Thoughts on Life and Worship

  God Knows Psalm 139:1-6 August 18, 2013 Introduction I’m not a fan of “chick-flicks.”  Of course, I’ll watch one from time to time with Diane.  I can tolerate and even enjoy romantic comedies.  But movies based on novels by Jane Austin?  I’m sorry.  I’d rather eat lutefisk. Doesn’t mean I don’t have any romantic sense.  In fact, did you know that August is National Romance Month?  At least I know that!  (Thanks, Proflowers.com for the email reminder.)  OK.  I’ll admit that I’m quite clumsy in romantic matters, but I do have a heart.  I well remember, as I suspect many of you can, those adolescent and early adult years that were miserable in their loneliness.  I was very unsure of myself and shy.  How many times did I die on the inside because I didn’t have the courage to risk rejection? I was scared to death to initiate conversation with any girl I liked.  Diane says I ‘m still reluctant...

Introduction One of my favorite movies is The Patriot .  Admittedly, it’s not a film for everyone.  The violence of war is graphically depicted.  But the themes of courage, patriotism and redemption make it a very inspiring movie for me.  I usually watch it every year sometime around Independence Day to remind me of the cost of freedom. The story centers on Benjamin Martin’s experience during the Revolutionary War.  The Mel Gibson character is loosely based on a real American hero, Francis Marion, the so-called “Swamp Fox” who terrorized British troops in South Carolina during the war.  The film opens with Martin’s confession, “I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost is more than I can bear.”  He is a widower with six children and a dark past.  How is he to raise his family properly in such an uncertain world?  Martin and his children look to the memory of their deceased wife and mother for moral guid...

Introduction Have you ever been lost?  I don’t mean the times when you refuse to ask for directions and your wife has to go into the gas station and figure it out.  I don’t mean that.  Maybe you got lost in a store as a little kid.   We lost our son for a couple of minutes at Knott’s Berry Farm when he was about seven years old.  I still don’t think he has forgiven us for our parental incompetence.  Those experiences are fairly common.  I’m talking about being disoriented in an unknown place with no idea of how to return home. People get lost in blizzards and in the wilderness.  Some of them don’t survive.  But I think the absolute worst would be being lost at sea with no means of movement and no hope of discovery.  Imagine the horror of being alone in a small raft floating on an expanse of water that extends in every direction beyond what your eye can see.  There are no landmarks – no guiding lights to help you on...