“How can I thank God enough for you in return for all of the joy that we feel before our God because of you?” In my pastoral care of people who are in the last years of their lives, for some time I have noted that when people face declining health or physical infirmities, they never say that they fear death. What they fear is the dying. More specifically, what they fear is “becoming a burden to my family." Our prayer is to end our lives in such a way that we will never have to trouble other people by the ...
Have you ever considered the power of Jesus’ simple statement, "You are the salt of the earth"? (Matthew 5:13) No matter how you say it, that statement shakes you to your boots. Try it on for size. "You are the salt of the earth." Me? Isn’t it astounding to hear Jesus say that you and I are the salt of the earth? Surely he must have meant a special group of people. He couldn’t have been talking to us, could he? The words are from the Sermon on the Mount, spoken in some ways peculiarly to his disciples ...
The noted author, John Killinger, tells a powerful story about a man who is all-alone in a hotel room in Canada. The man is in a state of deep depression. He is so depressed that he can’t even bring himself to go downstairs to the restaurant to eat. He is a powerful man usually the chairman of a large shipping company… but at this moment, he is absolutely overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of life… and he lies there on a lonely hotel bed far from home wallowing in self-pity. All of his life, he has ...
None of us like to look foolish, but I confess that I continue to find ingenious ways to do that, usually by insisting that I am right about something, and it turns out that I am wrong. I feel there are certain areas where my experiences lend me some authority, so I speak out, giving my credentials, and then somebody comes along with the facts. Like the other day, two of our grandsons were visiting us with their mother. Their father was away at a meeting, and they came down and spent a couple of days with ...
Recently someone sent me a list entitled, "Satan's Beatitudes." They said if the devil were to write his Beatitudes they would probably go something like this: Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour once a week with their fellow Christians—they are my best workers. Blessed are those Christians who wait to be asked, and expect to be thanked—I can use them. Blessed are the touchy. With a bit of luck they may stop going to church— they are my missionaries. Blessed are ...
I am beginning a series of messages that I have entitled: "Home Sweet Home." These messages are going to deal with the fruit that every family tree ought to bear. I want you to imagine what your marriage would be like, what your kids would be like, what your spouse would be like, what you would be like, if the tree of your home and your heart bore the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control. Now quite frankly, if a lot of us started bearing ...
Were you there? Is that what you were singing? Yes, I was there, all right. I had no choice in the matter. I was locked up in that lousy, stinking hole that they called a prison. I didn’t think that there was any chance that I would ever get out of there alive. The Romans had been after me for some time. Once they got their hands on me and threw me down into that dungeon, I thought for sure that my days were numbered. Those stone walls were mighty thick, and the guards kept a close watch on me. They liked ...
In the early 1800’s, after attending a Methodist “frolic of faith” known as a Camp Meeting, somebody wrote this little ditty: I’m a Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Eatin’ Methodist pie. I’m a Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist, Methodist till I die. Here at the dawn of the 21st century, nobody is concerned about the makers of the pie and to commit to anything until you die — well, that is scary. Nevertheless, in this series of sermons on church membership, I would like to share with you ...
I get a kick out of bumper stickers. Whenever I see an interesting one I always take a glance at the person who is driving the car. I want to get a glimpse of the person who would drive around with a crazy bumper sticker. I’m sure I am not the only one who has ever done that! Here are a few bumper stickers that I have seen or heard about over the years that always make me laugh: What If The Hokey Pokey Is What It’s All About? Driver Carries No Cash — He’s Married! I’m Retired — Go Around Me! Normal People ...
If someone said they would "glorify" you, what would you expect? Honor? Wealth? Power? Fame? Although some of you - perhaps most of you, for that matter - will immediately recognize the words and know their context, play a little guessing game with me for a moment. In what context would you expect these words of Jesus to have been spoken? "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified." Stress the "now" in the sentence so that your guessing is almost pinpointed to an instant in time, for the ...
Are most people going to heaven? Well, most people think they are. According to researcher, George Barna, 98% of Americans believe they are going to heaven. When read the statement, "When you die you will not go to heaven," only two out of a hundred agreed.1 The Lord Jesus disagreed. He said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there ...
Comment: One of the real treats I've had as a minister is to have my daughter help me with one of my story sermons. In her spiritual pilgrimage, she had found herself in a group of youth led by a charismatic. The youth were good friends, and the charismatic was a nice person, as far as I knew, though he was not affiliated with any local church. In preparing the text, I found myself using that bit of history. I asked her to read it over and see if it was okay. She agreed to do this little drama. She read it ...
Comment: One of the real treats I've had as a minister is to have my daughter help me with one of my story sermons. In her spiritual pilgrimage, she had found herself in a group of youth led by a charismatic. The youth were good friends, and the charismatic was a nice person, as far as I knew, though he was not affiliated with any local church. In preparing the text, I found myself using that bit of history. I asked her to read it over and see if it was okay. She agreed to do this little drama. She read it ...
A young man had made it big, had been away from home a long time, traveled to exotic places all over the world. He had not been very attentive to his widowed mother. His conscience began to bother him and he decided to do something about it. He sent her a unique gift, a rare South American parrot for which he paid $1,200. Well, time went by. Two weeks, three weeks, and he heard nothing. In the fourth week he called. When he got his mom on the phone he said, "Did you get the bird I sent you?" "Oh yes! -- it ...
Edward DeBono is a man who travels all over the world, giving seminars on how to think. He teaches what he calls “lateral thinking,” and he illustrates what he means by that from an experience early in his life. Some thirty years ago he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. One night he attended a party in London. The party lasted late, and he got back to Oxford after the gates were closed. Traditionally in that college the gates were locked at twenty minutes past midnight. So, in order to get to his room, he ...
Jesus Christ died when he was about thirty-three years old. Other than the fact that he died as a relatively young man, on the surface there seems to be nothing unusual about that statement. The reason why that seems to be a routine statement is because death comes to everyone. When the Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, completed a statistical study on the subject of death, he said he came to this firm conclusion: "One out of one people dies." Normally that is why biographers seldom spend much time on the ...
For almost two months now, we have been together in an extreme home makeover. You are looking at pretty much the finished product. It does look much different from what we had when we first started. The process has taken us from nails, boards, screws, nuts and bolts to our new house. What you see behind me, represents what we want every family to experience - an extreme home makeover. That is why we spent the last eight weeks on it. A great Christian who lived over a century ago, named G. K. Chesterton, ...
A man was lecturing in Latin America. He was going to use a translator, but to identify with his audience, he decided to begin his talk by saying in Spanish, “Good evening, ladies and gentleman.” He arrived at the auditorium a little early and realized he did not know the Spanish words for ladies and gentlemen. Being rather resourceful, he went to the part of the building where the restrooms were located, looked at the signs on the two doors, and memorized those two words. When the audience arrived and he ...
I think some people are natural-born gardeners. Our Lord grew up in a society that was familiar with agriculture. The images that he used to explain the ways of his Father in heaven are familiar to his audience. Growing up, my closest experience to agriculture was living in, "the Garden State." Most people, when they pass through New Jersey, are surprised to see that expression on the license plates of vehicles registered in New Jersey. Most folks traveling through New Jersey experience the megalopolis, ...
For the last few years our family has visited The Dalles, Oregon, for Memorial Day to be with my wife’s relatives and to decorate graves in the cemetery. One thing I notice as we visit that cemetery: When you’re in the western, older side of the cemetery, visitors are chattier, even happy, carrying on humorous conversations as they stand next to gravestones of people who died a hundred years ago. But, as you enter the newer portion of the cemetery where people have recently been buried, you feel the ...
It sounds like a rock group, doesn’t it--“Noah and the Robots?” Some of you probably think the title of my message is a bit frivolous. It may be, but the subject matter we are going to discuss today is not frivolous at all. I read something interesting about the famous novelist Charles Dickens. It seems that Dickens wrote all his great stories in installments. Week after week, Dickens would spin out his tales and the English public would breathlessly wait to see what was going to happen next to such ...
Let me ask you an odd question: If you died tomorrow, how hard would it be for your loved ones to sort through your belongings? I stole that question from Ashley Hamer, a science writer and podcaster, in an article she wrote about the practice of Swedish death cleaning. Have you heard about this? It sounds morbid, but it’s actually a good idea. Swedish death cleaning is the practice of going through your possessions every few years and getting rid of the things you no longer need or no longer feel ...
We will treat these texts as one. In examining them we have entered what many commentators believe is the central section of Mark's story: 8:22--10:52. The immediate context for this central section of material is the climax of the section that precedes it: Mark 6:35--8:21. We need to say a few words about 8:1-21, as it is omitted from the lectionary. Mark 8:1-9 is the story of the Gentile feeding of the multitude with bread which we have discussed in an earlier chapter. The response to Jesus' feeding of ...
William Inge was one of England’s most outstanding preachers. At the beginning of this century, because of his insight and forthrightness, he was either greatly admired or bitterly disliked. After the First World War he was speaking at a public gathering, and in his speech, he urged that realism instead of revenge be his country’s guide in its treatment of a defeated Germany. Three days later, Dr. Inge received a letter which rebuked him for what he had said, and then added: "I have been praying for your ...
ALAN RODDA, currently president of Ridgewood Holding Company in San Jose, California, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who at the time of delivering No Fifth Wheels in God’s Economy was Senior Pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Portland, Oregon. His particular tradition is quite explicit in affirming the Bible as the revelation of the divine word and affords the pastor great authority and responsibility as the interpreter of that word. Rodda speaks within this context to his normal Sunday ...