Pastor CJs Blog

Living a Life from Sacrifice

2012-01-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

A guy gets up really early in the morning to go ice fishing. He goes out onto the ice with his tent, his pick and his fishing rod, and starts to pick at the ice. Then he hears a big booming voice: "THERE'S NO FISH UNDER THE ICE" The guy looks around and then starts to pick at the ice again. Then he hears the voice again: "THERE'S NO FISH UNDER THE ICE" Now the guy is getting a little edgy.

Living a Life from Invitation

2012-01-16T13:37:00.002-07:00

I understand that what I am about to do may be a bit of a deviation from what we have normally come to expect in a sermon time, but please bear with me. Now that I have your attention; I want you to play a little word association game with me. I am going to say a word, and I want you to respond, out-loud, with the first word that comes to mind. I promise no tricks. There are no right or wrong

Baptism

2012-01-09T13:47:00.001-07:00

A little girl, about four years old, was sitting up front in worship one Sunday morning. This happened to work well for her, because it gave her a great view of the baptism that was taking place that morning. As the pastor was pouring the water on the baby’s head and saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The little girl asked out loud, “Daddy,

A Wonderful Name

2012-01-02T10:49:00.003-07:00

Names matter. Names are important. Do you know the meaning or the significance behind your name, and why your parents picked that name for you? Or what about picking the names of your children; what was that experience like? Hopefully, it was one that was positive and exciting. For us a lot of care went into the selection of the names we chose for our kids. David was named for our Pastor and

Joy to the World

2011-12-28T18:41:00.001-07:00

Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Now I don’t know about you, but this is my favorite Christmas carol. I love it. The picture that is painted by this song is absolutely awesome. Joy to the world. And it is a joy unlike any other. We experience joy in different places and in different ways. There is the joy of getting a really cool gift under that tree.

Surprise

2011-12-19T07:41:00.001-07:00

How do you feel about surprises? By now you know me well enough that a question like that at the beginning of a sermon might make you a little nervous. But I promise I have nothing up my sleeve. It is a simple straightforward question. How do you feel about surprises? Perhaps that all depends on the surprise itself, doesn’t it? I mean if you get a surprise bill in the mail I don’t think

Always? Really?

2011-12-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Rejoice always. Really? Yeah, right. I mean come on Paul. Really? Rejoice Always? I mean isn’t it more realistic to say rejoice most of the time? That would be hard enough. But always? I just don’t know about that. What do you think? Do you rejoice always? There

What do we do with John?

2011-12-05T13:21:00.001-07:00

Legend has it, that the Russian czar Rudolf the Great, was at home one evening looking out his living room window. As he was gazing at the countryside, he noticed that it had begun to rain. “Look, honey.” He said to his wife. “It’s beginning to rain.” She replied, “What are you talking about? That’s snow.” Being the wise man that he was, he quickly suggested that they go outside to determine

Hope-Filled Waiting

2011-11-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

Waiting is not much fun. No one really likes to wait all that much. I mean who comes home from a trip to Disney or Cedar Point and says, “Oh man. It was awesome. We did so much waiting. The insanely long lines were the best part.” No one says that. No one thinks like that, unless you are afraid of the rides. But for the most part we don’t like to wait.