... on the steeple. His death was not the result of irreversible circumstances set in motion by the scheming of clever enemies. His death was the intentional action of a Gracious God. It was Christ's willing choice to demonstrate his love for you and me. Jesus said in John 10:17-18, "In this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life ... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Christ willingly endured the agonizing death on the cross in order to show you and me and all people ...
... know the final shape of Christ’s Body, once it is visibly united. Again, the Spirit blows at will. Whether one is attracted or not to the primacy of Peter and the place of his successors to John Paul II, such a clear series of transitions offers an important view for all who call themselves Christians. The passage from Matthew 16:18 which says, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it," is there for all of us to read and ...
... have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith." (2:18) We work hard as Christians, supported by the grace of God and knowing the fullness of discipleship springs from the interlocking of faith and works. ... thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:14) The cult of success in America and among those professing his name has many worshipers. It is almost as if success, ...
... Old Testament, you will miss this great verse: "…yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." (Hab. 3:18) Bruce Larson is a great Presbyterian pastor on the West Coast. He tells about a Presbyterian conference held in Omaha. People were given helium ... love of God, they ought to be joyful. Come on, Methodists and Presbyterians, let your balloons go! In John 15, after Jesus had taught us that he is the vine and we are the branches, our Lord said, "I have told you this so that my joy ...
... his means of drawing James to himself. Our scripture today offers two beautiful examples of how a friend can lead someone to Christ. In verse 18 of Luke 5, we meet a paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus on a cot by some mighty good friends. The house where Jesus ... old friends who are as lost as a goose. Levi didn’t. He invited them to meet Jesus. What kind of friend am I to unchurched John if I play golf with him repeatedly, loan him my car when his is in the shop, and keep his child for him while he and ...
... he is not limited by time and space as we are. How do I know that he prays for us? The Bible says so, in I John 2:01. "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Advocate is another term for defense attorney. It's wonderful if you have ... : "All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." (2Cor. 5:18) Now if you are a seeker, just investigating a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please disregard what I am about to say ...
... Christianized. Jesus said, "... I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) His final commission to his disciples was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." (Mark ... talent; nevertheless they took our Lord at his word. When he said, "Go," they went! Tradition tells us that Peter died in Rome, John in Ephesus, Andrew in Greece, and Thomas in India. Virtually all of the disciples gave their lives carrying Christ’s mission to the ...
... ..." At the cross she heard him call to her. In gasping words he arranged that she should be cared for, "Woman, behold thy son! ... Behold thy mother!" (John 19:26-27) She saw him die. Amid the shame and brutality of a Roman execution, she waited. Should any mother be made to suffer this much? Quite ... in Christ In Poetry, ed. by Clark (New York: Association Press, 1952), p. 18. Used by permission. 2. Roland H. Bainton, The Martin Luther Christmas Book (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1948), p. 23.
... be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world - therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19) So this young congregation is under official notice to cease operations. Before, such a warning would have brought on fear and trembling, but now of all things, it results in a joyous, public prayer meeting. This beginning community of believers responds to threats and ...
... he boasted to God of all the good things he did. As part of his self-righteous list he bragged, "... I fast twice a week! ..." (Luke 18:9-14). God was not pleased with his fast nor with most fasting that went on because people fasted for themselves but not for him. Because ... by some because they didn’t fast. They didn’t act "religious enough." "Why do the disciples of John the Baptizer and the disciples of the Pharisees fast?" the people asked Jesus, "But your disciples don’t fast?" Matthew tells us ...
... indeed. "But does this apply to the Twenty-first Century?" Luther’s response would be that it applied to the sixteenth. Read our text, from John 8:36; it is all about freedom, about truth, about life. It just might be that we have here the secret to real liberation, and ... are called to share the glad tidings that we "having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). When the church is willing to step back that Christ may be exalted, she will be free indeed, and will be ...
... air. As Paul states it, "then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Corinthians 15:18). The word apoolonto, "have perished," means literally "are destroyed." Phillips translates it "are utterly dead and gone." If ... victory." Life, not death, has the last word. The resurrection of the Son of God puts death in its place. God reigns, not death. Like Pope John XXIII, we can look out on life and death from the vantage point of Christian faith and say from the deathbed: "Any day is a good day ...
... after Evil nails him to a cross, Jesus emerges from the tomb to continue his saving work. He is the Strong Son of God turned loose in the world. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus comes to reveal God. “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made God known” (John 1:18). But for the writer of Luke’s Gospel, the word that best summarizes the person and work of Jesus is the word “prophet.” Jesus is a prophet. What comes to your mind with the ...
... emotions. Tuesday was the day of teaching, a day of critics questions. Wednesday was the day nothing happened. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John tell us anything about this day. We are left to assume, that for Jesus, it was a day of silence. On Thursday Jesus ... Eccl.", I, viii; Schol. Juvenal., XIV, 78; Niceph., VII, 46; Cassiod., "Hist. Trip.", I, 9; Codex Theod., IX, 5, 18). Thereafter, this punishment was very rarely inflicted (Eus., "Hist. Eccl.", IV, xxxv; Pacat., "Paneg.", xliv). Towards the fifth ...
... for maybe five computers." Popular Mechanics magazine in 1949 made this prediction: "Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only ... to make sacrifices at the temple after Jesus death? Paul even makes an offering (Acts 21). It is the place where John’s birth was announced, Jesus’ preeminence was recognized by Simeon and Anna, Jesus’ religious intelligence was recognized by the leaders at ...
... ends. Help us to increase our faith and then to be faithful. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen! 1. Isaiah 44:9-17 2. Orion Pictures, 1986, Robert Greenhut, Producer, Written & Directed by Woody Allen 3. Exodus 25:18-20 4. Exodus 28:33-34 5. John A. Redhead, Uncommon Common Sense, Vol. II, The Ten Commandments, (Greensboro: Worth Family Foundation, 1997), p. 34 6. W. Herschel Ford, Simple Sermons on the Ten Commandments, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1956), p. 32 7. Walter Brueggeman, "The Book of Exodus ...
... we are tempted. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen! 1. Deuteronomy 22:29 2. Genesis 29:1-30 3. Leviticus 20:10 4. Deuteronomy 22:13-24 5. Quoted in William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, CD-ROM, (Liguori, MO: Liguori Faithware, used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press, 1996) 6. Matthew 1:18-25 7. Ephesians 5:28 8. Mark 10:11,12 9 ...
... of his gospel was organized just for them. In chapter eleven, Jesus confronts political opposition as Herod arrests and murders John the Baptist. In chapter twelve, he faces religious opposition as the Scribes and Pharisees challenge him and even suggest ... Soil information from William Barclay, And Jesus Said: A Handbook on the Parables of Jesus, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970), pp. 18-19 3. The New Interpreter's Bible, CD-ROM (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997) 4. Janet Mathistad, via Ecunet, "Gospel Notes ...
... Twelve who was not a Galilean. Shouldn't his job as treasurer have had him included with the inner circle of Peter, James, and John? Was it disappointment? Some Jews were fanatic nationalists who were prepared to go to any lengths to drive the Romans from Palestine. They were ... Very Best of the Stories He Used to Tell (Nashville: Generoux, 1986), 18ff. Quoted in Homiletics, April, 1993 2. John 12:6 3. William Barclay, Daily Study Bible, CD-ROM, (Liguori, MO: Liguori Productions, 1996) 4. Frederick Buechner, ...
... our lesson from the Gospel of Luke which, above all the books in the New Testament, highlights women. It begins with the birth of John the Baptist, focusing on Elizabeth, his mother. The next major section is Mary's, the unknown girl from an unnamed family from an unremarkable ... Barclay, Daily Study Bible, CD-ROM edition (Liguori, MO: Liguori Faithware, 1996) used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press 7. www.SermonIllustrations.com, 1999 8. "Mary and Elizabeth" 9. Barbara Brown Taylor, "Singing Ahead ...
... ” into the Auca language. One of the most important verses in the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 5:18, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” Reconciliation is a critical word in ... . The Holy Spirit is the inner witness of the reality of God. It is the confirming testimony that He who created us is with us. According to I John 4, our life in the world is actually Christ’s life lived within us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that presence in ...
... after their phone conversation Mrs. Johansen sent him a letter that included notes from her diary from 1944. Entered on December 17 and 18 was the record of their stay in the Johansens' home. He read carefully these words for the night of December 17, 1944: "We ... happen when those three attributes of the early church are present. 1. (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishing, 1994). 2. John Kohut and Roland Sweet, COUNTDOWN TO THE MILLENNIUM, (New York: A Signet Book, 1994), p. 70. 3. Halford E. Luccock, ...
... it be God's will, we shall be together soon. If that should not happen, then know that wherever I am I will be with each of you every day, always! Your loving husband and father. H. Norman. Dad." (5) Who says a good man is hard to find? 1. John Welsh, quoted by Tom Hritz in PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 4/15/91). 2. Rupert Hughes, "When Will Rogers Wept," in FOLKS SAY OF WILL ROGERS, comp. William H. Payne and Jake Lyons, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1936). 3. Lisa Rock in St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 8 ...
... together with friends and family Cooking and cleaning Long plane/ train/ car trips Being apart from friends and family during the holidays (7) In one of his books, John Maxwell tells about a woman who was determined to let nothing rob her of her Christmas joy even the rejection of her family. One Christmas, Maxwell was walking ... Borysenko, GUILT IS THE TEACHER, LOVE IS THE LESSON (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1990). 8. "Holiday Pain," NEWSWEEK, December 18, 1995, p. 8. 9. John Maxwell, THE WINNING ATTITUDE.
... you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us...." On June 18, 1972, a B.E.A. Trident crashed at Heathrow airport, London. As a result, 118 people lost their lives. What happened? After the ... . People who scored in the top fifth for hostility had four times the death rate of people who scored in the bottom fifth. Dr. John C. Barefoot, who headed one study, told a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society that it's not known why this happens or if ...