Category: Holy Spirit

  • How Do We Live When Paradise Burns?

    How Do We Live When Paradise Burns?

    Just a week before the fires that devastated Lahaina, and ultimately Maui, all of Hawaii, and the world, I said goodbye to the banyan tree at the heart of that place that has become almost sacred to me. I literally spoke to it in my heart and thanked it for enduring as long as it…

  • Citizens of the Spiritocracy

    Citizens of the Spiritocracy

    As I have lifted up many times in other sermons, in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are literally asking for God’s Way to take precedence in the working out of our lives. In other words,…

  • The Spirit of Aloha: A Silva Linings Conversation

    The Spirit of Aloha: A Silva Linings Conversation

    We met under the most auspicious of circumstances when, unbeknownst to us, an earthquake was on the horizon and threat of a tsunami was looming. But, God saw it coming before any of the world’s most sensitive instruments and prepared us to meet just about 8 hours prior to the earthquake in Chile and subsequent…

  • Where Love Abides

    Where Love Abides

    How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? – 1 John 3:17 This is a post that of myself I don’t want to write. In fact, I don’t even know what I am about to say. What I know is that I…

  • According to the World’s Rules

    According to the World’s Rules

    I am beginning this post with the question in my mind, “What is the most liberating message that I could convey to readers at this moment?” I’m asking this, because I want to make a positive contribution to some of what I am witnessing with people right now. When I asked the question to myself,…

  • If You Don’t Bear Your Cross, Someone Else Will Have To

    On July 17, 2016, I preached a sermon entitled “Broken For You”. The idea behind the sermon came down to the idea that if people took 100% responsibility for their lives the whole world would be transformed in an instant. The spark for the sermon came from Jesus’ teaching that those who desire to follow…

  • The Roofless Church’s Statement of Faith

    Today I have to teach a confirmation class about what is called a Statement of Faith.  If you are not familiar with what that is, then it is pretty much what it sounds like.  I am supposed to help them see how important a statement of faith is and encourage them as they begin writing…