Any parent who has adopted a child knows the joy of bringing a new member into the family. There is joy in the heart of our Heavenly Father when someone is baptized into his family. Baptism is like adoption. There are many children orphaned from the love of a family. Teenage pregnancies, unwanted children, unfit parents who abuse or desert their children, even unexpected death: These tragedies leave many children orphaned from the love of a family. Thank God there are people who want to be parents and for ...
To the Evangelists who wrote the first three gospels he is a nameless person, this young patriot sharing the agony of Jesus' last earthly hours. (Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32) Tradition treats him more kindly. It dignifies him with a name. "Dysmas," it whispers. Nor does tradition stop there. Instead, it presses on to portray Dysmas as a man of great compassion, deeply concerned for the distressed and the downtrodden, who "despised the rich, but did not give to the poor, even burying them" -- no ...
Meditation Hymn: "Above The Hills Of Time"(May be sung as a solo in preparation for worship) Prayer Of Invocation: We come to worship you, our Lord, knowing that you overcame both the cross and the grave. We realize that except for your endurance of the cross and its cruel death, we would not have known the full magnitude of your love for us. Your having made atonement for our sins, makes us aware that we should live the Christian faith fully, knowing that it is the way, the truth, and the life. Thank you ...
Despite our scientific and technological generation, we live in an age of miracles. They are so many, and they occur so often, that we tend to take miracles for granted. When one gets well from a serious illness, we say, "His recovery was a miracle!" When we see pictures of a car wreck, we say, "It was a miracle all were not killed." A wife sent a friendship card to her husband with the message, "You love me! Will miracles never cease?" Every day we experience miracles. They are miracles because we cannot ...
Despite our scientific and technological generation, we live in an age of miracles. They are so many, and they occur so often, that we tend to take miracles for granted. When one gets well from a serious illness, we say, "His recovery was a miracle!" When we see pictures of a car wreck, we say, "It was a miracle all were not killed." A wife sent a friendship card to her husband with the message, "You love me! Will miracles never cease?" Every day we experience miracles. They are miracles because we cannot ...
God created us to be social beings. Life is not intended to be experienced in total isolation though moments of solitude are therapeutic. We live on the planet earth with other people and so it is essential for every person to develop meaningful relationships with significant others. Each person is introduced into society through a family unit, the most fundamental organism in existence today. Human relationships do not automatically survive and certainly do not thrive without constant nurturing. In other ...
Almost all of us have seen the popular television program, "Mission Impossible." For many years the MI Task Force took on what seemed like an incredible assignment, and in less than an hour, they did the impossible! How wonderful it would be if carrying out the mission of Jesus Christ in this world were as easy. The challenge to us in this season of Epiphany is the ongoing proclamation that the "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5)." But in more ways than one, this ...
Not too long ago, our family made a journey. It was a long journey, and it took the better part of a day to get there and the better part of another day to get back. It was a tiring journey, but it was well worth everything we had to endure to get there. "There" was home, and "there" was a place where we were surrounded by the love of family members, some of whom we had not seen in more years than we care to count. And when we came back, we were not the same people we were before the journey. We felt ...
Not too long ago, our family made a journey. It was a long journey, and it took the better part of a day to get there and the better part of another day to get back. It was a tiring journey, but it was well worth everything we had to endure to get there. "There" was home, and "there" was a place where we were surrounded by the love of family members, some of whom we had not seen in more years than we care to count. And when we came back, we were not the same people we were before the journey. We felt ...
Saul Of Tarsus "I am Saul of Tarsus. Like my fellow Jews, I am a true believer in the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. I have a commission from the leaders of the one true church to eliminate a troublesome group known as Christians, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth; the same Jesus who was crucified for His false teachings. I intend to give these Christians the same punishment for blasphemy Stephen got: death by stoning. This threat to the one true religion and to the one true God, Jehovah, cannot be ...
Object: None Have you ever had an argument with someone and you knew that you were right and he was wrong? The big problem is that the people you are arguing with believe that they are right and you are wrong. That's trouble. What do you do when things like that happen? Do you get angry and fight, or do you just leave the person and never see him again? Some people do it one way and some people do it another way. I even know some who do it both ways. St. Paul had a problem like this. He knew that he had to ...
4512. No One is Exempt From Doubt
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Brett Blair
Some of you may remember Dave Dravecky, former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. At the peak of his career in 1991 he lost his pitching arm to cancer. Those who watched his 1989 comeback will never forget the Montreal game. Dave's left arm snapped with a deafening crack that could be heard in the stands. The comeback quickly ended. It was a devastating experience. It is bad enough to have cancer, let alone face the amputation of an arm, but then on top of that, to lose a promising career as a major ...
The Question Of Our Time Today’s sermon is on the subject of authority, based on the text above. It is no overstatement to say that authority is the question of our time. Wherever one looks in our world today, in family, government, business life, and the church, the conclusion seems unanimous. Authority is in a bad state of erosion. Why is this so? What can be done about a matter so vital to people in every aspect of life? The story St. Matthew tells us in today’s text speaks directly to the problem of ...
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Death by crucifixion was such an agonizing way to die. The dehydration which came before death was especially severe. So we can be sure that all the humanity of Jesus was screaming forth as ...
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." A jar of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. John 19:28-29 Late Thursday evening, after sharing the Passover meal together, Jesus took several of the disciples with him to the Mount of Olives, commonly called "Gethsemane." Jesus said to the disciples with him, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here and ...
All Christians in Saint Paul's time firmly believed in the early coming again of Christ. In this scripture, the apostle says that this means the end of time itself. Therefore all that is temporal was soon to be closed out, he was sure. Now what happened is that Saint Paul drew the right conclusion but for the wrong reason. Many and many a lesser man has done the same. We all do sometimes. All that is temporal is being closed out, or to use Saint Paul's language, the form of this world is passing away, not ...
Theme: How do we distinguish God's voice from all the clutter we hear every day? There are a few who will hear. Summary: A crowd is gathered to hear Jesus teach. But what a crowd. Among the believers are the pragmatists, the skeptics, and the non-believers. Playing Time: 4 minutes Setting: Holy Land Props: Wheat grain Flowerpot with soil Costumes: Period costume for Jesus, modern for crowd Time: The Time of Jesus Cast: Jesus Soman -- a face in the crowd Buno -- another face in the same crowd Garna -- a ...
It is part of God’s nature to know all things. We call this quality omniscience. God knows everything. There is nothing he does not know. Jesus once said that the Father’s knowledge is so total that he even knows when a single bird falls out of the sky and he knows the number of hairs we have on our head. In the case of some of us it is easier for him to keep track of that last statistic. That God knows how much hair we have is just one indication of how intimately he knows each one of us. In Hebrews we ...
O, what a beautiful morning O, what a beautiful day, The grass and the trees are a-greening, The snow is all going away! Amen? Amen! And that is not April Fools!!! Snow, snow, snow. I have had enough. You too? But did you notice how the kids responded last Sunday when I asked them if they had had enough snow this winter? NO-O-O-O!!! Ugh! Why the difference of opinion? Simple. Adults look at snow and see all the images such weather conjures up - dangerous driving, accidents, heart attacks, cancellations... ...
Homecoming. There is something so special about HOME. 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.(1) The Bible is full of homecoming stories that would be perfect for a day like today - Jacob's homecoming to meet brother Esau, the return of the nation of Israel from exile, and this one we just read, the return of the Prodigal Son, in what has been called the greatest short story ever written. "Father, I want RIGHT NOW what's coming to me." My inheritance ...
There are certain texts in the Bible that have a built-in excitement about them. There is no text more exciting than this morning ™s. Imagine if you will a great grandstand-the largest grandstand ever constructed-larger than that erected for the Kentucky Derby or the Indianapolis 500 or any Super Bowl. This great stadium is filled to capacity with spectators come to witness a racea race with vital consequences. At the starting block of that race are you and I. All eyes are upon us as we begin crouching ...
Have you ever noticed that anger can cause us to do some dumb things? Several years ago William F. Merten of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, wrote to Reader's Digest to tell about a memorable argument he had with his wife. The argument was well under way as they left a party one evening. Once they were in the car, words were flying. The area they were driving through was not the best, so they stopped arguing just long enough to lock the doors. Then they started again. Merton's wife had really worked up a storm, and ...
Only moments after prying open a window and stepping into a dark bedroom a burglar came face to face with a vicious looking Doberman Pincher. The burglar froze in his tracks. Once his eyes adjusted to the dark he noticed a parrot on the back of the dog which squawked "You're gonna get caught!" The burglar hesitated, then ever so carefully lifted an item off a dresser and put it in his sack. The dog watched every move. The parrot said, "You're gonna get caught!" Without any sudden or jerky movements the ...
Jeff Hill is with IBM. But like many people nowadays he works from home. Working from home, he says he needs a professional sounding voicemail greeting so everyone will know he's hard at work. While he was recording a new message one morning, Jeff's wife was across the hall from his office, folding clothes with their six-year-old daughter, who had just emerged from the shower. Jeff's professional message ended up sounding like this: Male voice: "Hi, this is Jeff Hill with IBM." Female voice: "Look at you! ...
What a story! This is the strangest story Jesus ever told! At least it's the strangest one we have in the Bible! There are some other rather strange stories that appear in collections like the Gospel of Thomas. But they didn't make it into the Bible! Think about it! If we're reading this thing correctly, Jesus is telling us to imitate a crook! A downright scoundrel! He cheats on his employer. He lies to his business associates. And yet, says Jesus, here's somebody from whom we need to learn! How could he ...