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Upcoming Events

February 5

  1. 5:00 pm
    Youth Super Bowl Party

Dragon Slayers
Serenity Now! I am a Seinfeld fan. I’m not as obsessed as some people I know, but I watched the show pretty regularly when it was still in production and I don’t mind catching an episode in syndication every once in a while. It certainly is on TV often enough. On one episode, George’s dad Frank is in the back seat of the car when he begins berating Estelle—his wife—to move her seat forward so he can have more leg room.

New Year's Resolution: Be a Tree

 

14 and Mobile

When I turned 14, it was a big deal to me that I was able to get my driver’s permit.

 

Because we lived in such a small town, we didn’t have a permanent driver’s license station.  In fact, it moved around.  One day it would be in Sheldon, the next day in Sioux Center, and so on.  You had to look in the paper to figure out where they were going to be.

 

Was Taken Up in Glory

 

The Visited Planet

Some 50 years ago, author J.B. Phillips, in a book called New Testament Christianity, imagined a conversation between a senior angel and a very young angel. 

 

Believe

 

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

We called our Christmas Eve service this year “Believe.”

 

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the word “Believe.”  On the one hand, it is a really good, really Biblical word.  A big part of being a Christian is believing.  I’ll talk about that in a little bit.

 

Was Preached Among the Nations

 

A Dumb Dutchman

My high school English teacher was Mr. Joel Boeyink.  Mr. Boeyink was a little quirky.  He was balding on top but still had a ring of hippie length hair around the sides.  He had a big, floppy mustache.  He almost always had a tootsie pop in his mouth.  He liked to hand tootsie pops out as a sort of motivator.  And he liked to tell dumb Dutchman jokes.

 

Was Seen By Angels

 

For this Advent season we have been focusing on a single verse of scripture: 1 Timothy 3:16.  In a sense, this verse is the first Christmas Carol.  And we are going through it line by line.  Here’s the verse:

 

16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:

 

He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.

 

Vindicated by the Spirit

[Note: Pastor Russell became sick and unable to preach this message.  Youth Pastor Jay Van Gelder used these notes to preach it.  So the audio and the text will be quite a bit different.]

 

Mr. Pig

I had a very strange dream Thursday morning.  I dreamed I had a pet wild boar.  I’m not sure where I got him, or how, but I had a pet wild boar and he was very big and he had the scruffy fur around his neck and the big tusks sticking out of his snout and the drool coming out of his mouth. 

He Appeared in a Body

 

Mystery

Today we are starting a new series called The Mystery of Godliness.  As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we are going to think about the mystery of Jesus coming to earth.

 

Living When Dying is Gain

 

Truth in Advertising

When Beth and I had been married for about a year, we got a call from her old college roommate.  This was a girl we both knew from church and InterVarsity that Beth had lived with for a while her sophomore year.  But then this girl had gotten married herself, and moved with her husband to another school, and we sort of lost track of her.

 

There is No Plan B

 

T-Ball as a Metaphor for Life

Before I had kids, I always thought I’d make a great little league coach.  I thought: I like sports, I’ll enjoy teaching my sons how to play baseball.

 

But then my boys came along, and I found that wasn’t so true.