Harvard Avenue Christian Church

Text: Luke 18 : 1 – 8 Theme Verse: “ …yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” (Luke 18:5) // ‘I didn’t want to bother you.’ ‘No, it’s okay.’ ‘No big deal.’ It seems that no matter how much […]

Text: Mark 13:24-37 Theme Verse: “And what I say to you I say to all: ‘Keep awake.’” (Mark 13:37) // As he battled pancreatic cancer, Professor Randy Pausch knew intimately the importance of using time wisely. He famously offered “The Last Lecture” at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he shared his heart about […]

Text: Psalm 46 Theme Verse: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) // When standing off balance, it’s hard to accomplish much of anything except trying to keep from falling down. The famed Psalm 46 reminds us of off-balanced living – the earth shakes (tell us about it!), the nations are in […]

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-14; 17-19 Theme Verse: “They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.” (Jeremiah 4:19) // One of the football moms leans over to me as her son lines up in the fullback position in practice. “He doesn’t usually […]

Text: Mark 9:14-29 Theme Verse: “Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24) // Behold! The most honest line in all of scripture: “I believe; help my unbelief.” It’s like this line oops-ed its way out of the mouth of this father who just wanted his son to […]

Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Theme Verse: “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because theywere like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34) // When you go about your day, do you look at the people you encounter as competitors […]

Text: James 5:13-20 Theme Verse: “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16b) // Dr. Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, specializing in the area of social work. Her work around the subject of vulnerability exploded when she offered a TED Talk in 2010 now viewed nearly […]

Text: Romans 8:12-25 Theme Verse: “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:25) // The magic formula: we’re always looking for it and, at times, we think we’ve captured it. Do these three things and get well or get rich or get six-pack abs. Formulas […]

Text: Luke 8:42b-48 Theme Verse: “Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.’” (Lk 8:46) // This is Promotion Sunday. Sounds very formal and official, doesn’t it? It marks the day when students move up a grade level in Sunday School and our fifth graders make the big […]

Text: Luke 6:27-31 Theme Verse: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31) // Eugene Peterson says of Jesus, “We follow a very different leader, one who in virtually every detail guides us in a way of living that is counter to that of the world.” The next Christians have […]

Text: Hebrews 10:32-29 Theme Verse: “But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” (Hebrews 10:39) // Life is hard. In attempt to stay engaged with the culture to find and highlight God’s beauty within, it is essential to stay grounded […]

Text: Romans 14:1-12 Theme Verse: “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (Romans 14:10) // We all know an arm-chair critic. We probably know him or her quite well actually. Dare […]

Text: Luke 19:1-10 Theme Verse: “For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.” (Luke 19:10) // At thirty years old, Jesus began his public ministry in Israel. At that time, the Pharisees dominated the religious landscape. They were revered as the most holy, God-fearing Jews in the land, bent on preserving […]

Text: 2 Corinthians 4:1-15 Theme Verse: “Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:15) // This moment in time is unlike any other in history. Its uniqueness demands an original response. If we fail to […]

Text: Isaiah 43:16-21 Theme Verse: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19) // The title cover story by Pulitzer prize winning writer Jon Meacham of Newsweek a few years back said it all: “The End of Christian America.” This was not a story […]

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Theme Verse: “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG) // JRR Tolkein’s “Leaf by Niggle” has been interpreted, by some, as a story of hope in our toil. He writes of a painter named Niggle who has a vision and desire to paint the perfect tree […]

Text: 1 Peter 4:8-11 Theme Verse: “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” (1 Peter 4:10) // A generation ago, there was a general separation of time and space when it came to our professional and personal lives. There was a particular […]

Text: Exodus 32:1-6 Theme Verse: “Aaron took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”(Ex 32:4) // Someone noted that the number one response to the question, “How […]

Text: Genesis 1:26 – 2:2 Theme Verse: “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it…” (Genesis 1:28) // Is work simply a means to an end? Is work the thing that gets in the way of what we really […]

Text: Ephesians 4:11-16 Theme Verse: “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love – like Christ in everything.” (Ephesians 4:15) // Life has a trajectory. We don’t foresee the twists and turns nor can we fully see into the future. Even so, we have certain expectations of […]