Audio: God, Christians, and Natural Disasters

Natural disasters shouldn’t happen, but they do happen. How should we respond to them? How can we hope? As Christians, we must not respond by ignoring them, fearing them, or despairing. Instead, we must recognize that we are unsafe, but we’re also not alone: God is with us. Like him, we should join the needy and give them what we have to help. Someday, God will lead us through disaster into a healed and finally safe world. Until then, we must take up his cross and follow Jesus into the darkest places of human suffering.

Three Blessings for Cate & David on their Wedding Day

First

May your marriage be a garden:

A green place in the middle of the fast city
For you to return to and go from,
That makes you brave to keep going.

An abundant place where, thick with light
And bright with fruit and children,
You laugh with your hands in the earth.

May God give you joy and repose.

Second

May your marriage be a home:

A gathering place with a quick door,
A good name, and a fragrant stove,
That hands out compassion like sweets.

A warm room where silence says enough,
Free chatter gets sifted by love,
And you blanket each other with knowing.

May God give you safety and generosity.

Third

May your marriage be a resurrection:

A death into commonwealth out of
Kind, simple singleness for the gain of
Another’s offered pain, death, and joy.

A meeting for all marriages, alive once again,
Fathers and mothers, by the seal of the Lamb,
Awake in the dance of your love.

May God give you faith and freedom.

By Jesus who made you, who claimed you,
and who’s coming back soon, we pray:

May your marriage be blessed.

Audio: Growing Up With Jesus

Salvation isn’t the end of the story; it’s the beginning! It starts a beautiful process of growing up in Christ. In this sermon, Peter uses Ephesians 4:11-16 to help us desire that growth.

She's

Blue, brown, and white.
A light laugh and a song. 
Her hands are the dance of this steam.  
Her eyes are lit birds. 
Her neck is draped satin. 
Her voice is a softly touched sweater. 
It comforts me. 

I love her
Because I was given to her.
Because she turned herself. 
Because she's home and wonder,
Rest and sprint. 
Because she's.
And she's.
And she's. 

She's pure purple, shoulder-strong.
Her speech up-summons a world.  
Hands like the earth: earth wearing fruits. 
And her eyes are all of the waves. 
Her neck, the great beam from the sun down. 
Her voice, a clean home with a tree by.  

I rest in it and find her,
And find her,
And find her.
I rest in it and find her,
My lovely,
My rest.

Side by side: One day in the news

1.

A huge storm formed in the south Pacific, turned in on itself and around itself, swept the world into itself, gained glory, gained a name. The huge storm moved across the ocean, over people. Ten thousand people died.

Haiyan, Haiyan.

2.

Big Brands Shift Holiday Deals to Thanksgiving Day. Is Black Friday Dead?

New Roomba chews up hair and is 50 percent suckier