Hooray for the Church!
Matthew 16:13-19
One balmy day in the South Pacific, a navy ship spied smoke coming from one of three huts on an uncharted island. Upon arriving on shore they were met by a shipwreck survivor. He said, “I’m so glad you’re here! I’ve been alone on this island for more than five years!”
The captain replied, “If you’re all alone on the island why do I see THREE huts.”
The survivor said, “Oh. Well, I live in one, and go to church in another.”
“What about the THIRD hut?” asked the […]
Outrageous Grace
Luke 23:33-43
Romans 3:20-25a
There was once a handyman who had a dog named Mace. Mace was a great dog except he had one weird habit: he liked to eat grass; not just a little bit, but in quantities that would make a lawnmower blush. And nothing, it seemed, could cure him of it. One day, when the handyman was working on a tractor he lost his wrench in the tall grass. He looked and looked, but it was nowhere to be found. At dark, he gave up for the night […]
Lord, Come and Change Our Lives
John 15:1-11
Ephesians 4:21-5:2
There was a guy who bought a parrot that reportedly talked a lot. He got the parrot home and found that the parrot not only talked a lot, but his speech was peppered with profuse profanity. Being a Christian man, he tried to get the parrot to change his ways by teaching him new words, but try as […]
Seeking Solitude
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Psalm 46:1-11
Mark 6:30-46
A man seeking solitude moved to an isolated mountaintop. One day he heard a knock and there sat a snail and it said, “It is quite cold out here can I come in?” The man shouted, “No, I came here to be alone!” and he flicked the snail down the mountainside. One year later there was a knock at the door […]
Drawing Near
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Psalm 27:1-6
Mark 12:28-31
Hebrews 10:19-22
I was reading about a father who was also a pastor and who asked the third-grade class to draw a picture of God. His daughter, who was in that class, showed her dad her picture: “I don’t know what God looks like,” she said, “so I just drew you, daddy, instead.”
It has been said that “a child is not […]
Judge Not
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Matthew 7:1-5
John 8:1-11
In this passage from John’s gospel, Jesus was practicing what He preached in Matthew’s gospel. “Do not judge others, or you will be judged.”
I shudder when I read that because it is so easy to do exactly what Jesus said we should not do.
Let’s face it, judging others is a natural human trait. At one time, making quick judgments made the […]
Surely the Presence
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Matthew 18:20
I Corinthians 10:16-17
I had been teaching my three-year-old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer for several evenings at bedtime. She would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us […]
Forgive and Forget?
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Matthew 18:21-35
Mother Teresa once said, “If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.”
Bill Moyers said, “In marriage every day you love and every day you forgive. It’s an ongoing sacrament, love and forgiveness.”
Oscar Wilde said, “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.”
Nelson Mandela said, “Resentment is like drinking poison hoping it will kill your enemies.”
Dispelling Forgiveness Myths
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Matthew 18:21-22
Romans 12:9-21
Although we have taken a couple of breaks, for the past 6 weeks, we have been considering the grace of forgiveness. I believe that forgiveness is the most important subject in the Bible. To be sure, God’s forgiveness of us is the big picture of the entire Bible. And once we are forgiven we know that we are to extend the […]
Mom’s Highest Calling
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Acts 16:1-5
II Timothy 1:1-10
On a hot summer day, two Jehovah Witnesses stopped their car in front of a farmhouse in Montgomery County Alabama and started up the path through a gauntlet of screaming children and barking dogs. When they knocked on the screen door, the woman of the house who was on her hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor stood up, brushed […]
Overcoming the Tough Forgive
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Jeremiah 31:31-34
Luke 22:14-20
We’ve been talking about forgiving others. We’ve noted that although forgiving others can be very difficult with God’s help it is possible.
One of the things concerning forgiveness that we haven’t touched on yet, and it is one of the most difficult aspects of forgiveness, is forgiving ourselves.
I have a hunch – no not a hunch, I am certain there […]
Forgiveness How To’s
Genesis 50:14-21
Ephesians 4:25-32
A little boy was sitting on a park bench in obvious pain. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The young boy said, “I’m sitting on a bumblebee.”
The man urgently asked, “Then why don’t you get up?”
The boy replied, “Because I’m hurting him more than he hurt me!”
How many of us handle forgiveness like this little boy? For some reason, we prefer to endure pain and bitterness for the sadistic satisfaction of believing we are hurting our offender more than he is hurting […]