Faith, Grace, and Hope

We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.   (2 Corinthians 6:3-10)  After a discussion in my Adult Bible Study class, I keep thinking about this passage. In the denomination in which I grew up, a  testimony  was a statement one gave, the

Sermon for 18 July 2018, Feast Day of Mary Magdalene Some of this sermon was inspired by this book: God, Improv, and the Art of Living . The person who helped with the sermon works for this theater company:  https://www.tbatheatre.org

CN: This might not be for you if you're uncomfortable with the idea of me having sex. Hi, Dad! :) There's an article circulating the internet right now where the TL:DR is "real" Christian men prefer debt-free virgins without tattoos . Some men (and women) may prefer this in a wife. Nevertheless, the blanket prescription that living your best wife life depends on retaining your virginity, rejecting college, and continuing to live with your parents until marriage is not only false, it's dangerous. I'm going to digress. There was a point in my life where I was taught and I believed that retaining my virginity until my wedding night was the highest virtue I could attain. I was certainly expected to go to college. I could change my own tires and learned how to figure out when I was being upsold unnecessarily at the mechanic's shop. I worked in a grocery store, a hotel, as a tutor, a babysitter, and an office assistant. In the two years that I was at