Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Allowing the Spirit to Speak –Preaching Tip for 7 October 2018
Allow for space, adaptation, and change in your sermon. Allow pause for the Spirit to speak. If you read your sermon verbatim, or if you are determined to follow it letter by letter, you may miss out on an opportunity for Jesus to lead your sermon right into the minds…
Pastor’s Prayer for 7 October 2018
O that we could begin this day
in devout meditations,
in joy unspeakable,
and in blessing and praising Thee,
who hast given us such good hope
and everlasting consolation.
Lift up our minds
above all these little things below,
which are apt to distract our thoughts;
and keep them above
till our hearts are fully bent
to seek Thee every day,
in the way wherein Jesus hath gone before us.
–John Wesley
Giving Blood
Bloody Perfidy
On Giving Blood by Leonard Sweet
Zondervan, 2014 (356 pages)
–Review by Guest Reviewer Terry Rankin
To be clear from the outset, Sweet’s masterful work in Giving Blood certainly is not the bloody perfidy. On the contrary, the tragedy is that his vibrant faith and his semiotic theory and praxis for Christian homiletics are not the prevailing Christian paradigms they should be.
The body of Christ today has lost the Way, abandoned the Truth, and given up the Life. The contemporary church is tragically AWOL from its missional, relational, and incarnational (MRI) being and presence in our 21st century reality. The “lifeblood of God” Sweet describes in Giving Blood no longer flows from the heart of Jesus through the body of his bride; his lifeblood is nowhere to be found in the institutionalized, corporatized mainstream of 21st century faith.[1]
Keep On Keeping On
Keep on Keeping On –Guest Sermon by Judge Jesse Caldwell 30 September 2018 19th Sunday After Pentecost Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 20-22 Psalm 124 James 5:13-20 Mark 9:38-50 Text to Life A former minister of mine, Dr. Richard Crowder said that at staff meetings at a previous church, he often called…
The Good Yoke
The Good Yoke Story Lectionary 30 September 2018 The Curse of Cain (Genesis 4) The Error of the Yoke of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12) Elisha, Driving Oxen in the Fields, Quits Them to Succeed Elijah as God’s Servant and Prophet (1 Kings 19) The Mystery of the Return of the…
The One-Life Solution
The One-Life Solution: Reclaiming Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success
By Henry Cloud
2008
ISBN: 9780061466427
Review by Douglas Balzer
Life throws curveballs! It is an old saying I heard many times growing up. In many ways, it is a truism, but I have often wondered how many times have I actually been the one who threw the curveball and sabotaged my pursuits in life, as well as the pursuits of others. Still, taking this thought further, I have to wonder how others may have been in involved in the disruption of our pursuit of a life worth living.
Henry Cloud’s book The One-Life Solution: Reclaiming Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success is the book to help answer such deep questions and put you back on a path of the pursuit of the life you see as worth living. Cloud is well known for his book on boundaries, and this tomb uses the boundary concepts while covering the key issues that can and do sabotage us in our pursuits. In the book, he further explains the next step on how to deal with the key issues and move on towards the best practices, healthy practices to Reclaim Your Personal Life. read more…
Preaching Jesus’ Mission –Preaching Tip for 30 September 2018
When Jesus read from the Isaiah scroll, he revealed his mission to the world. And yet, like many in his day and despite endless letters from Paul, we still today see that mission as merely literal. But Jesus seldom spoke literally. In fact, he let his disciples know that in…
Pastor’s Prayer for 30 September 2018
Come, Lord Jesus, our guest to be
And bless these gifts
Bestowed by Thee.
And bless our loved ones everywhere,
And keep them in Your loving care.
–Moravian Blessing
No Kids Left Behind
No Kids Left Behind Lectionary 23 September 2018 18th Sunday After Pentecost Proverbs 31:10-31 Psalm 1 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37 Text to Life Everyone has a “pet peeve.” A “pet peeve” is not a major moral disaster, but it is an action or attitude that simply, yet constantly, rubs…
Pastor’s Prayer for 23 September 2018
O Eternal God and King of all creation, who has granted me to arrive at this hour, forgive me the sins that I have committed today in thought, word and deed, and cleanse, O Lord, my humble soul from all defilement of flesh and spirit. And grant me, O Lord, to pass the sleep of this night in peace, that when I rise from my bed I may please Your most holy Name all the days of my life and conquer my flesh and the fleshless foes that war with me. And deliver me, O Lord, from vain and frivolous thoughts, and from evil desires which defile me. For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
St Macarius the Great, 300–391 AD