Traitors for Christ
Cloverton Although I know some of you couldn’t make it because it was on a school night, the Lord really blessed many (and will bless many more) thanks to the Cloverton concert this past Tuesday to benefit the CARES Food Bank of Strasburg. Right Deb and Michelle? 🙂 There were three churches involved. We sponsored…
Expository Preaching I believe I have noted before that I am a topical preacher…meaning I choose a topic and create a biblically-based sermon around it. Many other preachers are expository…meaning they go through books of the Bible verse-by-verse. Which is better? Depends who you ask. 🙂 I’ve seen expository ministers act like it is the…
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…
Okay, I’ll admit it. As much as they are biblical, imprecatory prayers make me cringe. I ran into this one today as I continue to read through all 66 in one year: Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered…
Questions After last week's sermon I got two bits of implicit advice, one right after service, one late in the work week. First, get into the meat of the talk more quickly. Second, keep it shorter. So, let's jump right in with some questions: Did God create the heavens and the earth and everything that…
Have you ever seen a football game where the guy gets the ball and promptly runs to the wrong end zone? Or a basketball game where a player gets disoriented and sinks one in the opposition's basket? Although in some ways it's funny (as long as it wasn't an athlete on your team that made…
History Lesson Before we continue in Colossians…we got a whole 2 verses done last week :-)…I wanted to share a quick history lesson. As I wrote those words I could just imagine some of the boys in the front row looking less than enthused at the idea. 🙂 You probably think you get tortured enough…
Michelle, Augie, and I were returning from Bible Study yesterday, and (as is quite often true) I had my iPod playing on shuffle through the car's stereo. I believe were were enjoying a song by Christina Anu when Augie made a simple request. (If you are not familiar with Anu, she's an Australian singer whose…
Quick Review Before we jump into "Prayin' Like a Pagan (Part 2)" (otherwise known as "Winslow's Sermon on the Lord's Prayer (Part 2)"), let's quickly review the highlights of part 1. Although we are reviewing eleven verses (Matthew 6:5-15), we only made it through three of them two weeks ago when I last preached. I…
A.K.A. Winslow’s Sermon on Prayer (Part 1) I have asked folks to let me know if there is anything they’d like me to preach on, and a few weeks back Winslow delivered by requesting a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer. I postponed doing it because it’s far less simple than it sounds…and although I still…
Expository preaching Last week I said that I was preaching my first…and perhaps last…expository sermon. As anyone who has listened to me know, I am more of a topical speaker…although one who attempts to make sure it is Scripture that is speaking about the subject, not me. As fate would have it, however, this sermon…
Why a sermon on prayer? At the end of Bible study on Wednesday I asked what folks might like to hear a sermon on…and Winslow suggested prayer since it is the theme of this month. “But prayer is one of my greatest shortcomings!” I protested. “All the more reason to do a sermon on prayer,”…