Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

What follows below is a fuller version of the sermon I wrote for this last Sunday. I am currently unable to post sermons to my church website, so am posting it here instead. Later this week I will post sermon thoughts toward this next Sunday’s  sermon, which will be entitled “The Heart of the Matter, or The Matter of the Heart.” "Where Is Your Heart?" Sermon, July 24, 2011 Luke 12:32-40 Craig S. Strobel A visit from Maxine  Thirteen years ago, Maxine showed up on our doorstep. We had not advertised, we had not even inquired around, but she showed up anyway. We weren’t quite sure what to make of her, but after intense negotiations we allowed her to stay. And she then proceeded to win over our hearts. You see, Maxine was a puppy, possibly a Rottweiler, Shepherd, Labrador mix of unknown parentage. And out of the blue, she appeared on our doorstep. I was reticent at first, but then I recalled the Bible saying something about entertaining angels unaware. But there is a twist to th

After a hiatus of almost 2 months, I am returning to my weekly blogspot. During the time I have been away from blogging, I have had to deal with the crash of my hard drive and the loss of all the data on it. In addition, I have been at Annual Conference , had all three daughters visiting, and have been gone to camp. But all of this is settling down and I return to some serious contemplation of the Way of Jesus for ordinary humans. I use that phrase "ordinary humans" deliberately. Jesus did not walk among spiritual superhumans. He walked among very down-to-earth persons - people who sweated and grunted for a living, who had eyes and ears and hearts that needed opening, who had been pierced and hurt by life and love, who were cut-up, cast-out and tossed aside.  He walked among people who spoke crudely, moved roughly, and thought coarsely. He talked with fishermen, fishwives, prostitutes and their customers, soldiers, rulers, lepers, persons with diseases and disfigurements,