Word of Life Church Podcast

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The Four Practices Apr 15, 2016

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Following Jesus is something we do together, but it is a self-initiated journey. No one can walk this journey for you; it is something you determine to do. God does give his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our helper and companion. However, you make the daily decision to either cooperate with or work against the Holy Spirit.
We are each responsible for our own exploration of The Journey. We have the help of the Holy Spirit, but we also have the help of the collective wisdom of those who have followed Jesus before us. We have summed up much of this wisdom in what we call The Four Practices: awareness, learning, reflecting, action.

The Journey: Worship Apr 10, 2016

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In a culture of consumerism worship is an act of holy rebellion. Worship is gloriously impractical—a royal wast of time. Because contemporary models of worship involve a band, a stage, and popular music, we are tempted to confuse worship with entertainment. Worship is not entertainment! Entertainment is evaluated on the basis of did we personally find it enjoyable. Worship is evaluated on the basis of did we give God the glory due his name.

Is God Dead? / Didymus the Empiricist Apr 08, 2016

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April 8, 1966—fifty years ago today—Time magazine published its most iconic cover, asking the question that haunts modern man: “Is God Dead?” After the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima should we concede that Nietzsche was right in his provocative prophesy about Western civilization? Is God dead? This sermon is on the "Doubting Thomas" story. In his commitment to empiricism and the doubt it engendered, Thomas was a prefiguring of the modern age and the crisis of faith. Thomas was called “The Twin” (Didymus). He had the twin experiences of crippling doubt (“I will never believe”) and soaring faith (“My Lord and my God!”).

The Journey Apr 03, 2016

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On the evening of the resurrection Jesus appeared to his frightened disciples as they were hiding in the upper room. He spoke peace to them, breathed the holy spirit upon them, and sent them into the world. From that locked room on that first Easter the gospel message of Jesus has traveled around the world and down through the centuries launching billions of spiritual journeys.

When The Scales Fall From Our Eyes Apr 01, 2016

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The expression “the scales fell from my eyes” is an idiom for a sudden epiphany. Something that had blinded us is suddenly removed so that now we see the truth. This idiom has its origin in the story of Saul/Paul’s Damascus Road conversion. “Damascus Road” has also become an idiom for a sudden change. But the Damascus Road event and the scales falling from Saul’s eyes are not exactly the same thing. They’re related, but different. One is deconstruction, the other is reconstruction.

The Gardener Mar 27, 2016

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The first person to see the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene. When Mary first saw Jesus in the garden she thought he was the gardener. A logical mistake. Or maybe a prophetic mistake. Or maybe not a mistake at all. As the first seed of resurrection raised, Jesus is now the gardener of resurrection, cultivating new life in all who believe.

The Garden Mar 25, 2016

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With the burial of Jesus the new tomb has become a new womb. On Holy Saturday we have nothing to do—nothing to do but to wait. Sometimes it’s a good thing to come to the end of all our striving and enter into a holy Sabbath. A Sabbath of waiting…resting…waiting. When the work is done and the seed is sown, there’s nothing more to do, but to rest and wait...and see what tomorrow will bring.

A Throne On Which No King Has Ever Sat Mar 20, 2016

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The conquering king on a majestic horse has become a universal symbol of power. The king astride the warhorse is an equivalent symbol to the king upon his throne. Which is why to this day in every capital city there’s always some dude on a horse. But Jesus did not ride a warhorse into Jerusalem. Jesus rode a donkey…a little donkey. The one who rode the little donkey in humility, peace, and gentleness, now rides the white horse with all authority in heaven and on earth.

Job: A Blameless Victim Mar 18, 2016

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The book of Job is a test in how well the reader can resist scapegoating a blameless victim. The key to the whole book is found in the first verse. Job was blameless. But most readers fail the test and end up at some point agreeing with Job's three "miserable comforters" and the most vicious accuser of all, Elihu. But Job was BLAMELESS! Can the reader remember this all the way through? Most readers cannot; eventually they side with the accusers—the satan. We are possessed!

The Beauty and Necessity of Extravagant Worship Mar 13, 2016

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Mary’s anointing of Jesus at Bethany should restrain us from being too quick to judge some act of artistic worship as an unwarranted extravagance. In an age of secular pragmatism all prayer and worship is seen as an extravagant waste, the greatest of all wastes—the waste of time. The secular pragmatist says, “time is money.” But the worshiper knows better. The worshiper knows that time is a gift from God, and that we have not properly appreciated God’s gift of time until we return the best part of it back to God in prayer and worship.

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