TRINITY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

I miss the days when I could fly by the seat of my pants. I hate being responsible and being prepared. I just like to show up and throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. Unfortunately, I have come to the realization that I can't live my life that way. In my line of work people are counting on me to be the adult in the room (someone who is prepared, on time, and full of timeless wisdom) and there are times I wish I could be the one without a care in the world. So

My greatest temptation at this moment is to go off on politics and world affairs. I have opinions on the things of this world like everyone else, but I find myself being lead to withdraw from politics and world affairs instead of diving headlong. I wish I could give a valid reason as to why I feel lead to move in another direction but I just don't have one. Many times when things heat up on certain issues, I find that I begin to move in a totally different direction in my te

Hate is a strong word and we teach our children to not hate. But let me ask hypothetically, "shouldn't we hate sin"? The obvious answer is yes. But how much have we sanitized our lives that we are unable to hate anything? Is it even possible to muster enough emotion in us to put the hate on sin? To put sin into perspective...sin is the cancer of our soul. And I don't know about you but my soul is ravaged by it. It is a constant daily battle to be "sin free" and it exhausts

Resiliency is a trademark of being a Christian that is not mentioned nearly enough. This is what I like to term the superpower that every Christian possesses but the super-power that Christians do not utilize nearly enough. Every person in this life get knocked down. This is not something unique to one group of people or to just one person. So never ever think you are the first person to get knocked down or that you are the first person to go through a certain trial in lif

What is your favorite scripture verse? What would be your response and why? Each of us has that verse that really speaks to us. Usually that verse has come to us at a time when we really needed it and it came to us at a point when we needed the light of God in our lives. My favorite verse has always been John 3:8. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound but you do not know from where it comes or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Fo

My favorite part of church is singing. I love singing. I love worshiping. I love the hymns. I love the contemporary music. I love the praise songs. I love the prayer songs. But my favorite music for worship right now are the old hymns that they have taken and modernized. Chris Tomlin...Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) Colton Dixon's...Jesus Paid It All Newsong...How Great Thou Art Rend Collective...Be Thou My Vision And of course the list could go on forever. But I th

Patience is one of the most difficult concepts to come to terms with. For me, though, patience has never been a problem. I am used to having to wait, save, work hard, and be accepting of the fact that not everything in life is meant for me. Some things in life are just out of reach. And for many of us this is a problem. I was telling my middle daughter the other day that when I grew up we didn't have the same opportunities that she has been given. I had a different unders

I sat down on Monday (as I do every Monday) to talk with our organist/pianist to go through music. It is our routine and it how I start every week in preparation for the next Sunday. Most Monday's, I'm still suffering from the Sunday hangover (anyone in ministry will understand that phrase) and I haven't quite got my bearings yet in preparing for the next Sunday. But there are those occasional Monday's where Sunday doesn't leave me empty. There are those occasions where

"Love hurts". "Love...If you let it go, it will come back to you". "Love is meant to be given away". "Love is wasted on youth". There are a thousand expressions and catchy phrases about love that litter our conscience. And that is because there is no stronger emotion than love. Within the ancient Greek language there are 4 main ways in which love is expressed. Yet, in our modern day English we only have one word to express the many different aspects of love. I think we a

I have heard on more than one occasion that if one is a Cub fan, then by association you have to be a Christian. Predicting when the Cubs will win the World Series is like predicting the return of Jesus and having faith in the Cubs winning the World Series is like having faith that one day Jesus will return to call his children home. "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ..(Matthew 24:4-5)" See that no one leads you astray.