On this Father’s Day, I want to talk about the biblical understanding of manhood and fatherhood and explore the challenges we see because many men are not fulfilling their divine calling as men and fathers. For this, I want to first speak about one of the crises contributing to much of the hurt and decay in society: the absence of fathers in their children’s life. Many young and old men struggle with a lack of confidence, direction, and motivation. They are uncertain about their purpose in life. This crisis is particularly evident in young men who are underperforming or opting out of school. According to recent data, they earn the majority of low grades in U.S. schools, and by the … Read More
Life Lessons from Proverbs Through the Magic of Disney’s Mulan
Last Sunday, I introduced a new sermon series for this Summer, “Life Lessons from Proverbs through Disney’s Magic.” These messages focus on learning life-giving lessons from the Book of Proverbs, such as wisdom, justice, foolishness, pride, friendship, diligence, humility, patience, kindness, honesty, and more. As we draw these life lessons from Proverbs and Disney movies, today, we focus on the topic of The Path of Righteousness. This is a very personal topic for me. I shared before about a time in my ministry when I faced injustices from some individuals who acted selfishly. This period, though dark, allowed me to learn essential lessons about character. I was tempted to retaliate, but my love for the church and its people stopped … Read More
Life Lessons from Proverbs Through the Magic of Disney’s “Lion King”.
Today we are starting a new sermon series learning from the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is a profound book with so many lessons about life. It teaches about wisdom, justice, foolishness, pride, friendship, diligence, humility, patience, kindness, honesty, and more. For this, this Summer, we are going to learn what it says about these subjects in our Summer Series: Life Lessons from Proverbs through Disney’s Magic. In this series, we will delve into the lessons Proverbs presents and link them with classic Disney movies that portray these subjects in an impactful and emotional manner. Today, we focus on wisdom, a concept that became incredibly important to me after facing certain challenges in my ministry. There was a … Read More
Pentecost: Transformation and New Beginnings
Today we commemorate Pentecost, a pivotal moment in the story of our Christian faith. However, Pentecost was originally a Jewish holiday known as the Feast of Weeks, celebrating the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. As such, it is observed 50 days (seven weeks) after Passover. But as Christians, we celebrate Pentecost 50 days after Easter, marking the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church. Let’s recall briefly how we arrive to this day. In the weeks following Easter, there was a period of profound transformation. We started at the empty tomb, where we found not death but the astonishing promise of resurrection. Then we saw the risen Christ appearing before his disciples … Read More
Confirmation: Embracing the Call to Live Like Christ
Today is a very special day in the life of our church. It is Confirmation Sunday! But what is that and why do we do it? Great questions. In our United Methodist tradition, a child is typically baptized when they are very young, often as babies, because we believe God’s grace is already at work in them. If Jesus said the children are good enough for heaven, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Matthew 19:14), then they are good enough to belong to the church. But when this happens, it is not the child who makes the confession of faith but … Read More