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Rose City Park is a United Methodist Church in Portland whose name you probably never knew before.  If so, I would think you are in company with many, many, many other people.  Well, unless you haven't heard of them lately.  Many, many, many people have been introduced to the "other place to be on Sunday."  I am not quite sure what that means. The thing is, Rose Park has this marquis.  God bless the pastor because he tries to keep corny church stuff off of it!  In fact, one of his most recent message in a marquis brought the church a lot of attention.  Look at the image above and see if you can guess why? My opinion?  I. LOVE. IT.  I love it so much I was willing to do the annoying period after every word sentence.  You see, I love it so much I'm willing to be annoying--oh, the life my poor wife must live.  If I wasn't moving soon , I would probably steal it and put it on Oak Haven's trusty marquis.  I say if I wasn't ...

Time does not heal.  God does. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,    the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary;    his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,    and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary,    and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,    they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,    they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

The question: Who and what do we love? The answer is simple: Who does God love? Everyone. What does God love? Righteousness, mercy, forgiveness, etc. So, love what God loves.

Getting ready for this week's sermon: Chosen for More. This is the second of a three-week series entitled Chosen.

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-21 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? 2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: 4‘To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. 22The Lord created me at the beginning* of his work,* the first of his acts of long ago. 23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— 26when he had not yet made earth and fields,* or the world’s first bits of soil. 27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29when he assigned to the sea its ...

Our church recently added a new form of advertising. Oak Haven has an ongoing ad that runs in the weekly Irving Rambler. It carries the church name, website, phone number and worship service time. For our main events we place a special ad (larger space accompanied with a graphic). Pretty basic, pretty ordinary. Something not so ordinary is the skill some people have at spotting garage sale signs. It’s like a seventh sense. There’s no utility pole to hidden or neon sign too small they can’t spot. Every weekend these signs go up around town redirecting traffic to lawns and garages where quarters are the prime and VHS abounds. Those signs don’t get ignored (until they don’t get taken down after the grand sale). That got me thinking. We, Oak Haven, have intentionally focused our attention and efforts in establishing ties within the immediate neighborhoods around us. So, I wondered how many people ever saw our ad in the paper. They might not see an advertisement, but I bet mo...

Sure you may have known. But today I learned it's a little difficult and a lot annoying to change these letters when they're wet. Yes, that's ice on the bushes.