In the beginning, God created his world and his people. Mankind fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. God worked out a plan of salvation. To institute that plan, he selected a man and determined that through that one man, he would build a nation - a nation to accomplish his redemptive purpose. That man was Abraham. Through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was building a chosen people. During Joseph’s lifetime, God preserved his people in a desperate time of famine by taking them down into the ...
In a few moments, we will commune with our Lord at the Table that He has prepared for us. His command is simple and direct: "This do." But there is an added admonition. It is repeated four times in the accounts of the institution of this Sacrament, and so, certainly, it must be important: "This do in remembrance of me." To eat this bread and drink this cup without remembering, remembering the terrible price that was paid for it, is to eat and drink it unworthily. But can we remember? In that multitude ...
Have you ever gotten the wrong gift for Christmas? A woman was talking to her nephew just after Christmas. In a very apologetic way she says, "I'm sorry you don't like my Christmas gift, but I asked if you preferred a small check or a large check." With his head hung in disappointment, the nephew replies, "I know, but I didn't think you were talking about ties." I hope none of us will receive the wrong gift this Christmas. IN SOME WAYS, GOD'S GIFT TO US AT CHRISTMAS SEEMS ALL WRONG. Think, for a minute, ...
Arnold Palmer once played a series of exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia. The king was so impressed that he proposed, in good Middle Eastern fashion, to honor his guest with a gift. Palmer resisted, "It really isn't necessary, Your Highness. I'm honored to have been invited." And, in good Middle Eastern fashion, his highness persisted, "I would be deeply upset," replied the king, "if you would not allow me to give you a gift." Palmer thought for a moment, "All right. How about a golf club? That would be a ...
Henry Ward Beecher called this 23rd Psalm “the nightingale of the Psalms.” This beloved poem – one of the most familiar passages in Scripture had filled the whole world with melodrama and has been “a very present help for time of trouble.” You know I have never preached a sermon on this Psalm and I’ve been preaching for more than 30 years. I’ve quoted it at funerals and weddings. I’ve shared it as comfort with sick folk. I don’t know how many times I have laid my hands on the forehead of a dying person - ...
“America’s Got Talent” is one of a dozen or more copy-cat “spin-offs” from the grand-daddy original “discover-unknown-talent” show “American Idol,” a franchise we copied from Great Britain’s “Pop Idol” franchise. This genre of television that includes “The Voice,” “X-Factor” and “America’s Got Talent” focus on finding that rare pearl of stardom embedded amidst the grit and gravel of everyday gifts. Ferreting out someone’s ability to excel at something, identifying an individual’s unique “talent,” has its ...
In the thanksgiving, Paul incidentally touched on their ministry in Thessalonica, but he now speaks of that ministry more directly, defending his own and his colleagues’ conduct against Jewish slanders. The matters touched on include: (1) the circumstances of their coming to Thessalonica and their motives in being there (2:1–6); (2) their conduct towards the Thessalonians (2:7–12); and (3) the response of the Thessalonians to their message and the ensuing hardship caused by that response (2:13–16). Because ...
I was unprepared for the effect the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial would have on me. As we approached the low, polished black granite V-shaped wall, between the great memorials to Lincoln and Washington on the Mall. I felt the first wave of effect or shock and grief. I recognized a holy silence of all as we moved past the names, more than 58,000 of them, America's children whose lives were taken by the war in Vietnam. Our faces were reflected in the granite so as we begin to read the names Leroy Pierson, Jimmy ...
Have you ever heard the little poem that goes something like this? Two prisoners there were who looked through bars, One saw mud, the other saw stars. Two basic attitudes toward life. What do you see when you look at life? Do you see mud? Or do you see stars? Of course, a lot of what we see is relative. A man went to his rabbi and complained, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answered, "Bring your goat to live in the room with you." The man was ...
A little boy was preparing for the Annual Christmas pageant in his church, and the beginning of white gifts to the King. As his mom was helping him with his part, he interrupted the rehearsal of his lines, saying, "Mom, can't we change the story this year. It's the same story every year." Well it is! But what a story. We have to guard against our familiarity with the story blinding us to the richness of it. There was a young missionary couple who were going out on their first assignment to take over a pair ...
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 40:1-11 These verses open the second part of Isaiah dealing with the exiles in Babylon. The opening verses constitute good news to a people sitting in the darkness of bondage and despair. God tells second Isaiah to comfort the people with the news of promised deliverance. They have suffered enough. A highway is to be built for God to come and rescue his people and bring them back to their homeland. In contrast to Yahweh, man is as insecure and temporary as grass. The only ...
Of the four gospel accounts in the New Testament, Luke is my favorite. Luke is warm and simple, full of love and joy, healing and grace. And Luke treats women better than any other book in the Bible. It is in Luke that we find the beloved Christmas story — with baby sighs and soft skin and angel wings. Then we get to Luke’s third chapter and the tone shifts. Warm, fuzzy Jesus is abruptly replaced by loud, livid John. And we learn that even Luke’s good news is often proclaimed in a bad news world. Even Luke ...
The idea for this sermon, “There is Healing in the Touch,” comes from two sources. In the Gospel Jesus makes a house call at the home of Jairus, President of the Synagogue Council. We would call him Senior Warden. “My little girl is dying,” he said. “Will you come and put your hands on her?” When Jesus entered the room, he took the little girl’s hand and said to her in his own native language, “Wake up, little girl!” At once she jumped to her feet and walked around the room. The other source is a book my ...
A small boy went to his father one day and asked, "Daddy, who's the smartest, an engineer or a preacher?" The father, unsure of an answer, asked his son, "Well, who do you think is the smartest?" "I think an engineer is because he can build bridges and planes, and go into space to find planets. And a preacher talks about such an impossible thing as someone rising from the dead." He was a smart little boy with an honest answer. And we can understand his answer because we live in a world of facts and science ...
On that wondrous night long ago a ragged little boy watched the three wise men bring their costly gifts for the Christ Child. His eyes filled with tears as he thought, "If only a pearl would fall from the hand of a king, then I could go too. But I am ashamed to go. I have no gift for the Saviour." The little lad was about to turn and run for the hills. Suddenly an angel appeared before him and said, "Give a gift that is closest to your heart." So he did. They say that the Bethlehem star gave an extra ...
His name was John. People knew him locally as the Baptist. Some would say of him that he was a religious eccentric. Others less kind would dismiss him as being simply a flake. He definitely did not seem to be the kind of “How to win friends and influence people” type of personality to usher in the news of the Messiah’s coming. He just somehow doesn’t seem to fit in with shepherds and wise men and the other characters that we traditionally associate with the Christmas story. Yet, this was God’s unlikely ...
You would have liked him as did thousands, perhaps millions. He was engaging, intriguing, brilliant, and humorous. Had you met him on the street you probably would not have guessed who he was -- a businessman possibly, even a taxi driver. But as a leading scientist he was known to thousands through his popular television series, The Ascent of Man, later developed into a marvelous book of the same title. His name? Jacob Bronowski. I first heard Jacob Bronowski in Minnesota at a college conference on ...
I was with Bishop Bevel Jones recently, and he told me about a funny experience that happened to him recently. He was preaching at a camp meeting down in South Georgia. The tabernacle was packed with people and Bev was really getting with it. He had preached longer than normal – but still had about 10 minutes to go. He was in the midst of a dramatic point of sharing, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a little boy get up from the front row and start toward him. Well he didn't know what was going on. ...
Is there anyone here today dealing with stress? Just looking out, I see a lot of people who are all stressed up and no place to go. Stress is a problem. Believe it or not, this is a problem for the pastor. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, psychologist Richard Blackmon said, “Pastors are the single most occupationally frustrated group in America.” About 75% of pastors go through a period of stress so great that they consider quitting the ministry; 35-40% actually do. Incidents of mental breakdown are ...
Once in Atlanta the relief organization CARE sponsored a No-Show Marathon. For a ten-dollar donation, participants got a race number and a Marathon T-shirt, every runner's status symbol. But the good part is, they didn't have to run the grueling 26-mile course. In fact, in the No-Show Marathon, no one ran at all; they just gathered at a local nightclub and talked about it. Sometimes we wish life were a No-Show Marathon, and we didn't have to run the race. But even when illness, disappointment, and problems ...
Edna Lashon tells the story of visiting with a friend of hers whose husband had died. They went out the graveyard where the husband had been buried and they began to share together memories of their life and their relationship it was a meaningful time as they probed in memory and got in touch with all the joyful times of their life. But then there was silence. No one seemed to have anything else to say. All of a sudden, Liz the little daughter of Edna Lashon’s friend, sprang from the group and suddenly ...
No one would accuse me of being a baseball fan. I am a World Series fan. My time investment in the game is compressed into about eight or ten days when the national championship is determined by seven games. I’m always happy when it’s played out to the most dramatic possible end - one team winning four, the other, three. But there are other baseball times when my attention is caught by the drama of some record in the making. Such was my interest in Willie Mays, that phenomenal hitter who caused all America ...
There was a man who bought his fiancée a diamond ring, and showed it to his friend. His friend asked, “Is it a real diamond?’ He said, “If it isn’t, I’m out five bucks.” Then there was the fellow who wanted to buy his sweetheart some perfume. He went to the counter of an exclusive store, and the saleswoman recommended a perfume called “Perhaps” that sold for $100 an ounce. $100!” cried the young fellow. “For $100, I don’t want “Perhaps”, I want “For Sure!” Behind the hint of humor is the suggestion that if ...
Where Are Your Zeal and Your Might?: As the chiasm in chapters 56–66 treads its return path, the vision of the battling warrior (63:1–6) paired with the one in 59:15b–20. This prayer, then, pairs with the prayer in 59:9–15a. As the new vision was bloodier, the new prayer is much longer and more urgent. It has the features of a lament on the part of the community such as those that appear in the Psalms and in Lamentations, but like some of them (and like chapter 62) it unfolds as more of a stream of ...
Big Idea: God will live with his people in the new creation. Understanding the Text The final vision of Revelation (21:1–22:5) highlights the primary goal and theme of the entire book and all of Scripture: God’s presence among his people in the new creation. From the time sin and death intruded upon God’s good creation, God purposed to defeat his enemies and live among his people in a new garden city. This final vision of Revelation represents the fulfillment of the promises to those who overcome (Rev. 2–3 ...