disciples (in the first story) and the demons (in the second) were afraid of Jesus and that Jesus was afraid of nothing! Continue reading
Take Advantage of Second Chance Opportunities
He is not merely the God of the second chance, but of the third and fourth and hundredth and thousandth. Continue reading
Plan-A, Plan Only
God had a plan to undo the consequences of the Fall, to heal and restore humanity, and that plan began with one man: Abraham. His line would lead to a point: the Point-of-it-All. And God would get from Abraham to … Continue reading
The Point of it All
What is God going to do to fix things? … Will God do anything? And, if so, what will he do? The rest of the Bible is the answer to that question … but it starts here. It starts with one man. It starts with Abraham. Continue reading
Blackmail-proof: A Life Without Secrets
My wife Karen got an email from a scammer this week, blackmailing her and demanding a payment of $1,000 in bitcoin. The scammer claimed to be a hacker who had accessed her email account, embedded a keylogger and had taken … Continue reading
Return to Sender (James 5:13-20)
http://lockwoodchurch.org/media In James 5:13-20 we see that the life that is “finished and whole” (James 1:4) is one where God is our center. Whatever’s going on at the periphery of our lives – whether really bad or really good, calm … Continue reading
IF: An Easter Message
Our “If only” regrets are not always about what we have done or not done. Sometimes they are about what God has done or, especially, not done. Continue reading
Understanding Your Calling
But nowhere in the Bible do we find God calling people by saying, “I have a no-hassle life-plan for self-fulfillment, and it has your name on it. Continue reading
Can’t Wait to Be Patient: A look at James 5:7-12
God is not willing to sacrifice your future to ease your present … He will make things right; you can depend on it. But, better by far, he will make you right – just don’t short-circuit what he is doing. You must be patient. You must trust him. Continue reading
