Free Will...really? Predestination...huh?

Talking on the phone one day with my dad, he told me that he believed that EVERYTHING is already planned out by God. I told him, "So God knew I was going to to call today?" he told me that not only God knew I would call, God knew what we just said before we said it...AND knows what we are about to say. This was YEARS before I went to seminary. It still seemed...odd to me. Then again....do we REALLY have free will? Is ANYTHING already decided? Some folks believe that before you were BORN it was already decided what your life would be....after your life? What you do MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. This means Mother Teressa could be in "hell" and Hitler could be in "heaven"...This....blows my mind. So what do you think? How much free will do we really have? How much is really decided ahead of time? Come figure it out with us Sunday Feb. 22nd. @ 5pm (for the record....we won't figure it out...but the conversation should be good.) Relax...it's just church...Afterhours

do you know why you're here?

On Feb. 15th I will be talking about why we are here. Do I claim to know? Not really. But I will give you my take on it. I think it is the question we all ask at one time or another. What does the good book have to say? I struggled for years trying to refine my purpose. Am I there yet? Nope. But it has been quite a trip. The trip has been a trip. What do you think the meaning of life is? What is your purpose for walking around this earth? Have you found your purpose? What do you do in the mean time? At the end of the night we might not have the answers, but we will have moved that much farther down the road. Come ask the questions with us...and relax...it's just church...afterhours.

Here comes the Judge...

So this coming Sunday I am preaching on Judgement. I am going to talk about how important it is not to judge and how lousy the people are that do judge others...HOW JUDGEMENTAL OF ME! I TOTALLY get the irony of judging people for judging people. The thing is; there IS too much judgement in the world. Jesus said, "I did not come to judge the world." I think it is pretty clear if it ain't HIS gig, it sure as heck ain't mine. Truth is, it is SO much easier to judge than love. maybe thats why Jesus dropped in on us. He said, "you will totally screw this up unless I come down and show you, step by step, exactly how to do this." We still screwed it up. Come on by AfterHours to see if I get even a fraction of this right. I might get it right...or not. Come judge for yourself...(AfterHours @ 5 pm 3350 White Bay Dr. Highlands Ranch @ St. Andrew United Methodist Church)