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• More than Conquerors? - More than Conquerors? Question: If Christ died for us, then what in the whole world can make us doubt God’s love for us? Let us be clear about this, the Love of God is not something we can purchase in a Christian bookstore, maybe on the “Sale” table. Another question: What did you do to become a Christian? You know, was it your baptism? Was it your prayer surrendering your life to Jesus Christ? Was it the tithing, the service within the church or community? What did you do that made you a Christian? Carl Barth, in his Epistle on Romans, writes, “Rightly understood, there are not Christians; there is only the eternal opportunity of becoming Christian – an opportunity at once accessible and inaccessible to all people.” Continue reading
• You’re Leaving Us? - You’re Leaving Us? Time after time, throughout the book of John, over an extended span of Biblical weeks, Jesus has spoken of the future, one in which He will be taken from them, and, in His absence, they would need to proceed with His work. Throughout the book of John we see resistance on the part of the disciples to accept what He is telling them. These are goodhearted followers of Jesus, and yet the idea of proceeding without Him is inconceivable. He’s the one that does the ministry, He’s the one that has done amazing things. How can we carry on? Jesus is telling His disciples (and us) about how He must return to His Father in Heaven because He wants them to have peace, and they would know He has not abandoned them/us. Continue reading
• If Only You Had Been Here! - If Only You Had Been Here! Was this a turning point for his disciples?  Did it take the raising of a dead Lazarus to life to cause the disciples to believe?  After all, they bore witness to calming the sea, healing of lepers, giving sight back to a blind man, feeding of thousands -- miracles all. Yet, did it take one more miracle to make the difference? As you read the above passage do you wonder why Jesus was so angry?  Who was he upset with? Mary? Martha? The disciples? The teachers of the law? You? Me? Who? I think it was the sea of disbelief that Jesus found there in Bethany. Continue reading
• Disposition and Deeds - Disposition and Deeds: The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in motive because he has been made good by the grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing Is right-being. Jesus Christ came to put into any man who would let Him a new heredity which could exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus says -- if you are My disciple you must be right not only in your living but in your motives, in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure. Continue reading
• Laugh, You Saints! - Laugh, You Saints! Imagine this: You’re in your mid 30’s and you and a group of friends have made a decision to spend seven or eight days hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail.  Making all the arrangements is complicated but finally all the details are worked out and you begin your hike. As your group is walking along, what are you doing?  Well, of course, you’re admiring the scenery and the beauty of the land you’re walking through; the mountains, the Lakes, the forestland.  Maybe the weather takes a slight turn and you find yourself walking in the rain, but you’re equipped for that and you find some joy in that very experience. Now imagine the same thing but now you’re a disciple the Jesus of Nazareth. You are hiking the Galileeian Trail, visiting towns along the way, a ministry of sorts. As you, Jesus, and your circle of friends hike along what are you doing? Continue reading
• Balaam’s Donkey - Balaam’s Donkey: Do you know the story of Balaam’s donkey?  It’s in the book of numbers. You say you don’t read the book of Numbers? Allen Jackson says not even God reads the book of Numbers. Jackson says, “Look He didn’t even give the book a proper name”. That’s a joke. The story of the donkey, also the story of Balaam, as a bit confusing. The prophet Balaam has been instructed by God to go and meet Balak, the feared king of Moab. Balaam sees an opportunity to cash in on both the order from God and the invitation from Balak. This angers God, and an Angel of the Lord blocks his pathway. The donkey sees the Angel, and turns aside into a field. Balaam, who does not see the Angel,  beats the poor beast and forces it back on the path. This happens three times, then God opened the mouth of the donkey and God’s will is made clear. Continue reading
• Baptism of the Holy Spirit - Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Robert Morris is one of my favorite TV theologians and I have learned much about the meaning of Holy Scripture from his many telecasts. However, his treatment of Baptism really brought me up short.  From an early age to the present moment, I have always seen baptism as a singular sacrament, whether it occurs as an infant and the baby is dedicated to God, or as an adult where an intentional decision has been made to follow Christ. One Baptism. Then I heard, and read, Morris baptisms, 3 baptisms. Three! First, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ when we accept Jesus as our Lord. It was the Holy Spirit who drew us to be born again. Continue reading
• No Pentecost, No Power - No Pentecost, No Power: Bill Graham said, “Without Pentecost (the infilling of the Holy Spirit), the disciples would have been powerless to spread the Good News of the gospel.” How true is that? What came into your life when Christ came into your life? I’ll tell you -- The whole package! Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Along with the Triune God, came gifts, so numerous and extensive that we can barely comprehend. Think about the amazing benefits that He brings to our lives...Power, Love, Fruit and Gifts. Continue reading
• Holy Spirit I - Holy Spirit I: Who is the Holy Spirit?  I wonder if some people see the Holy Spirit as kind of  God Jr.? You know, less than God, the Father. After all that is God the Father, emphasis there. And what about God the Son, is he another God Jr.? Wait a minute. Is the Holy Spirit even related? Those are the crazy thoughts that the evil one sticks in whenever we seek to understand the Trinity, the Triune God, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit...all One. For some, the concept of a Triune God is difficult to grasp, at first. The tendency is to look at the entities separately because, often times, we are introduced to the whole idea of God exactly that way. Continue reading
• My Unbelief - My Unbelief: Do you have any unbelief? Momentary lapses in your faith journey where you thought you could do it all on your own? But, then found you couldn’t? In the midst of your prayer life has your mind wander into tomorrow or, worse, into yesterday and yesterday’s troubles?  Do you find yourself dwelling on an argument you had with a friend? The Mark 9 passage was recently used in a Verse-A-Day devotional. The commentator made this statement: “From the father’s perspective, the spirit possessing his son is trying to kill him. Jesus asks, “How long has he been like this” to get to the bottom of this man’s heart and reveal this man’s faith.”  The man is desperate and he cries out, if you can do anything, help us. Jesus’ replies with -- “If you can believe.” That is when the desperate father cries out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” Continue reading
• Blessings and More Blessings - Blessings and More Blessings: The apostle Paul never heard the song Count Your Blessings.  But it’s clear from his writings that he takes its message to heart at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians. Here at the start of the above passage, he leads off with a note of praise to God for his blessings, then proceeds to count them one by one, so to speak. Look at the passage. It is filled with phrases that should give us a sense of confidence and peace that God is in our lives. First is God’s guarantee and the assurance that we are eternity-bound. The tone is one of gratitude for His love for Christians “everywhere”. Continue reading
• Reprise – Our Failures? - Reprise - Our Failures? Jesus is not praying for us in our success! He is praying for us in our failures!  Wow. What a statement! Do you believe that? Jesus is rejoicing in the success He sees in our lives, which is different than the success we may aspire to, and the success He sees in us does not surprise Him. He has equipped us for that success, He has foreordained that we would succeed. So, in our equipping and in the foreordaining, He has set the stage for what would follow…our success through His will. Continue reading
• Separation of Church and State? Impossible! - Separation of Church and State? Impossible! This has been a source of discussion, argument, violence, immigration, civil unrest, and wars. It has divided families, it has divided nations. The concept has evolved since Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying stone tablets. The evolution has been spotty, to say the least. In 890 AD, an English king named Alfred the Great laid out the Book of Laws or Dooms. The English word for judgment or law was “doom”. King Alfred said: Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe! You can smile, but would you believe that this was the foundation piece of English common law!             Continue reading
• Imperfectly Beautiful - Imperfectly Beautiful: My body is a broken toy and I am imperfectly beautiful. Those might be the words of Angie Ebba, disabled, an artist, a writer and a teacher. In an article on the website Healthline, she started with this statement: “I am broken..." It is her reality. Her story is inspiring and offers encouragement for all of us who age, become infirm, forgetful, or acquire debilitating illnesses. We think of another broken body, and we hear those words, “This is my body broken for you…” those words should resonate with us. Each word has meaning. This is my body... What about you and your encounter with Jesus, there on Calvary? Where are our thoughts when we hear His words, “This my body being broken for you”? Continue reading
• Render to Caesar - Render to Caesar: Question: If Christ had done what we are doing -- who would ever have been saved? I don’t know. Do I have an answer? I think that if Christ has done what we are doing there would never have been followers, let alone disciples to carry-on God’s work.  The fact of the matter is, in God’s plan, what we are doing would not persist in the presence of the light of Christ. Thank you, Jesus, that our sins are forgiven. Jesus has a plan, an unworkable plan in the eyes of the world, but a plan that is shear perfection. Continue reading
• Praying or Braying? - Praying or Braying? I'm not sure anyone knows how many sermons Martin Luther preached. We know that there were days when he would preach five different sermons in a given day, and there were times when his congregation thought his sermons would never end!  Most of his sermons came from Scripture, but, especially after his denunciation of Catholicism at the start of the Protestant Reformation, some of his preaching became prickly, and caused consternation even among his fellow pastors. Although the Reformation is usually considered to have started in 1517 with the publication of the 95-Theses by Martin Luther, the Papal war really broke out in 1521 with the Edict of Worms which condemned Luther and officially banned citizens from defending, or even reading his ideas. That’s when his sermons got very interesting, and pointed. Continue reading
• The Other Side? - The Other Side? In the last Watchword, entitled “You are a Disciple”, I wrote about Jesus going where others feared to tread, going to the “other side”.  Whether are you are aware of it, we operate on a mentality, and in a culture, that speaks of Us versus Them. We on one side, they on the other. All we need to do is look at the color chart, Reds versus Blues. Whites versus blacks, or maybe you would prefer Protestants versus Catholics or, and so it goes. We’re no longer shirts versus skins but it’s just as divisive and competitive. We do take sides, don’t we? We tend to divide the human race based on ethnicity, culture, language and religion. Continue reading
• You Are a Disciple - You Are a Disciple: So much of the time when we read the Bible we seek to understand what is happening, what the meaning of the parable, or understanding the flow of biblical history. I wonder if we ever stop and try on sandals of the fisherman, the way of the disciple, the transformation of common a man into a disciple of Jesus. One of my dear friends, who happened to have been one of my former pastors, stressed the need to understand the topography of the area, the geography, and the culture as we read the holy Word. That’s not easy to fully grasp, but it does add depth to the impact that divine power has on common humans. All but one of the original 12 disciples came from Galilee, and the majority of them were common fisherman making a living from the lake. They had little background in theology, many could not read, and all had been raised in a culture where Judaism played a significant, influencing role. In that culture, and In that geography, the Sea of Galilee served as a barrier between Galilee/Judiasm and God, on the west, and the Decapolis (the area we now know of as the Golan Heights), on the east where Satan dwelled, Continue reading
• The Next Hard Thing - The Next Hard Thing: Joseph Hellerman, in writings entitled Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi, calls our attention to a difficult decision that Paul made at a critical time in his life, as he was trying to establish a Christian church in the little outpost of Phllippi.  In this community, there were members of the elite and nobodies of society. There were women, children, slaves, a real mix where Paul was trying to make them into a family: brothers and sisters of the faith. So, Paul is arrested.  We do not know what the charge was, but for Rome that didn’t matter.  He was badly beaten and eventually released. It was at this point that he protested to the authorities that he was a Roman citizen. The officials are shocked and apologetic, and Frightened, for they have violated Roman law. Here’s the question, why didn’t Paul use his getting out of jail free card when he was first arrested? Continue reading
• Talitha cumi! - Talitha cumi! In one of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories, I found this quote: “In the morning there was a big wind blowing and the waves were running high up on the beach and he was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken.” I was researching the words “awake” or “awakening”, trying to find an appropriate title for a story I have been working on, and the Hemingway quote popped up. Then I came across the Hebrew greeting, Talitha cumi, and among it’s various meanings was “Child, wake up!” In a recent sermon, based partly on the Mark 5 passage, the pastor was making the point that death and sleep are related in the sense that each day we awake to the day that God has made, a type of resurrection. Continue reading