“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 ...
Two homes in one city, but in two totally different areas with two totally different residents. One home was situated in a very comfortable, gated neighborhood with a well-kept yard with flowers around the mailbox and a mat at the front of the door that said, “Welcome” in soft navy letters. Inside that home lives a minister with his family. At the front of the house are bay windows where the pastor kneels to pray every morning hoping that his neighbors will see him, because he wants to be a witness. The ...
Watch Out for False Teachers Peter began this letter by speaking of the divine provision for a godly life (1:1–11). He went on to stress the divine inspiration of Scripture truths (1:12–21). Now he warns against those who are threatening the church’s spiritual well being by the way they falsely treat these matters (2:1–22). 2:1 In some respects times do not change. All prophecy, whoever gives it and in whatever circumstances, needs to be interpreted. Furthermore, just as in the period of the OT there were ...
Big Idea: Jesus rebukes his church for its pathetic self-sufficiency and exhorts them to repent and open their hearts to him for restored fellowship and a share in his victory and authority. Understanding the Text The message to the church in Laodicea is the seventh (and final) in a series of messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3. Influenced by the local culture, the church considers itself wealthy and self-sufficient, but Jesus’s assessment differs markedly. He repeatedly utilizes images from ...
There is an ancient legend about two angels who flew to earth to gather people’s prayers. Wherever people bowed in prayer--by their bedside at night, in a chapel, or on the side of a mountain--the angels stopped and gathered the prayers into their baskets. Before long the basket carried by one of the angels grew heavy with the weight of what he had collected, but that of the other remained almost empty. Maybe you can guess why one basket was full, while the other remained empty. Into the first basket were ...
The story of David is the story of a Shepherd defending the holy flock of the Lord. But it is the Lord who saves them. For God is the true Shepherd of Israel. The boomer generation may well be the last generation that has significant memories of growing up on a farm. Anyone here a farmer? Anyone lived either on a farm, or a ranch, or know someone who does? If you live on the land, particularly in undeveloped areas or frontier regions, one of your major concerns are predators. Today, your threat may be as ...
Several years ago in one of her columns, Erma Bombeck described the complex task God had in creating mothers. After all, he had to build a creature who "would run on black coffee and leftovers...Have a lap that disappears when she stand up...A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair...And six pairs of hands." Also, "three pairs of eyes." An angel pleaded with God not to work so hard. "Lord," said the angel touching His sleeve gently, "Come to bed..." "I can't," said the ...
When six nations of eastern Europe were freed from the domination of totalitarian Communism in 1989, there was wild celebration by the people in the streets. They sang, they shouted, they marched, they danced in the streets, they laughed, they hugged each other. This was the happiest time of their lives. They were freed from decades of living under uncompromising dictatorships. Now they could speak out openly about how they felt, and they could march and shout their protests to a hated regime. It was a ...
The city darkness is very different from the hillside darkness. Out on the hillside, where the shepherds work, the darkness gently settles upon the landscape. It is a quiet dusk that melds into deeper shadows and finally, after so long a stretch of time, becomes the dark in which the stars are the only light. But in the city, the darkness comes as if some giant curtain was suddenly pulled tight, blocking out all illumination. It was in that darkness that Ely slowly made his way home through the maze of ...
If I told you that I have a sure-fire, effortless plan whereby you can lose 25 pounds, with no exercise, and no money, would I have your attention? I thought so. You can't pick up a Woman's Day magazine, Good Housekeeping, McCalls, Red-book, Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, or even the National Enquirer without finding at least one article on how to lose weight. It's a multi-million dollar business in America. And, if you are overweight, you probably need to lose some fat to be more ...
It does not seem to bother the children that Christmas is so close. Why is it they never seem to have any trouble getting ready for it? We older and wiser ones make a much harder thing of it; we always insist there is so much to do to get ready. Perhaps the difference is that the children are content to let Christmas happen, while we are so sure that it can't happen unless we do all the right things to make it happen. Many of the things we do to adorn this season, to set the stage for the drama that is ...
Every pastor has been touched and troubled when there have been those in the congregation who suddenly have faced unemployment. Like an ambush from two sides, unemployment attacks us with the fear of financial insecurity on the one side and the loss of self-esteem on the other. Job searching can deepen both. In just such a moment I encountered Brian. He is a competent and creative person whose skills and personality cannot be long overlooked. "It will work out, Brian," I said. "God does provide." "I hope ...
This sermon written after the Columbine Shooting incident. In the first semester of seminary, I remember one of my professors saying something like this: "During your ministry, there will be weeks when your cup overflows with joy and you feel a keen awareness of the presence of God. The sermon will not be quite as difficult to prepare then. In fact, there may even be times when it just seems to write itself, and you are finished with it by midweek and you cannot wait for Sunday to arrive so you can stand ...
"Tonight we will forget all of this ungodly talk about death. Tonight is a happy time of remembering our heritage. Tonight we shall eat lamb, bitter herbs, wine and bread. It will be good to remember Moses and the journey tonight." "Tonight we are at John Mark's house. No one will find us here. No crowds. No Pharisees. No sick people." "Tonight we will celebrate the Passover." These were my thoughts as we began that Thursday evening meal. Jesus began with prayer: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of the ...
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (verse 1) A gong has always impressed me as an almost unnecessary instrument. Each time a musician slams into one with a mallet to achieve the dull, disconcerting clash, I fully expect a secret passage to appear, or an oriental servant to fawn onto the stage. Cymbals provide slightly more flexible, functional accents of emphasis. However, both the gong and the cymbal produce but a single monotonous tone ...
The Order Of Worship We approach the worship of God this evening with a hushed awareness of Christ's presence in our midst. God again breaks through the calm and darkness to reveal himself to us in the stillness of our hearts. Let the praises of your heart and the songs of your voice be "joyful yet restrained" that we might be sensitive to the quiet indwelling of his Spirit. Organ And Piano Prelude: "And He Shall Feed His Flock"Handel Introit: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"The Chancel Choir The Call ...
"... in his joy ... he sells all ..." - Matthew 13:44 Have you ever thought of it? The process of our living involves a lot of trade-off and barter. We are forever giving up some things in order that we might have others; we are perpetually sacrificing this so we may have that. We do this in our marriages; we do this in our occupational choices; we do this in the matter of having children; we do it at almost every juncture of the journey we make. In most of our choices we are actually giving up certain ...
The Cast (in order of speaking) Sebastiano Franco Sister Sophia Bruder Hans Antonio Francesca Mario Marchesi Pietro Vermelli Giuseppe Synopsis Scene The First in which Father Sebastiano Franco is bemoaning the non-ringing of the church bells on Christmas Eve and is visited by a panic-stricken nun and a strange monk from Germany. Scene The Second in which a girl and her brother stumble upon a man dying in the cold. Scene The Third in which a rich man and a poor man commit insufficient acts of love. Scene ...
When this narrative begins, it is about as lacking in optimism and hope as the story my brother, B. J., tells about a farmer in southern Missouri who hired a man to split some post oak for his farm. Post oak is notoriously hard to work with, but it makes excellent fence posts and rail fences. It is so tough, that it's like trying to split rock. The farmer hired a man who was not too fast at thinking, and told him he'd pay him three dollars a dozen for the posts. After two or three days the farmer came to ...
"... I will turn the darkness before them into light ..." David Hume, the philospher, once wrote an essay on the sufficiency of the light of nature for man’s spiritual matters. About the same time, F. W. Robertson, a noted minister, published a sermon upholding the opposite thesis, pointing out that the light of nature needs to be supplemented by the light of a revelation from God. Mutual friends of the philosopher and preacher decided to bring the two together to debate the matter. When the evening ended ...
Did you ever hear such a story? The Gospel for the day tells it: a man gave a marriage feast and no one showed. He sent his servants out and found everyone too busy. Some even treated his servants badly when they were invited. So he went out into the streets and dragged in anyone who would come, and finally the wedding reception was full. To those who heard the story from Jesus’ own mouth, there was special meaning: The guests who had been invited and didn’t come were the Jewish people. They had been ...
The king of an African tribe, after many years, faced the fact that his throne was wearing out. It was repaired a couple of times, but eventually collapsed and was replaced with a new one. The king, for sentimental reasons, hated to part with his old throne. So it was hoisted on ropes to the ceiling of his grass hut and stored there. Then one night during a storm, the throne fell down and hit the king on the head. The moral of the story is that people who live in grass houses shouldn’t stow thrones. We ...
"I am the Lord your God ..." Exodus 20:2 A few years ago I had the opportunity to return to the homestead where I spent some of the happiest days of my youth. It is a farm situated in the midst of the wheatgrowing country of Pennsylvania, where my grandparents once lived. Shortly after I arrived, I walked out to a little knoll that overlooks the fields and sat down beneath the huge old walnut tree that has stood there for over a hundred years. From there I looked out over the fields. The wheat at the time ...
I sat one morning at a table in a fast-food restaurant, facing a window coated with a film of dirt and grease. An employee appeared outside with a bucket of water and sponged the grime away. It was like the raising of a curtain on a stage. Now I could see clearly the scene outside. In the immediate foreground was an asphalt parking lot; beyond that a stretch of winter-browned grass, relieved of monotony only by a cluster or two of leafless shrubs. An ambulance pulled away from a diner on the far edge of ...
PRELUDE PROCESSIONAL HYMN: "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" Oh, come, all ye faithful, triumphantly sing; Come, see in the manger our Savior and King! To Bethlehem hasten with joyful accord; Oh, come, let us adore Him, Oh, come, let us adore Him, Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord! True Son of the Father, He comes from the skies; To be born of a virgin He doth not despise. To Bethlehem hasten with joyful accord; Oh, come, let us adore Him, Oh, come, let us adore Him, Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ ...