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Hope for the Future and a Bright Red Nose
By Justin Rossow Of course the hood on his sweatshirt is up: the young African American man in the Walgreens line in front of me looks like he is doing his best to fit a stereotype. Late teens, early...
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Fostering Hearing God’s Word Together, Online
By Justin Rossow Part of any preaching ministry is fostering hearing ears and receptive lives. Scripture invites us to ruminate on God’s Word, to steep our hearts, minds, and daily lives in His...
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Mark Sermon Structures
By Justin Rossow This year we preached through the Gospel of Mark between January and Easter. And it was *awesome.* Looking back over so many weeks in the same book of the Bible, following the same...
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Heading in the Right Direction
Metaphors shape the way we think. Metaphors shape how we make decisions. Metaphors allow us to experience one thing in terms of something else. The following is a sermon produced by a student in a...
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The Dead Sea and the River of Life
by Justin Rossow The following sermon is based on the vision recorded in Ezekiel 47:1-12. Revelation 22:1-7a and John 4 were also used in worship that day. We often think of metaphor as using something...
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You ARE His Witnesses
I had a chance to sit down with a preacher after I listened to his sermon. I find the conversation about preaching can be fascinating, and really helpful for those who face the art, craft, and...
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That One Time I Accidentally Said, “Kiss My A**” Three Times During the...
I plead ignorance on this one. But the situation still brings up legitimate questions of communication, cultural norms, and offense as a preaching technique that Jesus seemed to use, but maybe we...
View ArticleWe Are The Coals
Paul seems to think that faith is a living thing that gets passed on from generation to generation. This faith that lived in Louis, and in Eunice, and in Paul now lives in Timothy, too; so Paul...
View ArticleV6 Discipleship: Social Influence (Part 2 of 3)
Social Influence and Social Ability are two of the cylinders in our V6 change engine. Getting all six cylinders firing together will help move you forward on your journey of faith.
View ArticleGod Gets His Hands Dirty
Your Heavenly Father rejects a remote control approach to your discipleship walk. You know: God way up there somewhere, pushing some buttons or pulling a few levers behind the curtain to make things...
View ArticleI’m Not So Sure About Certainty
Certainty is kind of a tricky thing. I mean, there are some Bible passages that seem to make certainty something we all should not only strive for, but already have in spades. The flagship verse for...
View ArticleA Place to Call Home
Whenever you visit a place linked to strong memories, the experience can be filled with a sense of homecoming. But it's not the same as it used to be. That combination of feelings helps us think about...
View ArticleThe Secret Code Prayer
Have you ever run a discipleship experiment? When was the last time you tried something new related to following Jesus or being shaped by him? I think a spirit of adventure and discovery goes a long...
View ArticleBeloved, Just Lost
It dawned on me in my devotion time just the other day that we usually think the Prodigal Son was OUT and then back IN again; outside the Kingdom and then back inside, where the family belongs. That...
View ArticlePlease Pass the Potatoes
In response to a blog about making room for doubting people at the table, I want to talk about the different ways we experience doubt depending on whether we came of age in a Culture of Certainty or a...
View ArticleSeedbeds of Discipleship in Greenhouses of Grace
What if we imagined every congregation, every small group Bible study, every home and neighborhood where Jesus has planted his Word as a seedbed of discipleship? And several of those seedbeds together...
View ArticleA Jackpot with a Countdown Timer
Let's imagine this situation: in a very posh casino, with a very unique promotion, and some crazy luck, not one but two people end up hitting an "Easy Money" jackpot at 11:00 pm exactly. The time stamp...
View ArticleThat I May Be His Own
I love Reformation! I get all worked up and excited when I can say, in complete confidence, that on my own, in my sin, I deserve nothing but God’s wrath; but in Jesus, I receive nothing but God’s...
View ArticleEmpathy at Biggby’s
So I’m sitting at a coffee shop waiting for my kids to get done with a play rehearsal and I can hardly believe my ears. One of the Biggby Coffee employees is on her knees not twenty feet from me...
View ArticleSomething Different for Advent
Does the world really need another Advent devotion book? Maybe... But only if it's something more...
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