Today as we continue the summer sermon series, I Surrender All – Tales of Trust, our worship message centers on Sarai who became Sarah -  (Sarai > Sarah).

On this summer’s graduation weekend, Welcome to where Andrews University gathers year ’round to worship God. The Lord of this House is the Lord of this campus. In celebration of his grace that has brought these 215 graduates to this milestone of academic achievement and personal accomplishment, let us come before our God with rejoicing and thanksgiving. “For the Lord is good, and his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.

I’ve been trying to get stronger lately. Every morning, at an ungodly hour, (at least my wife thinks so) I get out of bed and head to the Meier Hall Health Club. This name “Health Club” is really a euphemism for a small, poorly ventilated space, in the basement of the Men’s Dormitory where guys go to torture themselves because we all know that while boy children are still in the womb our brains are washed clean with testosterone.

The body cell is the basic block of all human life. It is estimated that the human body is comprised of between 50-100 trillion cells. These cells die and are reborn each night. So in a real sense every day, our bodies are "brand new." If you haven't thought about it, human beings are creatures of "change." We are constantly changing every day. Yet when our cells die and cease to regenerate that process is called "aging." Old age and the inability of our cells to change are the beginning signs of death. We are living today in a time of tremendous transformation.

Do Hard Things. That’s the title of a book I read this summer. Written by Alex and Brett Harris (19-year-old twin brothers of Joshua Harris—author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye) the book challenges teens to rebel against rebellion. To rebel against the low expectations people have of teens. The book is an invitation for teens to join the “rebelution.” To do hard things. It includes the challenge to respect the authorities in their lives, ask for direction and help and to collaborate.I’m no longer a teenager . . . yet the book spoke to me.

Imagine the emotion.  Your son graduates from Ruth Murdoch Elementary School with high grades.  Graduates from Andrews Academy on the honor roll and president of his class.   Following his graduations from Andrews University magna cum laude, and the seminary with his M.Div., he is hired as a pastor in the Michigan Conference.  Within just a few years he is the senior pastor of one of the largest churches in the conference, with an Associate Pastor and Bible Worker on his staff.  You couldn’t be more proud.  The promise that if you train a child up in the right way he will not depart from it

Dwight Nelson will continue his blog at the end of August. Check here next week for posts from guest bloggers.

After his sudden death last Friday, he’s become larger than life.  And I for one miss him.  I didn’t know Tim Russert, of course.  But every Sunday morning I have timed my 10K run to end just as his “Meet the Press” was beginning.  And for a few sweaty moments with my Sunday paper and breakfast, I would listen in on the celebrated journalist’s gentlemanly grilling of another public figure or two or three.  “If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press” was my preference, too.

The word that stumped him was “quaquaversal.”  How these kids survive as long as they do in the Scripps National Spelling Bee is beyond me!  Ten-year-old Tony Incorvati of Ohio made it to the third round a few days ago, until he ran into that amalgamation lurking in the bowels of some dusty dictionary.  And no matter how hard he squinted, it wouldn’t come out right.

History was made Tuesday night, when Barack Obama was declared the winner of the Democratic presidential primaries, thus becoming the first African American to be nominated for President of the United States by a major political party.  And given the painful history of race relations in this country, Americans of all parties, races and faiths surely hope this is a harbinger of better days to come.