Traitors for Christ
Birthdays and Twitter Friday was my 53rd birthday…sounds really old, doesn’t it kids? 🙂 However, Lord willing, it is a birthday everyone here…if they haven’t already…will experience. The number 53is special in one way…does anyone know what that is? It’s a prime number! 🙂 And I’ll have to wait six years until the next one….
Intro Originally, I was going to call this sermon, “How Not to Repent.” However, as I did research for it, its final title, “Doing Wrong Is Like a Joke to a Fool” seemed especially apropos. We’ll see by the end of this talk if you agree. How to Repent We will still end up talking…
David Let’s immediately open our bibles today and turn to 1 Samuel 13:13-14. Background is Israel’s first king, Saul, is being told by the prophet Samuel that he blew it: 13Â And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you….
Westerns Good or bad, my favorite movie genre is action-adventure, but I also really enjoy another one quite a bit…can you guess what it is? Westerns. Often westerns are also action-adventure…but even when they aren’t…there is something about heading back to that day-and-age…and those locations…that I really enjoy. John Wayne is one of my favorite…
A Painful Part of Scripture The recent daily Bible readings have been in a very painful part of Scripture for me as of late…and I’m not specifically talking about the lengthy genealogies in 1 Chronicles I just got past. 🙂 Instead I find the lack of good kings in Israel and Judah disturbing. Basically, after…
A Tent and a Skunk Many years ago I was sharing a tent with someone…who will remain nameless to protect the guilty :-)…and outside on the campground we heard an animal making noise. I cannot remember exactly what the noise was from, but perhaps the varmint ferreting about in trash. So we peer out of…
Cain and Abel Let’s jump right into Scripture today by reading Genesis 4:8-12 together: 8Â Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9Â Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am…
Definitions Have you every heard the term “rational beings”? Humans are rational beings in that we can reason…we are not driven purely by instinct. Although we can overthink things, being called a rational being is a compliment. In most cases you want someone whose brain is engaged before they speak or act. If not, then…
Last Week… I immediately started off last week’s sermon reading Romans 12:19. Let’s look at it again: 19Â Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” I noted it seemed pretty straightforward and posited we could extract two clear…
Romans 12:19 19Â Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Has everyone heard those words from Romans 12:19 before? Just in case you haven’t, I’ll repeat them again: 19Â Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…