There are a number of ways that the financial community calls upon us to check and reexamine our investments. How secure are we for the future, they ask. Are we getting the best return for our dollars or are there other ways to invest of which we are not even aware? No investment plan is right for everyone; therefore, we should seek an expert to help us. Magazines, television, and newspapers continually raise the issue with us. One way that we are challenged by an investment firm is through a very catchy ...
The first thing about anyone is his name. A human person is born into the world, and almost immediately a word is chosen to denote him. Not a number, not a sign, not a shape - but a word. And that word becomes everyone’s way of saying who he is. For all of his lifetime that word is used to indicate him. By means of it, he says, "This is I." By means of it, others say, "That is he." In a very real sense the word equals the person, stands for him as his equivalent. This is so very true that I can say, "I am ...
When I read these words of Jesus, that "if thy hand offend thee, cut it off," or "when thy eye offend thee, pluck it out," I am reminded of the story of a rich man who was trying to hire a chauffeur and he interviewed three men for the job. He pointed to a high cliff near his home and he said to the three men, "Suppose you were driving me on the edge of that cliff--how close to the side could you safely come?" One man said, "I could easily drive the car within 6 inches of that cliff, and not think anything ...
"My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties. The notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn crucifixion." With those words, Chaim Potack begins his novel entitled My Name is Asher Lev. It's about a young boy whose extraordinary talent leads him away from his family and his faith into a painful maturity and a perilous success. Asher Lev longs to be a painter, and he pursues this longing ...
An article came out not too many years ago entitled, "What The World Needs Now" and it reported the results of a Gallup Poll which reported the seven basic needs the average American said he or she had. Here they are: The need for shelter and food The need to believe life is meaningful and has a purpose The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships The need to be appreciated and respected The need to be listened to and to be heard The need to feel one is growing in their faith The need for ...
Elijah and the LORD: Elijah has been involved in a mighty battle. He seems to think it decisive and so he has left the battlefield for Jezreel. Yet there have been several hints in the narrative thus far that it is the queen, and not the king, who is the real general of the opposing forces. She will not be so easily cowed as her husband, and Elijah is now to see that to win a battle is not necessarily to win the war. That realization will send him into retreat, both physical and mental, as victory becomes ...
The Gifts of Comfort and Energy: So Isaiah 39, set in Isaiah’s own day, envisages the future deportation of Judeans to Babylon. Isaiah 40–55, however, is set in the time after this deportation has happened. It does not say “In days to come God will send a message of comfort to people who have been punished,” in the manner of a passage such as 30:19–26. It says, rather, “God is now comforting you who have been punished.” The traditional view is that these chapters were written by Isaiah ben Amoz, and we may ...
Elijah and the LORD: Elijah has been involved in a mighty battle. He seems to think it decisive and so he has left the battlefield for Jezreel. Yet there have been several hints in the narrative thus far that it is the queen, and not the king, who is the real general of the opposing forces. She will not be so easily cowed as her husband, and Elijah is now to see that to win a battle is not necessarily to win the war. That realization will send him into retreat, both physical and mental, as victory becomes ...
Elijah and the LORD: Elijah has been involved in a mighty battle. He seems to think it decisive and so he has left the battlefield for Jezreel. Yet there have been several hints in the narrative thus far that it is the queen, and not the king, who is the real general of the opposing forces. She will not be so easily cowed as her husband, and Elijah is now to see that to win a battle is not necessarily to win the war. That realization will send him into retreat, both physical and mental, as victory becomes ...
Those who analyze cultural trends have known for a long time that Americans seem to like religion a lot more than they like church. Whenever pollsters, pencils sharpened and questionnaires ready, knock on the doors of private citizens to inquire about their religious attitudes, it is difficult to find anybody out there who does not claim to be a fervent believer. If people are to be taken at their word, virtually everyone in the general population has a passionate and abiding faith in God. Ironically, ...
Girolamo Savonarola was one of the great preachers of the fifteenth century. He preached in the great cathedral of Florence, Italy, which contained a magnificent marble statue of the blessed virgin Mary. When Savonarola started preaching at this great cathedral, he noticed one day an elderly woman praying before this statue of Mary. He then began to notice that it was her habit to come every day and pray before the statue. Savonarola remarked one day to an elderly priest who had been serving in the ...
Step ten: "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it." The 12 steps are a long journey, and the texts for today are ones that help us continue on the long journey. This passage from Corinthians is one I think should be a history teacher's delight. It is a mode of scriptural interpretation known as "typology." It is a form of historical study. This method sees events in the history of Israel as "types" of events like other events. Here the redemptive events in Israel' ...
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes." This week we would not question the validity of what he said. The difference, however, is that April 15 and the time for paying our income taxes comes around once a year. Death comes only once in a lifetime to each of us as human beings. So we look at them and we deal with them differently. It seems to me that we also deal with death differently than we did when I was a child. Medical science was not as advanced then as it ...
Someone has made a list of the TOP 10 THINGS YOU'LL NEVER HEAR A DAD SAY: 10. Well, how 'bout that? I'm lost! Looks like we'll have to stop and ask for directions. 9. You know Pumpkin, now that you're thirteen, you'll be ready for unchaperoned car dates. Won't that be fun? 8. I noticed that all your friends have a certain hostile attitude. I like that. 7. Here's a credit card and the keys to my new car. GO CRAZY!! 6. What do you mean you wanna play football? Figure skating's not good enough for you, son? 5 ...
Jeff Foxworthy has made a career of telling "redneck" jokes. For instance, "You might be a redneck if someone asks you for some identification and you show them your belt buckle." The South doesn't have a lock on rednecks. The North has them also. For instance, "You might be a northern redneck if you've ever burned a tire on the hood of your car in winter to help get it started." Here in the church I'd like to poke fun at some of the straight-laced, self-righteousness that passes for Christianity. So, ...
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 1:8-2:10 The birth of Moses. The story of the Patriarchs ended with Joseph's bringing the Hebrews to Egypt. In due time they multiplied until they became a threat to the Egyptians. The story of the Exodus begins with the birth of Moses who was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. The next ten readings will take us from Moses' birth, to the release from Egypt, to the wilderness wanderings for forty years, to Moses' death. Old Testament: Isaiah 22:19-23 Worthy and unworthy leaders ...
I saw a cartoon in a newspaper once, and the first frame showed a thief that was wearing a mask, and his gun was pointed toward a frightened victim. The next scene the robber is holding out a sack and saying, "Give me all of your valuables!" In the next scene the victim begins stuffing into the sack all of his friends. I don't believe there is hardly anything in life, outside of salvation, that is more valuable than a true friend. With few exceptions, people every-where hunger to have friends; I mean real ...
During one of the darkest periods of World War II, after the collapse of France and before America got involved, Winston Churchill wrote that the question in the minds of both friends and foes was this: "Will Britain surrender too?" At the time he made a speech that contained this sentence: "What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization." If you are a Christian you, too, are in ...
Perry Mason. A name that can strike the fear of God into the heart of any prosecutor. For any defendant accused of murder, he was the supreme "ace in the hole." From September of 1957 to October of 1966, Perry Mason tried 270 murder cases on television. How many cases did he lose? Believe it or not, he appears to have lost two. In "the case of the Terrified Typist" a jury returns a guilty verdict against Perry's client, and the prosecutor, Hamilton Burger, gets goose bumps thinking he had finally beaten ...
I’m beginning a six-week series of messages that I am entitling “Dealing with Feelings.” I’m going to begin today with the most dominant destructive debilitating feeling of all. Have you ever awakened in the morning and somehow you just knew it was going to be a bad day? Somebody with a great sense of humor described a few clues to let us know that it’s “going to be a bad day” when: You wake up face down on the pavement. You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold. Your birthday cake collapses ...
During one of the darkest periods of World War II, after the collapse of France and before America got involved, Winston Churchill wrote that the question in the minds of both friends and foes was this: "Will Britain surrender too?" At the time he made a speech that contained this sentence: "What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization." If you are a Christian you, too, are in ...
It came to guitarist, Keith Richards, literally in the middle of the night. He woke up, recorded the lyrics on a cassette tape player and went back to sleep. Three weeks later, the Rolling Stones recorded that song and it became their first number one hit, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States and it became their launching pad to fame. Mick Jagger, who wrote the lyrics to the song, said at the time it simply expressed his frustration with the consumerism and commercialism he found in the ...
Have you ever noticed how some families move a lot? Some are corporate moves, some are military, and some are United Methodist pastors. Whatever the case, every time they move they have to find new lodging. In the military, quarters are often provided. The same may be true for clergy if churches own a manse or a parsonage. But, sometimes you have to look for a new home, which means spending some time with real estate agents traveling here and there to find the perfect house. Of course, no house is ever ...
I remember as I was growing up, before gas became more precious than gold, that our family would go on buggy rides, as we called them, on Sunday afternoons after church and dinner. It was a great time for the entire family to be together, to wander back roads aimlessly, and to talk about just about anything you could imagine. Most of the time my dad would surprise us but sometimes he would ask us where we wanted to go. One place I always asked my dad to drive to was the park in town. One reason was that I ...
Her startup had great potential, but when the recession came it took her business down with it. He had studied long and hard, but when his grade was posted it had been all for naught. They had promised to love and cherish one another forever, but a dozen years and hundreds of arguments later a judge declared they were no longer husband and wife. Failure. We’ve all known it. It’s part of being human. Who among us doesn’t cringe at the memory of a failed friendship, plan, or project? And while our failures ...