Advent is a season that is full of anticipation. This month Pastor Shannon has preached on hope, peace, and joy. As we conclude this series we celebrate Emmanuel – God with us and talk about God’s great love. Scriptures from Matthew and Luke.
Sermon: Advent: Love
Download: 2015-07-05_SNS-Evang3_KeepFocus
On July 5, 2015, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States, Shannon New Spangler preached on Matthew 25:31-46 in her local ministry setting, Harvest Point Church in Lordstown, Ohio.
“This decision … needs to be discussed so we know what our place is.”
“When we say no to loving, to being graceful, to being merciful, we set limits on who is worthy of God’s love, and that’s an indictment not on them, but on us. And God says, when you do this, you are a goat.”
Please listen to this important sermon. (download or play below)
Beloved how this perfect love unites us all in Jesus!
One heart, and soul, and mind we prove the union heaven gave us.
It seems there are a number of definitions of what it means to be “holy” or to live a “holy life.” Even in the Church of God, a holiness movement, there are a number of people who believe deeply in holiness living, but would define this differently from one another. Often, we hear holiness defined as what we don’t do. “I believe in living a holy life, therefore I do not …” You can fill in the blanks. What we find in the Scriptures, however, is that holiness has much more to do with our relationships with God, others, and ourselves. “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus was asked. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments.” Continue reading
David posted this story last week about Antoinette Tuff, the Georgia school bookkeeper who helped to prevent a tragic school shooting. He asked this question:
What would our lives look like if we were to live by the love of Christ, an attitude of nonviolence, and daily spiritual preparation? How would we – and our culture – and our churches – be transformed?
And Joe wrote this in response.
I’ve been mulling over a response to David’s question for a while, trying to figure out a way to articulate my thoughts. If I’m completely honest, I might have to confess that I have become numb to the tragedies that we hear in the news everyday. Perhaps it’s because we have been exposed to so much of it through the media that I just get tired of feeling compassionate all the time.
And then I remember the story of “Tārore and Her Book,” one of my favourite stories to tell the kids I work with.
And then I remember this is how we are called to live. And to answer David’s question, this is what happens when we live by the love of Christ, and transform our culture and our churches.
This is the true story of Tārore and her book.
Last week, David posted about the story of a possible shooting spree in a Georgia school that was averted by the calm, loving actions of Antoinette Tuff. Against all odds Tuff offered compassion and empathy to a young man who arrived at the school that day, intending to do serious harm to others and to himself. Tuff has been touted as a hero.
And she should be.
Her actions prompted David to ask the question, “What would our lives look like if we were to live by the love of Christ, an attitude of nonviolence, and daily spiritual preparation?” These are important questions for Christians to ask, and I share what I sense to be a current of optimism beneath their surface. It suggests that embracing these practices would lead to something better for ourselves and others. But something about these questions haunts me as well, and I wonder how we might answer them if Tuff’s story was different.
Continue reading
By now, you probably have heard the story of Antoinette Tuff, the Georgia school bookkeeper who this week helped to prevent a tragic school shooting by talking with the 20-year-old man who entered the school armed with an AK-47. Many people are talking about, writing about, and celebrating the heroic actions and bravery of this woman. Ms. Tuff kept the potential shooter talking while he decided what to do: whether to attack students and staff, injure himself, or surrender to the police. For half an hour, she kept calm and spoke wisdom to this young man until, ultimately, he laid down his gun without having injured or killed a single person.
photo by Br3nda
This is a tremendous story of love and compassion in action. I would like to highlight a few principles for us to consider: Continue reading
Earlier this month, Jen raised a thought-provoking question:
today’s “If i had a blog…” post would be called:
WHY IT IS COOL TO LOVE THE INSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH AND TO STAY COMMITTED TO IT EVEN WHEN THINGS SEEM DIFFICULT.
i wish someone was writing about that.
Over the next several days, a few of us wrote public responses to this issue. Here are links to our individual blog posts. (In the future we hope to have posts like these located on this blog, for the sake of conversation and collaboration.)