... be: poetry 1, prose 0. But if we look closely at the rest of the passage, the story begins to speak of other, more prosaic and earth-bound realities. To be sure, the two disciples of John do follow Jesus, but they do not seem to be fully certain of what they are doing. When Jesus notices that they are following him, he asks them, "What do you seek?" or, to put it ... to have to throw it. 1. William Muehl, Why Preach? Why Listen? (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 17. 2. Ibid., pp. 18-19. 3. Ibid., p. 17.
... connected to something bigger and more powerful than himself. He dreamed of rolling down the highway high in the cab of an 18-wheeler, or passing under the checkered flag at the Indianapolis 500. The closest he could come to such examples of unleashed ... without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind . . .” Friends, the light John is referring to is Jesus. He is the Word of God. Jesus did not merely speak the truth. He is the truth. He did not ...
... lives, no vital commitment, no beckoning call. In the words of Elijah, “How long will you limp between two opinions?” (I Kings 18:21) Or in the words of Joshua: “But if you are unwilling to obey the Lord, then decide today whom you will ... in fights in bars. One day some visitors came by the Bramlett home. They wanted to talk to John Bramlett about Christ. The impact of that visit changed John Bramlett’s life forever. Suddenly he turned from pursuing death to pursuing life. That is what repentance is. ...
... critic replied, "That would not do at all. If I kept it strung and ready for use, it would go lax and be good for nothing." "Then," said John, "do not wonder what I do." (2) WE NEED A SABBATH. Jesus is not belittling our need for a sabbath. He knew we need a day for rest, ... . THE SABBATH IN PURITAN NEW ENGLAND. as quoted in "The Blue Laws of New England," LIBERTY, Jan/Feb. 1963, pp. 18-19. 5. Harry Emerson Fosdick. THE MANHOOD OF THE MASTER. (New York: Association Press, 1958). 6. Robert Lauer and Jeanette ...
... it that way at all. I wonder why not? Let us consider the setting. It was the last week of our Lord’s earthly life. John says that it was “six days before the Passover” (12:1) The Passover meal was prepared on the 14th day of the Jewish month ... a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God (Cf. Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25). Now, some commentators would have us believe that the word has been mistakenly translated. They say that a slight slip of the pen on the ...
... . Most of the people who have come forward in Billy Graham’s crusades were already believers. Most of them, though, wanted to make a new start. John the Baptist was urging his fellow Jews to repent from their sins, and the way they would symbolize this would be that they would be baptized. Have you ever wished you could start over? Sometimes you hear people say, “I would like to be 18 again and know what I know now.” Don’t raise your hand, but is there anybody here who would like to go back and live ...
... become in the future. We only know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!” (1 John 3:1-2). John had been with Jesus in the upper room. He had heard Jesus say, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down ... home (Luke 15). “It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matt. 18:14). III. Prayer Is a Privilege Three, prayer Is a privilege, not a duty. What you have been experiencing the past four days, indeed ...
... it is in heaven. That kingdom began in the birth of our Savior at Bethlehem. The Isaiah traditions repeatedly announce that when the kingdom comes, the blind and deaf, the lame and dumb will be restored to wholeness (vv. 5-6; cf. Isaiah 29:18-20; 32:3-4; 33:24; 42:7, 16). Thus when John the Baptist inquires who Jesus is, in our gospel lesson, he learns that the Son of God has indeed fulfilled that ancient prophecy (Matthew 11:2-11). The new life of the Kingdom of God has begun to break into our lives in the ...
... .13 we see it is the people who believe in the name of the Son of God. Those who believe in that name, according to John 1:12, are the children of God. The reason why we ought to be confident when we pray is because we are children of God ... will hear." Sometimes God's answer comes straight from heaven immediately after we pray. He answers directly. Sometimes His response is delayed. Isa. 30:18 says, "Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you." You see, there are times that God wants for us ...
... was tempted in every way that Satan can tempt us. Because, you see, Satan only has three ways he can tempt anybody. These are described in I John 2:16, "For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of ... wife said, "Have nothing to do with that just Man." (Mt. 27:19) Pilate said, "I find no fault in Him at all." (Jn. 18:38) Judas said, "I have betrayed innocent blood." (Mt. 27:4) The thief on the cross, who had previously blasphemed him, reviled him and ...
... Now God has all kinds of ways He can spank us when we sin. For example: He can refuse to listen to our prayers. Ps. 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." Or God could also use His presence by removing His presence from ... only remedy. That is why v.9 says, "Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" The Apostle John tells, in I Jn. 5:16, that there is "sin unto death." There were people in the church at Corinth who were dying right and ...
... known as the White House. It serves as the official residence for the President of the United States. It stands on 18 acres along Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC. The interesting thing about the White House is every President in the history of ... get hung up on methods, and we forget motives. I heard about a young lady who wrote this note to her ex-FIANCÉ. It read: Dear John: I have been unable to sleep since we broke off our engagement. It has shattered me. I just can't live any longer without you. Won ...
... Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." (Matthew 20:18-19, NASB) "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." (Matthew 26:32, NASB) The word of Jesus ... words, He wasn't resurrected, He was just resuscitated. There are several problems with this line of thinking. First of all, we are told in John 19:34 that just to make sure that Jesus Christ was dead, a Roman soldier thrust his spear into His side between His ribs that ...
... is peace in our own hearts. There is an insecurity within us that causes us to resent the person who is different. The basic cause of hatred is fear. The only cure is found in I John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . .” There is only one source of perfect love and that is God. God is love (I John 4:8). We need to so fill our hearts and our minds with the love of God that there is no room for hatred and resentment of others. Robert A. Schuller, young Robert, tells of ...
... that as much as I love Christmas music, by about now in the Advent season I start identifying with the 17th century English poet John Donne: "I need thy thunder, O God; thy songs do not suffice me.” But there is one well known carol that defies all categories ... would approach and reverently kiss the golden bull. “The people kiss bull” is how the Scripture phrases it (cf. 1 Kings 19:18; cf. Hosea 13:2). Is Christmas-shopping our form of a bull-kiss? No doubt, gold has become god for our twenty-first ...
... that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, [18] so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of ... by the Holy Spirit, the faith will be passed on to future generations. We are the saints of the future. To quote John Quincy Adams: "We understand now that who we are is who we were." Our inheritance is the same inheritance of all the saints ...
... the Master told us to be here. WE ARE ALSO HERE BECAUSE WE KNOW THE LORD IS HERE WITH US. Jesus says to us in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Especially is that true in the sacrament of the Lord’s ... they wouldn’t let him take his little baggie of bread and small bottle of juice inside. So the last few times he visited John, he didn’t even attempt to bring the communion elements. When Van Dyke visited Spirko on the day after the Supreme Court refused ...
... old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. — 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Once you have him, you cannot hide Jesus. People notice the newness he brings to our changed lives. Even the Sanhedrin noticed. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. — Acts 4:13 Jesus could not hide himself ...
... God did step out ... in Bethlehem. The scripture records it: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us ... full of grace and truth ... No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:14, 18). The picture had suddenly come alive. What makes Christianity different from all the other world religions is that, at its heart, it is not a religion of values and principles and do's-and-don'ts. It is a religion of happenings, of events, of plain ...
... of the two of them, John rocking Shep to sleep in the warm, buoyant waters of Lake Superior: http://now.msn.com/john‑unger‑rocks‑his‑dog‑to‑sleep‑on‑lake‑superior The look on the dog’s face says it all. Or the look on John Unger’s face. I don’t ... . Sophocles, Aristotle, Philo, Plutarch, the Jewish Wisdom literature, and an abundance of Old Testament Proverbs, (10:811,21; 11:9; 12:18, to name a few) use these same examples to describe how something as small as a bit or a steering rudder ...
... way on this great feast of the Transfiguration, when we recall how Jesus was transformed in external appearance before Peter, James, and John, we must seek to be transformed ourselves. We must see our need to be converted into the person of Christ. We need ... being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (v. 18). Clearly Paul is telling this community of faith that they need to "see through" the false rhetoric of the "super apostles" who ...
... , Martha's the first to break the silence with words of accusation, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21). Do you hear all the questions in this accusation? "I don't understand. Help me make sense of this one, Jesus. You ... his people. I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe in him.... — Ephesians 1:18-19 Our voice is the last thing that needs to be heard at a funeral. Our voice cannot lift the fog. Our voice cannot ...
... have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Did you hear that? This is how the world will know that you follow Jesus not by how many Bible verses ... after a billion? A trillion. What comes after that? A quadrillion. After that is a number called a quintillion, which is one followed by 18 zeroes. Now, says Pritchard, let’s do it the way children might do it. Let’s start with the biggest number in the world ...
... and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (18-22). It’s a great story, but it’s not the whole story. If we turn over to Matthew 20:20-24, we read these words: Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons [James and ...
... and he knew in his heart that God was going to deliver him, and that his life would be spared. Indeed, he was miraculously rescued. John Bowring was so moved by how God had spared his life, that he wrote a poem that years later was put to music, and for ... but God did his best for man. Secondly, through the cross the law of God is satisfied. You see, the law of God says in Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die.” Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Now if the ...