Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Zia Took Five Steps

Little girls growing up fast! This morning she took FIVE steps. With determination and grit, she puts her feet under her body and with all her might, lifts her wobbly body and bobbling head with a concentrating smile and furrowed brow.  She leans, she lunges and the legs move rapidly to catch up before the knees buckle and her bottom thuds to the floor. Way to GO girl!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Bucking Bronco - Genesis 16:1-13

Genesis 16:1-13

NOTE: this is the relatively unabridged version of the sermon.  We actually did something else in the service than just me preaching. The congregation was divided up into four sections and each section was assigned one of the four roles in the narrative: Hagar, Sarai, Abram, and the Angel of the Lord.  The groups discussed the passage from their perspective and then shared/defended their perspective to the rest of the group, with David Anderson helping with the verdict.   This probably could/should have been the whole sermon portion, but I felt obligated to also deliver parts of "sermonette #2 and #3 below, which touch on being part of the household of abraham and domestic violence...WOW, try to squeeze all that in one sermon :). 

We begin a fall study of the old testament.
When’s the last time you picked up the bible and said, I’m going to read a little OT? 
And not just going to the Psalms or Proverbs.

A friend recently told me she doesn’t usually turn to scripture for guidance because when she did this in her past she ran into some OT passage that it just didn’t speak to her, or worse, left her confused or made her feel worse.  

There’s a reason Ben Franklin and many of us become selective about our bible canon,
but Harry and I and the group that meets for bible study on Tuesdays at noon thought it would be a fun fall challenge to check out the Hebrew Scriptures.
So they picked out some passages...
including this one...

So here we go into the Fantastic, Fearful, Far Out world of the Hebrew Bible!