My Cup Runneth Over (Musings of an Unspecialized Generalist)

     Most of us have undoubtedly heard this rhetorical question asked many times. But, how many times have we pondered it? It’s not “Should I do good?”; nor is it “What should I do?”  No, the question is predicated upon the presumption that I should do good. Where does that come from? The other day I was doing a Bible study and this issue struck me as it never has before. (It is possible that it has and I just don’t remember.) The near-epiphany ignited a spark in me to blog again; I don’t know why I haven’t written in a long time, but this may be something worth writing and thinking about.      Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do .” Focusing on the last part of the verse; which is in the context of having been made alive--a work of art--in Christ, is what I want to write about. Note the order; what was prepared first, in advance? Not ...

What’s the best way to get to know another person? It is to learn his/her story; isn’t it! Everyone has a story, and it’s nearly always true that the better you know someone’s story; the better you know the person. Could the same be true about getting to know God? Yes, the better one knows God’s story, undoubtedly, the better one knows God. There is a difference between knowing a person or God and knowing their story, but the two go hand in hand.      The Bible is God’s Story. For many years I thought that the Bible was a book of theology. (I could not have articulated that early on, but that’s what I thought.) “I might know the stories of the Book, but it was the preachers who really understood the Bible.” And, if I wasn’t going to be a preacher, which I wasn’t , I probably wouldn’t ever really understand that somewhat foreboding, “funny talking” book with its “thee”(s) and“thou”(s); etc. Oh yes, I knew that the Bible was God’s Word.   ...

I had the joy and honor of preaching the Resurrection Sunday sermon at Plainwell Presbyterian Church; here is my message, somewhat abbreviated, and written after delivery from an outline, but very much as I spoke it.      In the grand scheme of All, how big do you think the issue of Easter is? (pause)  It's huge, isn't it! The importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ probably cannot be overstated; it's cardinal; it's right there beside the incarnation in terms of its importance and relevance. Narrowing our thinking down a little, what would you say the message of Easter is? What is the proclamation of the resurrection?      For many years in my Christian experience I would have answered that question something like this: “The importance of Jesus’ dying, and rising from the dead is that it guarantees that I can do the same.” And, so can anyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ. A few years ago I came to believe wh...

A somewhat abbreviated message by David Youngs, to First Presbyterian Church Basic Scripture: John 10: 1-11 & 14; Colossians 1: 15-20      You have noticed some similarities in most of my messages, haven’t you? It didn’t take long for me to realize that we are the kind of church that you don’t have to park your brain at the door. Of course, it’s not all about the brain, but I like propositional truths, and I operate from a base of those. The Bible is God’s story; I believe in it’s narrative primacy, but it has many, many propositionally stated truths. Check Genesis 1:1; Galatians 4:4; Revelation 21:3; for instance and multiplied others.       My launch proposition for today’s message, “What Does God Want?” is: There is always a bigger picture than is readily obvious. You have all been in situations where sooner or later you realized there was something bigger going on than you first realized. We all have spi...

The following is very similar to a sermon-teaching that I recently delivered at First Presbyterian Church of Plainwell.             Time! Benefactor or dictator? Enemy or champion? Friend or foe? How do you view the ever-moving hands on the clock of time, even if silently, clicking away? Thoreau said that time was but a stream he went “afishing in.” Solomon viewed time as something pre-ordained. There is a time for everything, birth, death, and all of life’s events in between. What’s your reaction to that? One person might say, “Yes, and I didn’t have anything to say in any of it--that’s fate.” Another might say, “Yes, and even though I didn’t choose when to be born or to die, I believe there is a good and sovereign God behind time; even though I don’t alway   understand His timing, I know that it is ultimately good.” Generally, which attitude reflects yours? Yes, of course, you know where I am going wit...

Going to funerals usually has a contemplitivising effect on me; I come away thinking of my own last time at church. (That’s where I want my final rite of passage held.) On Saturday I did the Words of Comfort and Hope  for my cousin Rudy Leutzinger at South Bend, Indiana. He was only a little more than an year younger I am, but he was a Christ-follower. I came away with a sense of great privilege. My thanks go to Donna and Bill, Rudy’s wife and son, for asking me to minister in that way. I have done funerals for three of my cousins, Ralph Leutzinger, John Douglas Beukema, and now Rudy; and it has been an honor.   When my generation of the Leutzingers was complete, cousin John was born in 1965, there were 36 of us. (We had lost Connie Lou and gained Jim Larnard.) I was fourth to be born; there are now 26 of us with Rudy's passing. I did not love a course in statistics that I had to take for my Master's, but I remember enough to realize that the fourth to be born out of 36...

“This too shall pass away.” a mighty monarch was told, after he had charged his sages to come up with one grand and concise truth that would always and forever hold true. Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote a poem so entitled, and Carl Sandburg picked up on the phrase for one of his poetic gems. Every thinking person knows that change is inevitable and continuous, even so, do you think or get the feeling that there has been a huge crescendo of overall change of late?  (I do understand that many older folks’ favorite pastime is playing   “Ain’t It Awful,” but that’s not what I am doing.)        Change has been in constant motion since the Fall; it's rate has been sporadic. Throughout history there have been epochal changes, and I believe that for several years, our culture has been and is now experiencing exactly that. It's not just that our way of saying and doing things has changed, but in a deeper way our culture’s manner of “seeing” all things...