Alan – Page 6 – Traditores

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

Posted on March 5, 2017March 5, 2017 by Alan

Dreams

Early Thursday morning I had a strange dream…where this object…I have no clue what it was…

Where this object, if it touched something, would divulge unknown information.

My memory of the dream is pretty foggy…but within it the object revealed a wife had been cheating on her husband, and that revelation (understandably) blew the marriage up.

However, it was clear that the object wasn’t from God…which…of course…means it was from a dark source.

The information was accurate.

The source was demonic.

Continue reading “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”

Children: Milton Berle Versus the Bible

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Alan

Milton Berle

Who here is familiar with the late Milton Berle? Born in on July 12, 1908 as Mendel Berlinger, he passed away around 15 years ago on March 27, 2002. So, contrary to what some of you might think, he was a bit before my time. 🙂

But, like another great comedian, Bob Hope, he wasn’t so far before my time that I am not familiar with his tremendous comedic talents. I especially remember him being famous for supposedly stealing other people’s jokes…but, per TIME, “in later interviews, Berle claimed that it was all a publicity hoax, that he wasn’t really a thief.”¹

Regardless, “Uncle Miltie” was immensely funny…and accomplished. His official site’s “Fast Facts” section has:

Did you know…

He was a founding member of the Friars Club of Beverly Hills in 1947.

He was the first major star in television to have the nickname “Mr. Television.”

NBC signed him to a 30 year television contract in 1951.

He held the Guinness Book of World Records for greatest number of charity performances.

He performed in silent film, vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, and television.

He was a Lyricist for over 300 songs.

He had a collection of 5 to 6 million jokes.

His career lasted over 75 years.

He was married four times, twice to Joyce Matthews²

Why Milton Berle?

Why am I starting a sermon discussing Milton Berle? Because he was funny enough that I grabbed a couple of his books from Half Price Books back when I lived in northern California for a short while…and as I was preparing this sermon about children I thought it would be good to sneak in a couple of his comments about kids.

After reading some of them I then thought, “It would be fun to compare what he says about children to what the Bible says.”

And here we are! 🙂

We’ll see if you think that is a fun or good idea as we hop right into “Children: Milton Berle Versus the Bible.” 🙂 Continue reading “Children: Milton Berle Versus the Bible”

“If I Could Turn Back Time”

Posted on February 19, 2017February 26, 2017 by Alan

Regrets

How many people here are fans of Cher…at least musically? Perhaps as part of Sonny and Cher?

How about Eddie Money of “Two Tickets to Paradise” fame?

Both came to mind this week as I was pondering this sermon because they both have songs of regret. With Cher it is “If I Could Turn Back Time” and with Eddie Money it is “I Wanna Go Back.” Cher wanted to unsay some hurtful words and Eddie Money wanted to return to a time when he wasn’t alone.

However, as Eddie Money’s 1986 hit recognized:

But I can’t go back, I know.

Continue reading ““If I Could Turn Back Time””

And When You Pray… (Part 2)

Posted on February 12, 2017February 12, 2017 by Alan

Quick Review

Last week we spent a good amount of time looking at two principles and sub-principles when it comes to prayer:

Do not pray like Jesus said not to
- Do not pray selfishly
- Do not pray for show
- Do no pray thinking you can control God with your prayer
Pray like Jesus said to
- Pray constantly
- Don’t lose heart
- Remember who you are praying to
- Pray that others will recognize who God is too
- Pray for God’s will versus what you want
- Look to God for your needs
- Ask God for forgiveness
- Ask God to protect you from temptation

We all still in agreement that those are good principles? No second thoughts after a week to reconsider? 🙂

Emulating Jesus

As promised, this week we are going to discuss the third principle…along with its sub principles.

Pray like Jesus did.

When I first started preaching in Churches of Christ, I began with a series based on “What did Jesus do?”: WDJD. We all probably have heard people say in situations we should ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?”: WWJD…but Ray Comfort’s Living Water’s ministry rightly pointed out that it may be better to ask, “What did Jesus do?” Scripture tells us what that is, whereas people can argue until the cows come home about what Jesus would do. Continue reading “And When You Pray… (Part 2)”

And When You Pray… (Part 1)

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Alan

Becoming Mormon

Some of you may already be aware of where my “formal” spiritual journeys began. Neither of my parents were religious while I grew up. My dad was, theoretically, Catholic…and my mom was just as theoretically Lutheran.

So they had me baptized as a Methodist as a toddler.

A few years later…maybe when I was six?…they gave my me a choice of whether I wanted to continue to attend Sunday school at Canaan United Methodist Church (although I don’t know if “United” was in its title back then).

How do think a six year-old kid with no true spiritual life at home decided?

Zoom forward to fifteen year-old Alan. Although I think I may have said a simple prayer every night and definitely believed there was a God, I was far from saved. Then my parents had Mormon missionaries over…and what they taught seemed to make a lot of sense.

However, fifteen year-old Alan did not “get religion.”

Now shift ahead to maybe 20 year-old Alan…for 52 year-old Alan the timing of the past gets foggier and foggier… 🙂

At that point I decided (a) that if there was truth in the physical world there is truth in the spiritual world and (b) that I wanted to know it. I was, and hopefully remain, a very logical person…and wanted the truth about God.

And based on my short spiritual history, guess who I went to to start that search? Continue reading “And When You Pray… (Part 1)”

When the Mob Comes

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Alan

What Is a Mob?

What is a mob? How would you define it?

My Mac’s dictionary describes it as…

a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence: a mob of protesters.

You can see that it technically can just be “a large crowd of people”…but I think we’ve all been within large crowds that we wouldn’t call a mob. For instance, when I saw The Police at Fenway Park, it was a large crowd, but it wasn’t a mob. Ditto for all the Red Sox games I saw there. 🙂

“Mob” generally has a negative connotation, doesn’t it? Even if we drop “especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence,” “mob” denotes a group of people intent on a purpose.

Beyond watching a concert or baseball game. 🙂 Continue reading “When the Mob Comes”

Who Would You Kill?

Posted on January 22, 2017January 29, 2017 by Alan

Thou Shalt Not Kill

We are going to jump right into Scripture today, starting with Exodus 20:13. Although I normally use the English Standard Version, I’m going to quote from the King James Version since its translation is the way I learned this commandment:

13 Thou shalt not kill.

Pretty straight forward, right?

What shouldn’t you do?

Kill.

Now, having said that, the English Standard Version probably gives a better idea of what the commandment means with its:

13 “You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13)

Again, pretty straight forward, right?

What shouldn’t you do?

Murder.

Everybody agree?

Boy, I sure hope so! 🙂

The Trolley Problem

Given we all concur we shouldn’t murder each other, our neighbors, or anyone else…let me share a situation in a Ted Talk video a wonderful listener and friend, Evette, sent my way on Facebook. It was called the Trolley Problem¹, and it goes like this:

Continue reading “Who Would You Kill?”

Half-Baked (Again)

Posted on January 15, 2017January 29, 2017 by Alan

Re-Using a Sermon

I have an aversion to re-using sermons. I would never re-use some else’s, but…other than quoting parts of them…I have avoided re-preaching any of mine. I can only recall reusing a sermon once. It was when I was in my 20s and originally studying religion, and I got an evening call to preach the next morning…so I re-used one on the Kingdom of God.

Funny enough, the closest thing I ever did to using one of my sermons a second time was when I got a call the same morning to preach, and I quickly threw together a sermon on the Kingdom of God…my sermon notes from over a decade before long gone. It was rushed and not typed out like I did all my other sermon notes…

And the wonderful matriarch of the church, Mabel, told me it was the best sermon I had delivered up to that point. 🙂

Continue reading “Half-Baked (Again)”

Allow Yourself to Be Pleasantly Surprised

Posted on January 8, 2017January 29, 2017 by Alan

Who Do You Want to Emulate

On Friday night I asked this on Facebook and Twitter:

If there is anyone (alive or dead) you would like to emulate, who is he/she? How are you doing? Do you care? Do you _really_ care?

The reason I posted it is because there are some people on both who I really care for…and who I know could answer the first question…but don’t really spend time pondering the other three. For instance, as Christians we all want to be like Jesus, right?

How are we doing? How are you doing?

If we are honest and (generally) answer, “Not so good”…do we care? Do we really care?

If we really care we would be actively pursuing fixing it, right?

And on social media there are tons of people who I’m pretty sure would say they want to be like X, but they don’t show it in their actions. It saddens me. Too often, I sadden me. 🙁

A Friend of God

Now, I suspect if I asked a Jew in Jesus’ day, “If there is anyone (alive or dead) you would like to emulate, who is he/she?,” a decent number of folks would say, “Abraham.” Continue reading “Allow Yourself to Be Pleasantly Surprised”

Happy New Year (2017)

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Alan

I suspect I was not the only one to start off 2017 staying up way too late, but after about six hours of sleep I began the new year in one of the best ways possible.

Reading Scripture.

Many of us at the Strasburg Church of Christ are taking the blessed trek through all 66 books together in 2017, and today’s reading was Genesis 1-3. Because the kids will be joining us on this journey, I am at least beginning it in the version they are using, the New Revised Standard Version. I am glad I did, because in the first chapter of the Bible there was a very cool pairing that happened frequently.

“God said” and “And that’s exactly what happened.”

If there is one thing that history has proven, it is that when God says that He is going to do something, or that something is going to happen…well…

That’s exactly what is going to happen.

My prayer for you is that you will have faith in the One who is so reliable, even when what He promised was at such great cost to Himself.

That is, when He said He would provide a Savior and sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross so we could spend eternity with Him.

Happy New Year everyone! Grace, peace, and love to you all.

Returning to the First New Year’s Day

Posted on January 1, 2017January 29, 2017 by Alan

How Many?

Just curious…how many New Year’s Days do you think there have been?

[Wait for answers.]

Personally, based on the Bible, I think it has been less than ten thousand. I know that seems to contradict the geological record and other scientific evidence of the age of the universe, but science also cannot explain how Jesus Christ was resurrected.

“And if Christ has not been raised, then [my] preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

Christ was raised and your faith is not in vain…so let’s trust Scripture when it comes to the age of the universe, of the earth, of humanity…and it is difficult to believe things have been around for millions or billions of years based on what is written in the 66 books.

However, regardless of how many New Year’s Days there have been, today’s we label as the one for 2017. Mathematically, what is special about that number?

That’s right, it is a prime number!

Of course, that doesn’t mean it is going to be special…but the mathematician in me likes it. 🙂

The First

2017 will likely not be special…no worse than most and no better than most…but there are some truly monumental New Year’s Days. Today we’ll quickly talk about four of them, starting to the one spoken of in Genesis 1:1-5:

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Nothing.

Before God created, there was nothing.

Think about that.

When I was young, I could get a shiver up my back by pondering, “If there is such thing as nothing, why do we exist?”

I suspect I could still create that shiver if I focused on it.

But, before the first New Year’s Day, there was absolutely nothing.

Continue reading “Returning to the First New Year’s Day”

Baby Jesus, Did You Know?

Posted on December 25, 2016January 1, 2017 by Alan

Away in a Manger

I’m not sure I would say it is in my top three, but I really like Christmas carol, “Away in a Manger.” We all know its first verse, right?:

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;

The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

It is a simple tune…and the fact that I can recall those words means it’s pretty easy to remember. 🙂

It brings to mind this part of the nativity story:

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:1-7).

In the adult Bible study a week back we discussed how the angel Gabriel gave Mary a heads-up about her miraculous pregnancy and the Savior it would produce, but at that point in Scripture’s narrative I imagine she looked at Jesus the same way Michelle did at Mikey and at Augie when they were first born.

With love, awe, and thankfulness.

However, at some point after His birth, Mary had to ponder the incredible words from God’s divine messenger. What exactly did she know about her newborn’s future fate? Continue reading “Baby Jesus, Did You Know?”

Merry Christmas (2016)

Posted on December 25, 2016December 25, 2016 by Alan

It is past midnight here in Strasburg, Colorado…so we have crossed into Christmas Day. In a world where minute-by-minute (and overall) life can seem quite askew…Christmas reminds us of a Savior that came to set everything right. To bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Merry Christmas and our love to all!

Anticipating the Arrival

Posted on December 18, 2016December 18, 2016 by Alan

Just Can’t Wait!

Have you ever really, really looked forward to something?

Looked forward to it so much you just couldn’t wait…and it seemed to take forever?

What was it? A trip to some exotic place? Your wedding day? Something else?

Christmas?

Kids, when I was your age I just couldn’t wait for Christmas. It truly was a magical season for my brothers and me, and boy we wanted the day to arrive weeks ahead. Then…Christmas Eve…we couldn’t wait for Santa to come. My parents would keep our full Christmas stockings away from us until about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning…since they knew as soon as we had them we were going to be wide awake. 🙂

And then…to torture us all the more…after my parents got an hour or two more of sleep…we’d go downstairs…and although we could see all of the awesome gifts under the tree…many with our personal names on them…we weren’t allowed to open any until we had breakfast.

The horrors! The anticipation could have killed us!

Anybody else feel that way with Christmas? Continue reading “Anticipating the Arrival”

The Reunion

Posted on December 11, 2016December 11, 2016 by Alan

Denver International Airport

Yesterday, Michelle, Augie, and I got up a bit early for a Saturday, headed over to Denver International Airport and picked up…

Who did we pick up Augie?

That’s right! His big brother Mikey…or “Michael” as he is more formally known to most others. 🙂

And although mom and dad were also excited for his return, clearly Augie couldn’t wait…telling lots of people all week that his big brother was coming home.

We look forward to reunions with the ones we love, don’t we?

And speaking of Denver International Airport…although it basically stopped the latter half of this year, many of you know that, historically, I have travelled a lot for work. One of the blessings in doing that is, while at the airports, seeing couples and families reunited. The same joy and happiness we three felt yesterday when Mikey came up the escalator and crossed over into our “un-secure” area in the airport is repeated millions of times a year all over the world.

We are blessed by reunions with the ones we love, aren’t we?

Now, I have to admit that if I drove out to the airport to watch something it might be the planes taking off and landing…but sometime, if you are in a funk and want to break out of it, you may want to drive 30-40 minutes to DIA and watch the holiday reunions. Joy and happiness are infectious. Even watching the anticipation itself is fun and spirit-lifting. People just can’t wait for that special someone to suddenly come in sight, because…

We look forward to reunions with the ones we love, don’t we?

We are blessed by reunions with the ones we love, aren’t we? Continue reading “The Reunion”