... parable takes another turn (no pun intended!) "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter. (Jeremiah 18:4, NASB) Oftentimes, the potter will have a problem - the clay will be spoiled or marred; there will be an imperfection of some sort - a stone or a hard spot that has to be removed before the work can be completed. Usually one of two things happens to the clay in this incidence. If you ever get a chance to go to Williamsburg, Virginia they show you how life was back in ...
2027. Is Your Heart In It?
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Illustration
Verne Arens
... a youngster learning to play the piano. "The child holds her hands just as she's been told...she has memorized the piece perfectly. She has hit all the proper notes with deadly accuracy. But her heart's not in it, only her fingers. What she's playing is a sort of music, but nothing that will start voices singing or feet tapping." When it comes to faith and life, let me ask you a question: Are our hearts in it or only your fingers? Are you allowing God's renewing grace to work in you from deep within?
... .” And the Latin stem of “salvation” is the word for “salve” or “healing unguent.” A life of faith, lived according to the promises of Christ, is a healthful life. Throughout history the church became the center for healing of all sorts. During the flowering of monasticism the cloistered ground of the herbarium became the community pharmacy. The herbalist brother, the physician, tended the frailties of the body even as the church tended the frailties of the soul. When the deadly black death ...
... ignore it that you get into trouble. When you ignore God's Word about dating or marrying an unbeliever or you ignore God's Word about the dangers of pre-marital or extra-martial sex, when you ignore what God's Word says about managing money you get into all sorts of trouble. I read about an old sailor that repeatedly got lost at sea, so his friends gave him a compass and told him to use it. The next time he went out in his boat, he followed their advice and took the compass with him, but as usual he ...
... painted here. We should constantly be humming the tune of God's Word to ourselves; meditating on it day and night. It is like a song you can't get out of your mind. Let me tell you why so many of us read our Bibles almost in a grinding sort of way, but then we will say to each other when no one is listening, "You know, I read my Bible, but I don't get anything out of it." May I tell you why that is true for a lot of us? You read it and then you forget ...
... . Through all of this, she homeschools her children in kindness and religion, keeps up her spirits, and behaves with such decorum that she is a good reflection on her husband, who, instead of helping out at home, is free to take his seat among the elders (a sort of ancient equivalent of spending time at the golf course). Now, I ask you women who are present here today, would you want to marry some guy who had expectations like that for you? Surely this chapter was written by a man! In fact, it reminds me ...
Most days, the news carries stories that, in some way or other, involve the abuse of power. In recent years it has included financial abuses committed by top executives of major companies and abuse of Iraq detainees by U.S. prison guards, but there's almost always some sort of power abuse in the news. So here's a question for each of you: Do you think of yourself as a powerful person? Before you answer, let me be clear that I am not necessarily talking about having power on the scale of corporate CEOs or ...
... ,” is that on the lips of an early first century Jew, that identification could mean almost anything. Following the failure of the revolts in 168 BCE the defeated Jewish citizenry increasingly began to associate “messiah” with some, almost any sort of divinely appointed charismatic leader. This leader may or may not have a Davidic heritage. But his goal was to re-establish Israel as an independent, political entity. Other messianic predictions extended his rule to other nations, to the blossoming ...
2034. Clothed with Humility
Mark 9:30-37
Illustration
John R. Gunn
The word "humility" means literally a low estimate of self. But this does not imply self-deprecation. When you hear someone deprecating himself, usually you can put it down as a sort of counterfeit humility. Someone has said, "The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your full height before some higher nature that will show you how small your greatness is." "Walk humbly with thy God." Here is where ...
... trying to talk a bunch of white, southern businessmen into NOT naming a new Chinese food franchise “Charlie Chopsticks.” Kathy thinks: The creation of a nationwide chain of Chinese restaurants by a bunch of clueless white guys seemed like just the sort of vehicle she was looking for, a way to shine an amusing light on what was actually a troubling phenomenon: the voracious march of American business, its insatiable need to devour everything in its path — other people’s history, their cuisine, their ...
... know the feeling and it doesn't do much for our self-image! The good book tells us the fruit of the Spirit includes faithfulness, humility, and self-control. Now, we are onto how we can live a victorious Christian life and deal with temptations of various sorts day in and day out. "All things are possible with God" is not a cliché we bring out and brag about periodically. There is a harmony with the Holy Spirit which makes this true beyond all doubts. We are not losers, except in the world's sight, going ...
... both civil and religious, provide ways of knowing what is expected of us in behavior. The scales, sooner or later, are always there to do the weighing. In recent years it seems religious courts have become more important. After all, it is a trying time of sorting out the guilty and innocent. While our preaching may seek to avoid or limit it, we discover that is hardly the case. Our intentions are aboveboard but the reality of living causes our concerns to come into the picture. So we do the best we possibly ...
... clothing, and shelter. Jesus was good at tapping into the fishing business for disciples! Yes, we discover the Big Fisherman first failing and then succeeding. It seemed like that was the story of his life! The gospels again and again depict him as a bumbling sort of fellow who managed — at first — to botch most everything. Surely, a man who caught fish for a livelihood would have the good sense to try more than one side of the boat. Anyone with solid business skills knows one does not continue to spend ...
... the rubble and rubbish of 9/11. I also had an embarrassing moment one evening when I went out to eat at a local pub. I found that you never quite know what kind of pub it's going to be when you walk in the door. You have to sort of size it up. Some pubs are very nice, and family oriented; some are dives; and some are rather pricey. This one happened to be the local hangout for university students. It was loud, noisy, filled with smoke, and had people stuffed in the room tighter than sardines in a ...
... give. Successful Christians give, and then some. Average Christians pray and read their Bibles. But successful Christians read and pray, and then some. The widow only asked for justice and that is what God grants. The parable this morning is not telling us that God is some sort of super discount store that will give us whatever we ask as long as we are as vigilant as the widow before the judge. Rather, the lesson this day for you to take with you is that if what you seek is within God's character, you ...
... themselves. Yes, sometimes God works in mysterious ways. When the Gentiles started attending, some of them even Samaritan Gentiles, we had some problems. Then a few of the disciples, and people like Paul, went out there running around, opening the membership to all sorts of people, even, if you could imagine, to Romans. Houston, we have a problem. As you would expect, there was a split. Some of the disciples had left Jerusalem, and along with Paul, Silas, and many others, preached a gospel of salvation to ...
... into the digital world have even more problems finding truth. The internet has created a culture in which everyone is an expert; and anyone can publish their thoughts, beliefs, and opinions, with the same level of apparent credibility as anyone else. How do we sort through all of those words and identify what is real? How do we find the truth in the mix of untruths, partial truths, and just complete nonsense? Don't misunderstand; I'm not bashing either television news or the internet. The problem I am ...
As usual, the epistle is a little more graphic than we can quite grasp. Itchy ears: what a concept just in physical terms. Experience it for a minute. You itch, you scratch, you sort of know you shouldn't scratch because it will only make the itch worse. But still you scratch, while wondering how the itch ever got started in the first place. What a concept: itchy ears as a vehicle for spiritual truth. When we itch, we scratch. We awaken. We know ...
... are risk takers — self-starters — and they live George Bernard Shaw's words, "and dream things that never were." In the pursuit of Christ the king, excellent Christians are not afraid of being uncomfortable. They ask the tough questions about themselves. (Who are we? What sort of image are we presenting to the world? What would Jesus do in this situation? Are we doing enough?) They are not afraid to walk into city hall, or over to the next desk in their office, or to reach across the back fence if ...
... we live by its wisdom. Every so-called secular or worldly accomplishment in our world can be taken from us. Who knows the amount of money, time, and energy that goes into the print or other media to explain away someone’s good deeds? Those sorts of shenanigans appear to go on all the time. The calculated deceit in today’s world stretches our imaginations! Only what we have done for Christ and consequently stored up in heaven is free from such onslaughts. It is a simple, spiritual truth but human ...
... settlements on the open range vanished as quickly as they had burst upon the scene, leaving a ghost town full of abandoned buildings where once there had been a community of vibrant commercial enterprises. Jerusalem may have resembled a ghost town of sorts to the Hebrew people upon their return from being held captive in Babylon. More than 500 years before the birth of Christ, Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem and carried the more prosperous, better-educated residents of the region back to Babylon with ...
... spread the gospel message in a land where religion has been controlled or suppressed by the government for decades. Ms. Su's father is a communist revolution veteran, and religion has always been considered a leading threat to Communist rule. A Christian revival of sorts had already begun to sweep through China's peasantry when Ms. Su's life hit rock bottom. Until she was thirty something, Su had never even heard of Jesus. Her husband, after months of suffering, died of brain cancer, leaving her with young ...
... father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6). On the one hand, that tells us nothing. It doesn't tell us what God looks like or sounds like, and the Hebrew Scriptures have no intention of telling us anything of the sort. But it does tell us what God acts like — by calling to mind our ancestors, the name I Am suggests that the way we know God is to call to mind by long memory what God has accomplished with the people in all generations. It's what God does, not ...
... people in our midst without looking down your nose at them because they don't meet your standards, standards that God knows nothing about. In our nation, the church hour remains the most segregated hour in American society — racially, economically, philosophically. We put up all sorts of barriers to keep others out, unseen gates and doors to separate ourselves from the world, and all the time God is hollering at us to get out there, get into the ball game, and bring people in. If you don't want to bring ...
... II ended, West and the others began to wage peace. Animals were shipped to people on both sides of the conflict. The idea grew, and many churches were invited to join in the ecumenical organization known today as Heifer International. Millions of animals of all sorts have been given to people in 128 different countries, but the mission - providing a future with hope by working in partnership with the hungry to help provide a long-term source of food in the name of Jesus - has remained unchanged. The fact is ...