Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

Getting It Together: Cultivating Wisdom, Part 3 September 25, 2011 Rev. Dr. Craig Strobel Psalm 139 Psalm 139: O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away. 
You search out my path and my lying down,
   and are acquainted with all my ways. 
Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely. 
You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me. 
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is so high that I cannot attain it. 
Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence? 
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 
If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 
even there your hand shall lead me,
 ...

Sermon Series: Getting It together: Charting a Path to Wisdom Sermon, September 18, 2011 Rev. Dr. Craig Strobel Psalm 136: 
 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever. 
O give thanks to the God of gods,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever. 
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
who alone does great wonders,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
who by understanding made the heavens,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
who spread out the earth on the waters,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
who made the great lights,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
the sun to rule over the day,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever; 
the moon and stars to rule over the night,
   for his steadfast love e...

Yesterday I began a new sermon series entitled "Getting It Together: Charting a Path for Wisdom Amid Life's Traumas." The sermon below is the first sermon in that series. Sermon, September 11, 2011 Rev. Dr. Craig Strobel Proverbs 1:2-7 Proverbs 1:1-6, 2:1-14:   For learning about wisdom and instruction,
   for understanding words of insight, 
for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
   righteousness, justice, and equity; 
to teach shrewdness to the simple,
   knowledge and prudence to the young— 
let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
   and the discerning acquire skill, 
to understand a proverb and a figure,
   the words of the wise and their riddles.  My child, if you accept my words
   and treasure up my commandments within you, 
making your ear attentive to wisdom
   and inclining your heart to understanding; 
if you indeed cry out for insight,
   and raise your voice for understanding; 
if you seek it like silver,
 ...

Sermon, September 4, 2011 Rev. Dr. Craig S. Strobel Genesis 1:1-2:3 If you are a careful reader of the Bible, you have discovered by now that there are two stories of Creation in the Bible. The first account is couched in terms of seven “days” of activity in which everything is pronounced “good,” even humankind. The second account is more ambivalent. God seems to be improvising as he goes along.  The creation of humans ends in disaster, which is basically the tone for the next several chapters. These two stories are held together and seem to remind us how we are perched between the extravagance of creation and terror that can inhabit it. Annie Dillard speaks of this extravagance in her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: “If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.   After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging int...