Langdon Palmer

When you think of what a huge fraction of your life is spent working, it really matters how we live our lives there. So how is your job ? Do you wonder if you have the right job ? Do you wonder how your faith and your work should go together? Today we look at a biblical understanding of work and how to find godly satisfaction in our 9-5 lives.

Somewhere along the way, many of us got so busy and “grown up”, that we forgot how to play. But what if being playful is actually a crucial aspect of being created in the image of God ? Today we look at the example of Jesus and look at ways to recapture a playful heart.

How would you describe your relationship with our own body ? What does a healthy relationship to food, exercise, and sleep look like ? We seem to live in a time of extremes when it comes to body image. Today we ask five difficult questions to help you get a handle on just where you are in your relationship with these things, and we look at four scriptures that help set the boundaries for a more joyful life inside your own body!

When it comes to sexuality, we live in confusing and divided times. Today we do an introduction to Christian Sexual Ethics. Our goal is not to conform to the political left or the political right but rather to hear what the New Testament is trying to teach us. Our goal is not to talk about “those” people who may differ from us in their beliefs, but rather to ask “Lord, what would you have ME do ?”

Trying to raise kids well is one of the biggest challenges of life. But getting along well with our extended family can be a close second! Today we look at how we can bring spiritual disciplines to our families – that we might honor God in the way that we treat them. And we begin in the strangest way… by taking parenting tips… from a Klingon !

Many influences in our modern culture make us feel more alone than ever, leaving us unskilled at real friendships and unprepared for the commitment that true friendships require. Real friendship is crucial for physical, psychological, and spiritual health. We need it not only for comradery, but also to form virtue in us – we need people who know & love us enough to speak truth into our lives. Spiritual friends are those who share a commitment to grow in Christ.

Spirituals Disciplines, habits and routines of life, can help us grow in our relationship with God. But when it comes to Spiritual Disciplines, one size does not fit all. We need to find rhythms that work well for our particular shape, for the unique person that God made us. However all Christian models always contain three basic foundations: Scripture, Prayer, and Sabbath. Sabbath is the one that most of us are most tempted to cut the corners on. Could there be some deep and crucial reasons why God makes such a big deal about how important it is for us to experience truth Sabbath. Find out in our podcast this week! See Notes for more details.

Ken Shigematsu argues “What ever we do repeatedly, (even if it is simple), has the power to shape us.” Much the way a grape vine can be trained on a trellis, our habits train us into a certain shape. This fall we are going to look at ancient spiritual disciplines that can shape and train us into the people God intended us to be. Today Pastor Langdon shares lessons from his own vineyard that can teach us how we can grow and flourish in God's vineyard. And we look at how practice and a "long obedience in the same direction" is exactly what makes great artists, athletes, and spiritual warriors. You can see the video of Yo-Yo Ma that was shared during the sermon at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1prweT95Mo0

What would it be like to get a glimpse of Heaven ? What if you could pull back the surface of the physical world and see the mechanics of Heaven at work behind it ? Today we look at the last paragraph of Psalm 103, the sixth window. We dive into the deep end of the heavenly realms and then conclude with a practical six step meditation you can use to start your day with your face towards God. You can do the meditation at http://levpres.org/starting-your-day-with-the-six-windows-of-psalm-103/

The fifth window of Psalm 103 is one a lot of us don’t like to look out – the window that faces our mortality, the one that causes us to think about our own deaths. And yet true wisdom and true freedom are found here. In fact, when understood the right way, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, it can cause us to embrace life with new passion and hope. We start with a classic scene from “The Dead Poet Society” , meet Scrooge on Christmas morning, then end with the power and promises of God.

Often life can seem like a barren wilderness – a brutal desert where nothing grows. And there are many voices to tell us that any claim that there is more to life is a mirage at best and an evil lie at worst. But hidden down between the barren wastelands there is a thin green ribbon of flourishing and growth that winds its way through life. Those who walk it encounter the hope, love, and peace of God. Join us today as we hear the harshest critics of Christianity as well as the sure voice of the One who loves us to the moon and back.

Is Christianity about individual conversion or about social justice ? Is the focus my personal spiritual journey or national policies for the poor and oppressed ? Today we continue our verse by verse exploration of Psalm 103 as we come to a fascinating two verses that connect ancient history to our current cultural moment.

Today we join the author of Psalm 103 as he looks back along his life and all the ways that God has blessed him. We take a wild ride that ranges from the choices we have made all the way down to the latest scientifc discoveries about what is going on inside our bodies at the level of proteins and cells. And we end by encountering the word that is the secret that leads to an exceptional life.

Today we begin a wonderful six week journey through Psalm 103. Join us as we study and experience a psalm that can reset and reorient our relationship with God. See the Episode Notes for great quotes and resources.

In an attempt to try to live forever, some people do crazy things like having their bodies frozen in a cryogenic chamber in the hope of one day being brought back to life. Most of us are not that extreme, but are there ways we are attempting to live forever through our legacy ? If the unspoken truth is that we are terrified of death, this fear will distort the choices we make, it will rob us of the very life we are afraid of losing. When it comes to our lives, our legacy, our significance – do we try to set up shop on our own ? Do we try to create our own salvation, or do we trust in the God who is able to save us, who gives us our true meaning, who has the ability to resurrect us after death ? Today we look at how the characters of Tom Riddle and Harry Potter illustrate two very different life paths, and we turn to the scriptures to encounter he ultimate King’s Cross Station. It turns out we are standing there – right now.

Today we look at two stories in Harry Potter to help us understand the multidimensional meaning of three crucial words: Temptation, Repentance, and Reconciliation. We track what happened to Hagrid and Percy, and discover an amazing parallel to the story given by the master story teller, Jesus, known as “The Prodigal Son.”

What do you do when you come across teachings of Jesus that seem cold, abrupt, even rude ? What do you do when the teachings of Jesus offend you ? Would a good person ever come across as abrupt, rude, or cold ? Is there a difference between being a good person and being a nice person ? When the bible tells us that Jesus was unattractive and despised – do you think he would have been attractive to you ? Today we explore a side of the historical Jesus of Nazareth that people often avoid by considering his parallels to the most unlikely character imaginable in the Harry Potter series…

How can you know if your faith is real ? In a classic scene, Harry Potter is told that the passage to the other world of Hogwarts is achieved by going through what looks like a solid wall. On the surface, this advise makes no sense, but some kinds of truths that can only be known through experience. Today we look at what it means to take the leap of faith and how that is quite different than blind faith. We learn from Soren Kierkegaard what it means to have passionate faith and we turn to the book of Acts to see it in action. We face the reality that we tend to say to God “Show me and then I will trust you”, but we live in a world where God says “Trust me, and then I will show you…”

Do we really have free will, or is it just an illusion? Do you think you can control your future or do you believe whatever is going to happen is going to happen ? Is there such a thing as fate or destiny ? If there is a God and he is in complete control, how can our choices matter ? Today we face these fundamental questions about life and our introduction is the classic scene in Harry Potter where the Sorting Hat decides to which house he will be assigned. We then jump into the scriptures and discover that in the midst of all the uncertainty of life, the primal thing we need to know is this: Is God Kind, Is God good ? Can God be trusted ?

One of the reasons Harry Potter is a world-wide phenomena is that beneath the magic and fantasy it touches strangely familiar experiences in our own lives – including what it feels like to be tormented by other people and what it feels like to be tormented by our own thoughts. Today we look at how the creations of the Harry Potter story known as Dementors and Delores Umbridge paint the reality of experiences in the real world. We then go to the wisdom of the scriptures to learn how to live in a world where dark emotions and dark souls can oppress us. There actually is such a thing as a Patronus – one who guides and protects us and covers us and keeps the dementors of this world at bay. During this sermon, our own Emily McGlaughlin painted alongside Pastor Langdon, telling the same story visually. You can see her painting above