Sunday's sermon

The text I will be preaching on this Sunday:

Matthew 8:23-27

Things to consider:

Why does Jesus tell his disciples that they have little faith? After all in their panic they turn and call out to him.

The two questions in this passage I have found very provoking:

"Why are you afraid?"

"What kind of man [Jesus] is this?"

The crucified God

Been reading the book The Crucified God by Jurgen Multmann. My intent was to blog about this book as I read it. However I am going to have to put that plan on hold. The reason is that I took this book out of the library. And this created a problem for me. The book is absolutely fabulous. Now that isn't the problem. The problem is that it is a large book and deserves a careful read. Which I can't do because I have to return the book. Also I am getting in the habit of marking up good books. So this book now goes on my list of books I need to buy and read.

Baptism

This Sunday my church is having a baptism service. There are three people who are going to get up and testify to what God has done in their lives and publicly commit to following Jesus. I am very excited.

The service starts at 10:45am and everyone is welcome to attend.

LifeLight Festival

Last weekend my family and I went to the LifeLight music festival. We camped with a couple friends.

Positive things:

• Camping with friends
• David Crowder Band was great
• Need to Breathe and Group 1 Crew also rocked
• I did enjoy Family Force Five's acoustic set - though they sure did not seem like they wanted to be there
• It was amazing seeing people make/renew commitments to follow Jesus
• The speakers emphasized surrendering our total life to Jesus - what a great focus
• Famous Dave's pork sandwich

Things I didn't enjoy so much:

• Screaming bands - which we could hear very well at our campsite, and which went on till about 2am. Though I did find it humorous trying to fall asleep to band screaming "Die, die, die, die..." Glad my kids had fallen asleep by then.
• Sometimes it felt a bit like a Christian pep rally
• The concert wasn't really free - we were guilted into giving money

Over all it was a good experience. The best part was hanging out with friends. Will see if we go next year.

Fair Trade Coffee?

Now I am not really coffee drinker (have the occasional cup here at church during coffee break). At home we rarely have coffee unless we have guests over (we either drink tea or 'mate'). With that being said as a family we have decided to (for the most part) buy fair trade coffee (usually from MCC).

However I just recently came across this "should-we-buy-fair-trade-coffee" post at the blog Jesus Creed. It states that buying fair trade coffee may not be the best.

Reading it makes me want to throw up my hands in disgust and give up trying. But that is not a good solution. I am reminded though that life is complicated and simple solutions aren't always the answer.