Christmas season has arrived! Advent is here. On Sunday, we lit the first of the Advent candles – the HOPE candle, and were reminded how Advent begins in the dark, with the light of Christ breaking in.Do you know what the word “Advent” actually means? It’s from the Latin adventus, and literally means “coming” or “arrival”. Advent is Jesus’ “arrival” with us and for us, and as the angels announced on that first Christmas: it is good news of great joy

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I hope you’re able to make it to tonight’s Thanksgiving Eve worship service at 7:00. I’m looking forward to sharing some insight into the way that gratitude transforms us. It should be a good one! Speaking of thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, and the coming season of Advent: have you had a chance to write your “Thankful 30” Advent calendar yet? (Check out last week’s Central Thoughts to find out what I’m talking about

As we approach Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, one of the things that happens to us is that we tend to get overwhelmed with shopping lists, meals to make, parties to consider, gifts to wrap, decorations to hang, and all of the rest. or in the words of Professor Hinkle: busy, busy, busy. People have described the holidays to me like a current that pulls you under which, in order to survive, you have to just swim with it…because if you try to

Have you ever wondered what “God’s will” is for you? It can be an impossibly huge question to try to answer.  Or not.  It can also be quite simple. Look at what Paul tells God’s will is for us in 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. That’s God will. At least, that’s what God wants us to do. So as we continue in our Central Thoughts

Welcome to November. Leaves are falling, clocks are falling back an hour (this Saturday/Sunday!), and Thanksgiving is coming. I want use this month’s Central Thoughts to focus on something that is supposed to be a ‘central’ component to our faith: gratitude.  One of my favorite moments in scripture comes in Colossians 3:15. It’s a longer verse, but it ends with just a short sentence fragment: And be thankful. Paul has just detailed the new life we have in Christ, how we have been ‘raised’