Culture is the set of values, beliefs, ideas, customs, manual skills, arts, and traditions of a people cast along to succeeding generations. Churches and families have cultures just as whole societies do. These cultures exert a major influence on how and what we worship. Can—or should—culture and God be separated? Despite their great cultural differences,…

We’ve been talking about how to know God, how to know the truth about God and, for the past couple of weeks, what might be the roles (if any) of technology, including artificial intelligence. in knowing God?  We carry in our pockets the greatest tool of free expression ever invented: the cell phone, which puts…

We are discussing how we know God and how God communicates with us. Today I’d like to begin with the questions: Do religious rituals help us to know God better, and what is the purpose of religious rituals?  Rituals include the communion service, washing one another’s feet, baptism, the lighting of candles, baby dedications, confirmation,…

We’re talking about knowing God and hearing his voice and about how God communicates with us. Last week, we studied eight lessons on how God communicates, derived from the story of the boy Samuel.  Today, I’d like to return to the story of Jacob for more insights into how God communicates with us, to see…

Last week we saw that in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, the words for obedience and listening are really the same word—synonyms, essentially. To obey is simply to listen and to act on God’s voice. But (as Michael pointed out) listening is not just a passive exercise:…

Editors’s Note: Dr. Weaver’s sermon this week struck a chord even deeper than usual. You may view the video by going to this link and entering the passcode ww.fW87Y. Last week we were looking at the question: Why is grace so hard to accept? Why are we so naturally attracted to performance, to industry, to…