Living Well of Bethel - Podcasts

One of my pet peeves is the mid-western tendency to use negative adjectives in conjunction with positive adjectives in order to amplify the positive adjective. If I’ve lost you, don’t worry – if you are from the mid-west you will recognize these word pairs: Awfully beautiful, terribly sweet. It works here in the Midwest. Awfully beautiful is much more beautiful than nicely beautiful and wonderfully sweet is just a bit less sweet than terribly sweet, which pushes sweet over the boundaries of acceptable sweetness. Do you think the disciples had some pet peeves?

C.S Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” How can we use faith as our looking glass to see everything else? Welcome to worship.

Are there things going on in your world which seem to be happening when you are prepared to help? Perhaps you have extra money to support a ministry close to your heart. Perhaps you have extra time to volunteer somewhere. Perhaps you have been made aware of a child in need of an instrument and you have such an instrument gathering dust in your closet. Perhaps all your years of training are leading you to a ministry that needs those skills. That’s God’s perfect timing at work. Don’t be late.

Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, illuminatedand shining with Elijah and Moses. It was an incredible experience for the disciples, yet we often focus on Jesus' transfiguration and miss the transformation of the disciples. How are we transformed today by God's presence in our world? Rev. Carol Shanks brings the lesson this week.

There are many times we are side-tracked from God’s purpose in our lives. The reality is consumerism thrives on side-tracking us. We have to participate in consumerism to survive, the secret is to not let consumerism rule our lives. We do that with faith, prayer and support of one another.

Food insecurity is not a new problem. Even Paul addresses this issue with the church in Corinth. How did Paul address this question? *the reference to Jersey is to my dog, who joined me during the podcast

I have seen many babies. I worked in a hospital nursery for over five years. I can honestly say that I have never seen an ugly baby. I’ve seen startled babies, as nursery staff attempt to get that perfect picture minutes before a sleepy baby goes home, but ugly? – No. Not the tiny premature babies or the large record-breaking babies. Different – yes. Healthy – yes. Vulnerable – yes. Seriously ill – yes. Ugly – no. Each baby was unique, and the babies that stayed longer due to illness grew more beautiful each day. How is it that we all seem to have an understanding about what defines an ugly baby?

This excerpt from Genesis is the story of the beginning for us. It is the beginning of our world, the beginning of the creation story. It is also the beginning of a metaphor that runs through scripture. We read that God called the light good. We assume that makes the darkness bad. We see this metaphor many times in scripture. The advent scripture tells us of how we walked out of the darkness. We are told to turn our faces towards the light of God. Light and darkness are often compared to good and evil. It was an obvious conclusion for biblical times. Bad things often happened under the veil of darkness. They didn’t have the scientific knowledge that we have today.

Clouds do not rain everywhere all the time. Clouds rain on specific areas and the job of nourishing the earth get done. We cannot endure the pain of “all lives matter.” It is a wonderful goal to work towards, a goal you get to in steps such as “black lives matter”, “domestic violence victims matter”, “children lives matter” and “immigrant lives matter.” Fighting for any one of these issues will change our lives, mark us, perhaps even wound us. Love hurts, yet love also heals. God calls us to love one another.

Chances are you will not experience a supernatural angel that will tell you what God is planning for your life. Chances are more likely that you will experience times when it feels like have been abandoned. There may be times when you feel God is absent from your life. When those times happen, take time to listen to tree branches rustling in the wind, the sound of a child’s laughter or watch the beauty of an evening sunset and know that God is present.

God was going to deliver them, but instructed Isaiah to speak softly to the people, to first offer them comfort. Comfort is the process of recognizing another person’s pain. It is comforting to know there is someone who acknowledges your pain. God instructs Isaiah to tell the people, quietly, slowly, that God acknowledges their suffering. This was the first step towards bringing peace.

What does restoration mean for us today? Are we looking to be restored to a time from our past? Are we longing for a future we have never experienced. How are we restored and how should be begin this process of restoration? (inspired by Psalm 80)

This week we will gather around the table and express our thankfulness. Will you be thankful for this past year, or for the possibilities of the year ahead? How should we express our thankfulness?

“My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.’” Most of you will recognize this quote from the movie Forrest Gump. Mrs. Gump was an intelligent woman. She used this example to explain to Forrest about the uncertainty of life, not because life was actually like a box of chocolates, but because the surprises found in a box of chocolates was something that Forrest Gump experienced and could understand. This week’s scripture passage has Jesus teaching in Jerusalem, so he uses a structure those in the city have experienced and will understand. Money.

Have you ever been in a discussion that turned into an argument and grew into something worse? This week we are talking about the moment between arguing and something worse, the flashpoint. Why do they happen and how can we manage them?

We commonly recite the Ten Commandments, but were there more? Leviticus lists hundreds of laws, yet we usually only refer to ten of these laws as commandments. Should the list have included for more? Listen as we explore Leviticus 19 and Matthew 22:35-40

We live is a world where are are identified by the things we own. How can we handle ownership in a way that Christ would approve? Matthew 22:15-22

Robert Kennedy once said “There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why… I dream of things that never were and ask, why not?” There are many times in our lives when we have wonderful ideas, but cannot get these ideas off the ground because we are unable to justify the “why” to the satisfaction of others. How would things be different if instead of having to make a case for why, we instead ask why not?

Have you ever had that classroom experience where you knew the answer to the question that was asked, but you didn’t raise your hand, because you were afraid there was a chance you could be wrong? Or perhaps it was one of those brain storming type questions where they tell you there is no wrong answer, but your answer is so out of the box that you are afraid people will laugh if you say it? These experiences make it hard for us to believe in ourselves. These experiences cause us to struggle with what we know to be right. What does Jesus teach regarding this?

A common question asked by children is “Who goes to heaven?” There have been many movies made on this topic. “All Dogs Go to Heaven” comes to mind. Even the disciples had questions regarding how someone gets into heaven. What did Jesus have to say?

Peter and Andrew were disciples and they were brothers. I am not sure which brother was the oldest. The scriptures do not directly tell us who is the eldest brother, and I have read differing opinions from bible scholars regarding their birth order. However, there is scriptural evidence the brothers were very different. Peter was out going and motivational. He was the brother who loved to talk. Andrew on the other hand, was thoughtful and quiet. Andrew would be the better listener. They were very different as brothers, how many times do you think they had to forgive each other?

Even in the middle of great turmoil, Paul preaches love as an active solution to the injustices of the world. Laws can be twisted in such a way that they serve to simply limit the amount of harm we do to each other instead of protecting the innocent. Yet an exercise of #love can bring #justice and peace to an ailing world.

How are we to handle conflict? Are we supposed to let others have their way? How are we to treat the world with love and maintain peace? Paul letter to the Roman church gives us some pointers on how to actively love and seek peace in our world.

Paul was being radical in his time when he encouraged the Roman church to encourage one another to pursue the gifts God had given each on of them. We have been experiencing a decline in the quality of our schools. Are we being just as radical if we encourage one another to pursue our talents? This week's text is Romans 12:1-8