It’s soon to be the second Sunday in January.  The church calendar tells us that it’s Epiphany Sunday, commemorating the visit of the wise men.  It also marks the official end of the holiday season.  The twelve days of Christmas are now over.  Our annual overindulgence of too much to eat, too much to drink, too much laziness, and too many dumb movies is grinding to a halt.  We are realizing that it’s time to get back to our regular “routine” (well, we should have returned to the routine last week, but we’re often slow to accept reality), and returning to the routine means being serious once again about our work, our families, and our ever-present responsibilities.

But we all know a few people who have gone off into self-indulgence … and haven’t come back.  The responsibilities have been forgotten, or discarded, in favor of the constant pursuit of pleasure.  In time, the pursuit of pleasure takes over everything else.  Work, family, friends, church are all left behind.  Spiritually speaking, they have become a wanderer.  You may know someone like that.

This Sunday will be our second sermon in this January series entitled: “Coming Home: Bringing Back the Wanderer.”  The theme verse for the entire series is James 5:19-20, which I encourage you to read each week this month.  And this week we’ll be looking at “The Sensual Wanderer” through the life of Samson.  You can find his story in Judges 13-16, which would also be good for you to read before Sunday.  Of all the wanderers, this may be the hardest one for any of us to reach … but this story lets us know that nothing (or no one) is impossible for God.  And if nothing else, this story will encourage us to pray more for our wandering friends and family.  And that’s a good thing.  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave