A man asked God, "What does a billion dollars mean to you who are all powerful?"

"Hardly a penny." God said.

Then the man asked God , "And what are a thousand centuries to you?" God answ…

We would be abler teachers of others, and less liable to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Scriptures, alone can enlighten us rightly to understand them, we should constantly ask His teaching and His guidance unto all tru…

Poet Maya Angelou recalls the struggles of her grandmother living through the great depression. She remembers a lot of things about her grandmother: her wisdom, her stature. But it was her grandmother's faith that Maya remembers most. Clasping her hands behind her back her grandmother would look up into the distant sky and say, "I will step out on the word of God."

The gre…

Acts 17:18 - "Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him. And some said, ‘What would this babbler say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’ - because he preached Jesus and the resurrection."

Philosophy is the study of man, nature, and society as a whole. The word, which comes from the Greek philos (loving) and sophia (wisdom), means love of wisdom. Philosophical thinking is the most general and abstract kind of thought. The philosopher tries to organize knowledge into a logical system, and he questions all of the ideas that men take for granted, trying to discover whether they can be justified by reason.

To the Greeks, who originated philosophy in the Western world about 600 B.C., it was the search for truth of every kind - the ultimate meaning o…

A poem of repentance and discipleship:

They cast their nets in Galilee,
just off the hills of brown;
Such happy simple fisher folk,
before the Lord came down,
Before the Lord came down.

Contented, peaceful fisherm…

H. Jackson Brown, the author of "Life's Little Instruction Book" wrote a list of hilarious bits of "Kid Wisdom".

• When your mother is mad and asks, "Do I look stupid?" it's best not to answer her.
• You should never laugh at your dad if he's mad or screaming at you.
• You should never pick on your sister when she has a baseball bat in her hands.
• It's no fun to stay up all night if your parents don't care.
• You should not be the first one to fall asleep at a slumb…

Pastor Joe Wright of Kansas was asked to lead the Kansas State Senate in prayer. They were expecting the usual formal prayer to open the session but that is not what happened. The pastor used the moment as a confessional and prophetic opportunity. As he prayed there were some senators who got up and walked out. When Paul Harvey (a national known radio news and editorialist) got a hold of the prayer and read it on his program he got more requests for copies of it than any other thing he had ever done.

Here's what Rev. Wright the prayed:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, "Woe to tho…

On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell upon the waiting disciples, there were a number of extraordinary events occurring: there was the sound of a rushing wind, cloven tongues of fire appeared, and they all began to speak in other languages and the Holy Spirit gave them ability. The Jews who were visiting Jerusalem, from all nations, hearing them speak in their own tongues, were amazed at this startling phenomenon. They came to the hasty, false conclusion that the disciples must be drunk, and accused them, saying, "They have had too much wine!" "Not so!" said Peter. "It is only nine in the morning -- far too early to be fixed. They are not drunk, but rather filled with the new wine of the Spirit. This is what Joel the prophet foretold many years ago."

In other words, the Holy …

Isaiah 18:2 - "which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divided."

Ezekiel 17:15 - "But he rebelled against him, by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army ..."

There are several ways in which we can translate the words used for "ambassador" in the Bible, but the most frequently used interpretation is that of messenger, from the Hebrew mal’ akh, or malach, which means messenger. This word has an interesting biblical history of its own. We are, of course, familiar with the Old Testament book of Malachi, and no doubt assumed that this was the author’s name. However, this was a …

Have you ever felt unprepared? I mean for Christ's second coming? At times I know that if the sky cracked open and the trumpet sounded for the saints to be called home I would not be ready. Reinhold Niebuhr was a famous theologian known to most all us clergy. You perhaps are not familiar with him but you are familiar with his prayer:

God grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The world has adopted this prayer and made it powerless. Here's the rest of it... …

The following is an attempt by  Dr. Earl Radmacher and Gordon McMinn to identify and define spiritual gifts centered around teaching.

1. Prophecy: setting before people the Word and wisdom of God persuasively.
2. Encouragement: drawing alongside to comfort, encourage, rebuke, and lead someone into insight toward action.
3. Teaching: laying down in a systematic order the complete truth of a doctrine and applying it incisively to life.
4. The message of wisdom: Locating formerly unknown principles as well as combining known principles of God's Word and communicating them to fresh situations.
5. The message of knowledge: Arranging the facts of Scripture, categorizing these into prin…

The deity of the Holy Spirit ought to be clearly recognized in Scripture. Look at these facts: Christ is born; the Spirit is His forerunner. Christ is baptized; the Spirit bears witness. Christ is tempted; the Spirit leads Him up. Christ as…

"Here's a little something for your supper," the lady said.

"Thank you very much," said Jim. On arrival home, he opened the package and told his brother, "Isn't that marvelous, a delicious apple pie!"

"What's so wonderful about that?" said Dick. "You can get one bigger than that at the bakery for 75 cents."

"I know, but this was for nothing, and it was baked especially for me. It makes me happy all over. It's wonderful to me."

"Well, I can't see anything so wonderful abou…

Numbers 25:5 - "And Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.’ "

1 Chronicles 17:10 - "from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies."

If you will check any good anthropology text, you will find that even in very primitive societies, certain persons serve as judges. In the earliest times, the head of the house was considered judge over his household, even with life and death. With the enlargement of the human family, this power quite naturally passed to the heads of tribes and clans.

Moses, we find, followed Jethro’s advice and appointed judges for every "small matter" while Moses decided the important things. Upon Moses’ death, judges handled all the disputes. During th…

This is the 1863 Autumn Thanksgiving Proclamation which is the beginning of our official holiday (Note: this is not the first thanksgiving proclamation. Proclamations go back to 1777 and the Continental Congress but this is the speech from the inauguration of the Thanksgiving Holiday). 

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has so…

On February 15, 1947 Glenn Chambers boarded a plane bound for Quito, Ecuador to begin his ministry in missionary broadcasting with the important "Voice of the Andes." But he never arrived. In a horrible moment, the plane carrying Chambers crashed into a mountain peak and spiraled downward. Later it was learned that before leaving the Miami airport, Chambers wanted to write his mother a letter. All he could find for stationery was a page of advertising on which was written the single word "WHY?" Around that word he hastily scribbled a final note. After Chambers's mother learned of her son's death, his letter arrived. She opened the…

A common greeting of these days is, "How are you?" The stereotype reply is, "Fine, and how are you?" I frequently give this reply to my friends. They be dismayed and bored if I tried to tell them the truth, because this jalopy which I call my body is getting worse and worse, and my friends recognize it and make mental note, "He is slipping fast." No one comments on description of "Fine," the obvious and colossal lie that it is.

This jalopy is getting into bad condition. The steering gear is so worn and wobbly that I have to use a cane to keep it from running off the road. The headlights are so dim that they shine only about a half or a third …

This morning I'd like to do something a little unorthodox and recommend an album (sorry CD....sorry again, a download) to you. So far it has sold more than 4 million copies. It won "Album of the Year" awards from the Country Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association, and was nominated for five Grammys. Rolling Stone called it one of the best albums of 2001, and Entertainment Weekly named the musicians one of their "Entertainers of the Year."

The remarkable thing is it sounds nothing like Ariana Grande or Disturbed and yet it was one of the best selling albums of that year. So who is it? It's the Soggy Bottom Boys! You heard me. The Whites and a few other groups, along with the Soggy Bottom Boys (a fictional group) perform on the album. The Whites have…

In the summer of 1971 I had gone to Munich to study German. It was my first time in "the Fatherland," and I suppose I had half expected to find blond, blue-eyed kids yodeling on street corners, or adults heading to work in Lederhosen humming Beethoven's 9th.  Instead, blaring from every Italian Pizza Parlor, every Turkish shish kabob stall or ubiquitous McDonald's was the …

The redeemed are dependent on God for all. All that we have wisdom, the pardon of sin, deliverance, acceptance in God's favor, grace, holiness, true comfort and happiness, eternal life and glory we have from God by a Mediator; and this Me…

Unlike Gibran’s The Prophet, and other lyrical works dealing with love, the Lord does not speak with his head in the clouds but rather with his feet firmly planted on an earth filled with conflict and hatred. In the holiness code of Leviticus, God says that those who consider themselves among his children are not to take revenge on one another and are not to bear any grudges. I am sure that some of us have felt vengeful in the last week. Perhaps we have even sought to hurt or discredit someone who first hurt us. The feeling of wanting to even the score is what God is speaking against. Perhaps some of us are bearing a grudge as a result of some offense we suffered at the hands of someone else. Grudges are the result of an unforgiving spirit. In the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus speaks against …

The 96th Psalm is closely comparable with 1 Chronicles 16:23-26. Psalm 29:2 also contains the words, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." The New Revised Standard Version translated Psalm 96:9 to read, "Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him all the earth." Older people have long been accustomed to using the words from the King James Version.

Worship ought to be made beautiful in sight, sound, and thought. The physical settings of worship experiences serve to enhance and reinforce the yearning for understanding and completeness. This may be illustrated by a question: "Would you rather have a picnic on a graveled area in the heat of the sun, or where there is verdure of grass, and the shade of trees?" Worship is best when the scene is not barren, but blessed with go…

When you're raised in the country, hunting is just a natural part of growing up. For years I enjoyed packing up my guns and some food to head off into the woods. Even more than the hunting itself, I enjoyed the way these trips always seemed to deepen my relationship with friends as we hunted during the day and talked late into the night around the campfire. When an old friend recently invited me to relive some of those days, I couldn't pass up the chance. For several weeks before the trip, I had taken the time to upgrade some of my equipment and sight in my rifle. When the day came, I was ready for the hunt. What I wasn't ready for was what my close friend, Tom, shared with me the first night out on the trail.

I always enjoyed the time I spent with Tom. He had become a leader in his churc…

It has become fashionable in our culture to hold the view that death is a perfectly natural occurrence. The Bible teaches that it is not, and even those who deny the afterlife witness that God “has set eternity in the hearts of men.” The following extract from Charlotte and Howard Clinebell’s The Intimate Marriage (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1970), p. 188, serves as a good illustration of this truth:

One of the roots of the need for spiritual relatedness is the experience of man as the animal who knows he will…

God not only created persons, but persons of "worth." Regrettably, the Genesis account of humanity’s beginning has frequently been sensationalized, either by recurring debates as to the nature of the literature or gnat-straining arguments over sequences, that the matter of "worth" has escaped the hearing of a people who desperately need to hear it. Whatever else the high occurence of suicide in this country suggests to us, the matters of low self-esteem and a consciousness of worthlessness must certainly be taken into account. Genesis is but the first affirmation that God not only created persons, but persons of worth.

In Matthew 6:26, Jesus said, "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow or reaped or gather in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more valu…

You and I live in the period of history where we have access to more information than ever before. We have so much information that it produces what has been called the "Paralysis of Analysis." It was the poet T. S. Eliot who wrote:…

A preacher in the Midwest tells of a woman who called him to speak of her dissatisfaction with the program of the Church. He invited her to come to his office and talk the problem over with him. She accepted the invitation and brought to his attention some of the things that were needed and could be done. 

He gratefully acknowledged the wisdom of her ideas. He then said, "This is wonderful that y…

Nicholas was born of wealthy parents in A.D. 280 in a small town called Patara in Asia Minor. He lost his parents early by an epidemic but not before they had instilled in him the gift of faith. Then little Nicholas went to Myra and lived there a life full of sacrifice and love and the spirit of Jesus. Nicholas became so Christlike that when the town needed a bishop he was elected. He was imprisoned for his faith by Emperor Diocletian and released later by Emperor Constantine. There have been many stories o…

"Mother, isn't it wonderful? Last week there were no leaves on the tree, but now the leaves and a nest and eggs in the nest." said Mary as she looked out the upstairs window. "How soon will there be little birds there? How long before the eggs hatch?"

"I don't know," said the mother. "Why don't you go to the library? They will have a book that will tell you more about it."

"They do have a book about eggs hatching," said Mary.

"Yes," said the mother, "and the library has books on almost everything."

"Where do they get all those books?" asked the child. "And who writes all of them?"

"The library is filled with books by generous people and by know…

Eugene Peterson claims in one of his books: "For a long time I have been convinced that I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any discriminating American congregation. The curriculum would consist of four courses. Course 1: Creative Plagiarism. I would put you in touch with a wide range of excellent and inspirational talks, show you how to alter them just enough to obscure their origins, and get you a reputation for wit and wisdom. Course 2: Voice Control for Prayer and Counseling. We would develop your own distinct style of Holy Joe intonation, acquiring the…

Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863

Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to …

A.J. Gordon noted that if you tear down a sparrow's nest the little bird will build again in the same place. However, if you pull it down several times, she will seek a new location a shelter higher up where it will be less vulnerable. Gordon then observed that Christians are not always so wise. They form dwelling places of happiness and hope in this temporal world, only to see them pulled down time after time. Yet aft…

The master preacher Donald Grey Barnhouse was widowed at a young age. The death of his wife left him and a six-year-old daughter in the home. He had real difficulty working through his own grief, but the hardest part was to comfort and explain the death to his daughter. He later recalled that all of his education and theological training left him at a loss.

One day he and the l…

Jesus often taught by telling parables. These were simple, down-to-earth stories which expressed spiritual truth. Today, on this third weekend of Advent, I want to use a favorite Christmas story as a modern parable. This is a true story, told to me some ten years ago by Dr. Edward Bauman of Washington, D.C.

About 30 years ago a boy named Tony was born into a family in a Midwestern state. He was blind at birth. He suffered from an extremely rare eye problem for which there was no known cure. When the little fellow was about seven years old, his doctor read in the New England Journal of Medicine of a new surgical procedure that showed some promise for correcting this particular problem. A young surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston had developed it. The local doctor and the su…

Some years ago, when Leonard Griffith was pastor of the famous City Temple in London, he wrote a fascinating book entitled Barriers to Christian Belief. In that book he dealt with some problems that have over the years been real obstacles and stumbling blocks for people in their faith pilgrimage… specific problems that hinder people, that burden people, that disturb people… and keep them away from the Christian faith. One of the barriers he listed was…"unanswered prayer." It does seem to be a fact of our experience that many people do get discouraged and they do give up and drop out on the faith because they feel a sense of failure in their prayer life.

This leads us to ask then… "How do you pray?" "Why pray at all?" "When do you pray?" "Is there a special formula or a sacred language tha…

There was just no way Joshua could logically explain his battle plan to take Jericho. God told Joshua exactly what he wanted him to do. Can you picture Joshua trying to relate the plan to his generals?

"Well, we’re going to march around the city."

"Then what?"

"We’re going to do it seven times."

"Uh huh, then?"

"We’re going to blow the trumpets and make a lot of noise."

"Really?"

"Then the walls are going to fall down."

They probably thought Joshua had battle fatigue. But as the trumpets blasted on the seventh trip ar…

In her play, "The Zeal of Thy House," Dorothy Sayers imagines a stonemason working on an intricate carving for the chancel of Canterbury Cathedral, who clumsily lets his tool slip and spoils the whole great piece of stone assigned to him. It is a sad moment as the valuable and custom-cut stone stands misshapen. The architect, however, takes the tool out of the artisan's hand and although he remonstrates with him for his clumsiness, begins to enact forgiveness. He redesigns out of the spoiled ca…

Faith honors God and God honors faith! A story from the life of missionaries Robert and Mary Moffat illustrates this truth. For 10 years this couple labored faithfully in Bechuanaland (now called Botswana) without one ray of encouragement to brighten their way. They could not report a single convert. Finally the directors of their mission board began to question the wisdom of continuing the work. The thought of leaving th…

God’s grace is amazing in the lives of all his people. For even the most righteous man falls painfully short of the perfection that God requires of those who will be with him in heaven. The Bible says that at the end of time only those without any sin, none at all, will be able to stand in God’s presence. This causes us problems, big problems, for none of us qualifies.

If I were to ask you whether you were sure of your salvation, I wonder if every one of you could honestly say, "When I die, I feel certain that I would be with God in heaven." Anyone who loves the Lord and cannot state that conviction does not understand how amazing God’s grace really is.

The reason that many of us are uncertain about eternal life is because we are so aware of our …

The writer of "Gulliver's Travels" was able to criticize the pettiness of the king's court by making himself a giant on the shores of a little kingdom.

The Lilliputians were able to capture the sleeping giant by putting thousands of threads as their cables that pegged him down to earth.

As the giant he was able to see the selfishness and ridiculous behavior of petty people in big places.

Perhaps the writer was unaware of the parallel of truth found in the fact that a giant may…

Pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. One falls into pride when one lacks trust in God and his mercy and becomes arrogant, hypocritical, and self-centered. Reinhold Neibuhr, who has been referred to as the twentieth-century theologian of sin, summed up humanity's basic sin -- our unwillingness to acknowled…

A few months after moving to a small town a woman complained to a neighbor about the poor service at the local drugstore. She hoped the neighbor would repeat her complaint to the owner.

Next time she went to the drugstore, the druggist greeted her with a big smile, told her how happy he wa…

So much has been written, discussed, and speculated about Judas that we feel we know enough about him already. And really, what more is there to say of him other than he is for all times the supreme symbol of betrayal? Nothing, unless we are willing to admit that there was such about his life which causes us to be introspective about our own.

1. Jesus had confidence in him. To begin with, Jesus observed qualities about Judas which were suitable for discipleship. Had there been no goodness, no promise, no ability, Judas certainly would not have been included among the Twelve. Moreover, he was capable and trustworthy enough to be selected as treasurer for the group. So for whatever reason, future potential or ability already acquired, Jesus had confidence in him.

Has not Christ placed trem…

How many of us have been to a party where our host or hosts are so busy with all of the little details that the guests leave the party thinking, "That was a lovely party, but I wish I had more time to speak with our host!"  I imagine this Martha from over 2,000 years ago to have something in common with a certain ‘Martha' from our present.  Fussing over the perfect table se…

There is a wonderful story about the King and Queen of Sweden who were attending the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. Trying to get into an ice hockey game featuring the Swedish team, they were stopped by the ticket taker because their tickets were for another game on another day. The King said that the correct tickets were in his car and he asked that they be allowed in without the correct tickets: “Could you make an …

Have you heard the beautiful children's story about the three trees? The trees were talking in the forest one day about their dreams for the future. The first tree said it would like to be made into a cradle, so that it might go on living as a support for the fragile life of a tiny new baby. The second tree wanted to be made into a big ship, so that it might go on living, carrying important cargo and influential people to exotic new lands. The third tree longed to stay right where it was, existing only as a tree, but growing ever taller, and pointing ever higher, to remind everyone that there is a God in heaven who loves them.  Those were their dreams:  One wanted to be a cra…

Pride is the first of the seven deadly sins. One falls into pride when one lacks trust in God and his mercy and becomes arrogant, hypocritical, and self-centered.  Reinhold Neibuhr, who has been referred to as the twentieth-century theologian of sin, summed up humanity's basic sin our unwillingness to acknowledge our…

When a person becomes a Christian, he usually undergoes some radical life changes, especially if he has had an immoral background. Through the first steps of spiritual growth and self-denial, he gets rid of the large, obvious sins. But sad to say, many believers stop there. They don't go on to eliminate the little sins that clutter the landscape of their lives.

Gordon Ma…

There is a sense of fineness
In music of the strings
That sing of life's sweet beauties
And the joys they bring.

Some thoughts so gentle that they speak
In softer words than lips may say.
Of souls that hide behind the scenes
And whisper only when we pray.

We travel through the life that's here,
Conversing o…

Today I want to read to you a poem that is based on a rather famous poem about Christmas called ‘Twas the Beginning of Advent'. It is by a friend of mine - Todd Jenkins.  It will tell you a little bit about this season we celebrate.

'Twas the beginning of Advent and all through the Church
Our hope was all dying we'd given up on the search.
It wasn't so much that Christ wasn't invited,
But after 2,000 plus years we were no longer excited.

Oh, we knew what was coming no doubt about that.
And that was the trouble it was all "old hat."
November brought the first of an unending series of pains
With carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.

There were gadgets and dolls and all sorts of toys.
Enough to seduce even the most devout girls and boys.
Unfortunately, it seemed, no one was complet…