Jan 30

Rules, Rules, Rules

Luke 6:1-11

This past week I was listening to a TV commentator that often refers to his Christian faith, and he said that Christianity is a “rules-based religion.” He used the Ten Commandments to support his assertion.
Was he right or was he wrong? In Luke 6:1-11, Jesus is accused of breaking the big rules, breaking the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath. First part is about hunger and the second is about healing. This helps us think about the issue of Christianity being a “rules-based” religion.
I would simply say that Christianity is not a rules-based religion. The only thing that makes you a Christian is your belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As far as rules we have the rule of Love, the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. We have seen throughout history we have seen the problems caused by people adding rules to the Christian faith.
But don’t think that means the Christian does not have a strong moral basis. The moral and ethical foundation of a Christian are based in a system of hierarchy seen in the Law of God. What do we value most? What is to be our goals in life? And what standard do we use to evaluate what is right and what is wrong? There is a standard of good and evil in Christianity, and that is what actions validate or
undermine that image of God in the other human being. Jesus says in our text, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?”
Human thriving the ultimate good, so this is a foundational principle in our oral system. This is where we must exercise deep humility because it is not what I think is for human thriving, but what is the meaning of “love my neighbor as myself.”
We do back away from rule keeping forms that Christians practice. But we also must not practice a form of Christianity is without morals, ethics, and standards of good and evil.


Pastor Greg


This Sunday is Scout Sunday where we welcome our Scouts and their families to join us for worship. Make sure that we let our guests know they are welcomed and how much we appreciate the word of the
Scout Troop.

Jan 17

Jesus Brings Good News—To Them?

As I read this week’s text, I am taken back to a previous congregation. It was an
older congregation, living in the by-gone days before the town began its rapid
increase in minority population. We had a “mixed-race” couple that began
attending the church, and the African-American husband became one of our
ushers, and served communion. The gossipers in the back could barely hold their
tongues, until the unforgivable happened. The man did not wear a tie one day as
he took up the offering. “We can’t have that! We have to uphold the dignity of
worship?” They were allowing their latent racism to be masked by a defense of the holiness of the place of worship.
Jesus defends the holiness of God by giving examples of God’s grace to the Widow from Zarephath and Naman the Leper. That made them so mad that they
seemingly wanted to break the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.”
How do we limit the “who” that Christ came to save? The way we counter this in
the church is to acknowledge that all are welcome, and respect the Christianity of even “those” kind of people. But we like to draw lines, set up barriers, and shun those that we feel are not worthy of God’s salvation.
We needed a Savior for all—because I am probably one of “those” kind of people.
Galatians 4:4-7 (expanded)- But when the set time had fully come, God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son ship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, or


· a gentile, from the wrong family,
· of the wrong gender,
· from the wrong nation,
· from the wrong side of the tracks,
· love the wrong kind person,
· raised with wrong belief,
· with the wrong kind of past,
· or just not worth loving


but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

We need to be amazed by the scandalous grace of God, that would even save a
“sinner such as I.”

Pastor Greg

Jan 09

A Voice Crying Out

We meet John the Baptist in Luke 3:1-17; 22-23.  He is a voice.  A voice that calls for the crocked things to be made straight, and the obstacles that are placed in the way of human thriving to be removed.  His voice called for repentance that gets down to the foundations of how people choose to live.  And his voice calls for those with power to stop grabbing for the things that belong to others, to stop using false accusations to extort the poor, and to be content with what they produce by the honest work of their own hands.

John’s voice cries in the wilderness, the place of desolation, and calls for everyone to change, to get ready of the coming of God.  Yes, he had an effective voice, but each of us have a voice.  A voice to call out injustice, abuse, unfairness, and manipulation.  We do not have to go to the wilderness to use our voice, we do not have to get in a river to use our voice, but we do have our own area of influence to use our voice.

John’s voice was not only a voice that pointed out sin, it was also a voice that gave instruction for the right way to live.  That is how we must see how we use our voices, not simply tearing down what is wrong, but encouraging what is right.  To instruct others in the ways of the Lord.

How are you using the voice that God has given you?  Who are you encouraging to do the right thing?

Pastor Greg

Jan 02

My times are in your hand;Psalm 31:15

Every year at this time Psalm 31:15 comes into my thinking.  It is a Psalm of Lament, lamenting on the enemies that surround the speaker, the arrogance of the enemies, the viciousness of the enemies, the arrogance of the enemies are all concerns for the Psalmist.  Yet even in the face of these enemies, he trusts in the Lord, “You are my God!”  he declares in the face of this opposition.

The use of “time/times” in this sense is more than a remark on the passage of time. Underlying the psalmist’s surrender is an understanding of life as made up of a series of decisive moments in which a person can take either appropriate or inappropriate direction, depending on how he or she responds to the circumstances.  One response is to seek to control and manipulate the situation to one’s advantage.  That is clearly what the psalmist’s opponents are doing.  The other way is to surrender one’s personal will to the power and authority of God.

This is no simplistic fatalism in which the psalmist, confronted by life-threatening circumstances, simply shrugs and says, “Whatever!”  Rather, it is a call to the righteous to become people who “understand the times” to be perceptive observers of life and sensitive to the character and purpose of God, and to respond appropriately in each “time.” The psalmist’s confidence that the Lord remains powerful over all the discordant activities of the enemies permits him to eschew frantic attempts to shore up personal interest, and instead to take up residence in the secure stronghold God provides. (NIV Application Commentary)

This psalm contains a familiar phrase in v. 5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.”  Trust in God does not bring us deliverance from our troubles, but keeps us in our trials.  So as we enter 2025, let us renew our trust in our God, and realize the promise, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you,” no matter what enemies come upon us.

Pastor Greg

Watch for closings and delay messages
during the winter months on TV Channels 3, 5 and 8.

Twinsburg First Congregational Church