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- Barabbas, Man of God? - Barabbas, Man of God? Most of us have been introduced to Barabbas, the notorious leader of the Zealots in Jerusalem during that time leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. His life is referenced in eleven verses of the New Testament and then he disappears. However, he emerges as an unlikely hero on the pages of the historic, fiction novel, A Life for Barabbas. The novel details Barabbas’ spiritual transformation from an unrepentant rebel to a strong Christian leader. The pattern of this man’s faith journey mimics the critical points of our own faith development. Our lives, as Christians, are not fictional, they are real. Continue reading
- Whom Shall I Send? - Whom Shall I Send? In the course of our typical day, how often, do you suppose, we are called upon to be poured out wine and broken bread? How often, do you suppose, in that typical day are we presented with circumstances that call us to go and do likewise? To get into the gutter and lift someone who has fallen? To leave our comfort zone and do the right thing, the Christ-like thing? How readily are we to say, with Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me”? Continue reading
- Nonagon? - Nonagon?What the heck is a nonagon, you ask? In the early days of Christianity, many of the followers of Jesus became discouraged and drifted away. The disciples were also struggling. Some were impatient for Jesus to emerge as the leader who would over throw Rome and establish a new nation. They had seen no evidence that this was happening. Yet, in the face of dissenting thoughts and actions, Jesus continued this ministry, laying the groundwork in which the seeds of God’s plan would bring forth a growing crop of those who believed. Continue reading
- Vintage Water? - Vintage Water? This first miracle of Jesus, Mary encouraging Him to act and his own reluctance to act saying “My time has not yet come.” There are no disciples with Jesus at this time, and, from the scripture, the only witnesses are Mary and the servants who filled the jars.what did he mean by “My time has not yet come”? It’s possible that what he meant was that the hour for him to show himself as Messiah have not yet arrived or had not fully come, and would not until he was crucified. Have there been points in your life where it seemed like the Lord was driving that question home to you, do you believe this? Continue reading
- Technology – Bah Humbug! - Technology – Bah Humbug! The moment someone asks me what my computer “operating system” is, my eyes cross and I get this uncomfortable feeling that, somehow, I am stupid beyond words.Well, this is ALL I know about operating systems, and it is probably wrong: Whatever it is, it dictates what my computer can do and provides a kind of guidance for my use of Word. When Christ came into the world did He introduce a new operating system? Continue reading
- Meditations - Meditations: I wonder if we fully understand the power implied in that word -- Meditation. How do you meditate? When you read daily devotionals, or scripture passages, or listen to a sermon, do you meditate on the content? Do you put yourself in the midst of the subject of that passage or a sermon? You know the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but…” In kind of a weird way that could apply to us. The living water is all around us, in our daily devotionals, the Holy Bible that we hold in our hands, the subject of most sermons, these are all sources of living water if we would but take the time to think and consider what that means in the eyes of our Lord. Continue reading
- Get Thee Behind Me… - Get Thee Behind Me: I can resist anything, except temptation! When we stand guilty of being tempted, do we suddenly become Flip Wilson and point our finger at the devil who made you do it? Or do we find some other scapegoat? Jesus was coming off a spiritual high point in His life. He had just been baptized. He saw the Holy Spirit descend on Him. He heard His Heavenly Father say, "This is my beloved Son; with Him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). And that's when the devil started in on Him. Continue reading
- Uncommon Faith - Uncommon Faith: Trusting God is sometimes difficult. That is especially true when we are called to do something that we resist. Sometimes our faith is in conflict with our common sense, or our comfort levels. You hear Apostle Paul telling you that “all things work together for good…” and you wonder. Jesus tells you to “sell all you have and give to the poor” and you think, that can’t be right. That would make me one of the poor. Let’s face it, common sense and faith are as different from each other as today’s news is from the Good News. Continue reading
- Abide in Me - Abide in Me: I don’t know how often the word “Abide” is used in the Bible. It was one of Apostle John’s favorite words. He uses it 53 times in his Gospel and letters. Each time he uses it to say that God Abides in Christ. When John applies ‘abide’ to the relationship between Jesus and God, he is saying that He (God) dwells in Him and therefore has a constant influence upon Him. John 10:38 says “Jesus said, ‘the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.’" I think we would all find the logic in the relationship between Jesus and God. But, how do we apply that to God and ourselves? Continue reading
- I Wish, I Wish, I Wish - I Wish, I Wish, I Wish: I had an uncle who was a missionary in China just before the start of World War II. In my young imagination, I saw my uncle Harold doing heroic things under difficult circumstances. The stories he told filled my mind with amazing images of missionary service, those images became dreams for my future, unfulfilled. When one of my friends traveled to third world countries to assist in the drilling of fresh water wells, that simply added to my understanding of missionary work. How do you share the power of Jesus the Christ when drilling a well? How do you share the power of Jesus the Christ when drilling a well? Continue reading
- What Does the Lord Require? - What Does the Lord Require? I prayed and prayed and prayed, and still my golf game never improved! I prayed about a relationship I had with a friend. That jerk never changed. I go to church every Sunday, but I’ll never tithe until the sermons are better, even though I pray about them. What’s wrong with this God of ours? Does he even hear our prayers, let alone answer them? That’s a joke, but buried in there is some truth. Look at the 1 John passage again. See that little phrase – “he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will.” Oh, yes, His will verses my will. No, that is not it. His promise to answer prayers is true, but there is a condition: A right relationship with God. Continue reading
- Spirit of the Living God - Spirit of the Living God: We should keep in mind as we read the writings of John, that he is writing this towards the end of his life. But he is writing about current happenings within the church and expressing his concerns. This was a time when there were false prophets, even antichrists, and the followers of Christ struggled with this opposition. John actively teaches that if you, by faith, have the Father you also have the Son. Then he goes on to say if you have the Spirit you also have the Son. Think about that. We see all three persons of the triune God, all involved in our Christian walk, our salvation. The Work that Christ completed, “It is Finished”, on Calvary has given us our salvation. Continue reading
- God on the Left, God on the Right - God on the Left, God on the Right: I received this from a member of the Watchword network. Yesterday, I had this really great conversation with a friend. Anyway, I was telling her I was feeling overwhelmed. She suggested that I take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and on the left put the things I would do and on the right put the things I was assigning to the “Universe” (Higher Power?). She said that the left-hand list should be shorter than the right-hand side. Continue reading
- Our Father Who Art… Another Perspective - Our Father Who Art… Another Perspective: Jesus is responding to the disciples request for a lesson on praying. First I want to call your attention to verse 7 where Jesus is telling us, “Don’t recite the same prayer over and over as the heathen do” Uh oh. Is that what the heathens do? Well he couldn’t possibly mean our repeated use of the Lord’s Prayer in service after service after service. Could He? After all it’s such an important part of our services that seems to say at all. No, he couldn’t mean us. Recently I tuned into Pastor Robert Morris who was speaking on this very topic. He said that the Lord’s Prayer has seven important parts, which, coincidentally, all start with the P. Continue reading
- Our Father Who Art… - Our Father Who Art… It seems like every church service that I attend asks the congregation to recite the Lord’s Prayer. I say “recite” because, even though the prayer is printed in the bulletin, we tend to recite it by memory. We just rattled it off, too often without thinking because it’s so familiar to us. Even though this prayer was given to the disciples as an outline of how they should talk with God, nevertheless, there it is and I’m left with wondering how meaningful it is for us to simply recite. The disciples had asked him to teach them how to pray. And what he gave them was what to include, not what specifically they should say. I think too often we see the Lord’s Prayer as THE prayer and everything else is secondary, maybe even conversation. But wait, that’s an important point. Continue reading
- Ears, But Did Not Hear - Ears, But Did Not Hear: I recently completed a story that, at its core, expands on the parable of the Good Samaritan. I imagined a merchant from Samaria, who travels to markets along the Jordan River, and has been hearing stories of Jesus’ ministry, scoffing at them, discounting them as fables. The merchant is unaware that he is just behind Jesus and His disciples, as they make their way to Jerusalem. The merchant has been trying to explain away all the stories of Jesus' ministry in his own mind, and, at one point, he actually witnesses Jesus’ miracle, and struggles to find a solution, an answer to how the “trick” was done. He had eyes but would not see, and he had ears, but refused to understand. In the end the weight of Jesus’ truth, gave him a new perspective, a new life. An awakening to a loving God. Continue reading
- Shoeboxes of Cash or Redemption? - Shoeboxes of Cash or Redemption? What I understand is that Jesus, on his final journey to Jerusalem, had stopped in Jericho, staying overnight at the home of the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus. The tax collector and his family were changed by that encounter. Then, as Jesus started up the Jericho Road, he passed the Elisha Spring where Bartimaeus was begging and his sight restored. You get the distinct impression from the scripture passage that the tax collector was aware that his sinful behavior was wrong. If we haven’t already done so, we need to take seriously the stories we read in the pages of our Bible. Most are very familiar to us, like the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, and the converted tax collector. The lessons from our Lord and Savior are embedded in those stories. Continue reading
- I Used To Do That! - I Used To Do That! I used to jog 5 miles over my lunch hour when I was Dean at the college. I used to be able to translate Latin into English, and English into French. Graces and gifts from God that we, maybe, have neglected, or simply didn’t recognize in the flow of our lives. Sometimes those graces come according to God’s schedule, not ours. And Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor—and you shall have treasure in heaven—and come, follow me.” Sell all I have? Was He serious? Everything on your list of “Used to do” and mine has passed through the hands of God, all those are His. Continue reading
- God Bless the Pandemic - God Bless the Pandemic: God bless the pandemic? Are you crazy? Who could imagine anything that would have brought our entire world to its knees? Even in times of war, that has a tragic effect sections of the world, there were places untouched by the fighting. What happened to us in the midst of the pandemic was the common denominator throughout the entire world. We could empathize with far reaching areas because we were in the same pain, the same grief. If you read all of Matthew 24, you could come away feeling pretty depressed. You might even ask yourself is the pandemic all part of “the horrors to come”? Continue reading
- Proverbs, Parables and Nursery Rhymes - Proverbs, Parables and Nursery Rhymes: Last night I felt led to dig into an old file, one labeled Notes and Ideas for Homilies. For some reason, I dated these particular notes, January, 1972, nearly 50 years ago! Yikes! From my notes, I could tell that I was listening to a homily or sermon on the Book of Proverbs. As I thought about what my notes were telling me I realized that Proverbs were written for a purpose. The great achievement of Israel was to develop a conventional body of convictions, that gave cohesion to the Israelite society as well as an agenda for the instruction of the young. Continue reading
