Words of Welcome

Matthew 9:35-10:8 I don’t have a lot of personal experience with farming. Although I may have grown up in an agricultural area, I’m still a city boy! Besides going out in the back yard to pick some apricots, the closest I’ve ever gotten to farming was an essay I wrote for a history textbook on the Agricultural Revolution of the 18th Century. So when it comes to talking about harvesting, any expertise I have comes from book learning. Fortunately you’ve not come today hoping to learn gardening techniques. If you have, then you have to look elsewhere! I don’t know if Jesus was an expert on farming either, but he seemed to understand the basic principles of farming. The first principle is simple -- if something looks ripe, then you better pick it! The second principle simply insists that it takes workers to harvest a crop. Jesus may be correct about the principles of farming, but I don’t think he was interested in farming per se! So, maybe in this passage, when he ta

Genesis 12:1-9 The story of a family heading off to a strange land seems rather appropriate at this time in my life. Cheryl, Brett, and I are about to take such a journey. But, it’s not the first time I’ve done this. I remember setting off, years ago, from Klamath Falls, in my less-than-reliable Ford Maverick. With $500 in my pocket, I loaded up the car with my belongings, and headed south toward Pasadena, where I hoped to attend seminary. I didn’t have a place to live, a job, or even a letter of acceptance from Fuller Seminary. But, things seemed to work out. I found a room at the Pasadena YMCA, and a few weeks later, I got a job at a Christian bookstore. By then my little stash of cash had run low. But, I managed to make ends meet, even if I had to eat just one meal a day – and that was Poor Boy sandwiches and cheap kool-aid. The good thing, was that I lost a lot of weight! 1. Abram’s Journey and ours Abram and Sarai heard a call from God and headed out on an adventure that changed