Saved for Good; 2/26/12

Feb 272012
 

Romans 9:30–10:13

Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church
February 26, 2012
Roslyn, WA
Dr. James D. Berkley

For those of you who cook, have you ever had someone come into your kitchen and rearrange it to fit their needs? We love to set up our workspaces just the way we want, but when someone moves the spoons or relocates the salt, when dirty dishes get put into the dishwasher with clean ones, when that butter in the refrigerator that is always behind the milk is now two shelves down, we get upset. We don’t like do-it-yourself rearrangements of our arrangements. Continue reading »

God Determines Our Destiny; 2/19/12

Feb 212012
 

Romans 9:6–26

Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church
February 19, 2012
Roslyn, WA
Dr. James D. Berkley

There may be no more difficult subject to preach on than predestination. So what have I gotten myself into today? Well, “fools rush in …” so here I go! Continue reading »

Faith for a Reason; 1/29/12

Jan 312012
 

Romans 4:17–25

Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church
January 29, 2012
Roslyn, WA
Dr. James D. Berkley

We live in a postmodern era of do-it-yourself faith. People as a whole tend to construct a religionlike pop philosophy that conveniently fits their needs and doesn’t cause much strain. Then they hold to their self-made mishmash—apart from its reality and in spite of its pitiful shallowness. They believe in a forgery, and they call it faith. Continue reading »

The Good, The Bad, and The Religious; 1/22/12

Jan 302012
 

Romans 3:19–31

Mt. Pisgah Presbyterian Church
January 22, 2012
Roslyn, WA
Dr. James D. Berkley

According to a kind of consensus religion these days, people generally construct three categories of persons: the good, the bad, and the religious. Think with me how this plays out. Hardly anybody would put themselves in the “bad” group. That’s for, like, Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler and Mafia hit men. And the “religious” group is pretty well reserved for saintly, otherworldly sorts who must be born that way—you know, people like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham. Most people wouldn’t even want to be thought so strange. Continue reading »