Midweek Lent

115 of 17 items

The Crucial Hours: Ash Wednesday

As Satan Sifts, Jesus Confronts, Forgives, and Strengthens Lent is not the most wonderful time of year. There’s no Christmas trees and lights and carols. We even put the Church’s most jubilant songs, the Alleluia’s and Gloria’s away for the season. Instead, there’s purple and black, there’s minor keys and haunting lyrics, and there’s time […]

The Hands of Brutality

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they […]

Hands of Hypocrisy (Caiaphas)

Sermon Text: Mark 14:55-65 Every good story needs a bad guy, and in the inspired true story that is the passion of Jesus, there are plenty of villains to choose from. We immediately think of Judas, the disciple of Jesus who was willing to betray his Lord for a few pieces of silver. We remember […]

Hands of Misguided Zeal: Peter

John 18:4-11 4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” 5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Who is […]

Hands of Betrayal: Judas

John 13:21-30 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”  22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to […]

The Warrior Rejected by Many Followers

The Warrior Rejected by Many Followers They were all leaving. It felt like just hours ago there was a multitude of thousands gathered around, well-fed and inspired for the fight, and now they were leaving in droves. It wasn’t a virus induced frenzy, there was no ban on groups of 10 or more.  But suddenly, […]

Skirmishes

Skirmishes   For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Heb. 4:15)   Can someone tell me, why is it that if I go online to look at something […]

Take Him Away!

Julia was 13 when her heart stopped beating in a junior high classroom. She’d had a heart condition since birth, and it had worsened. After restarting her heart with an AED, paramedics rushed Julia to the hospital, where doctors determined the only way to sustain her life was through a heart transplant. Julia waited in […]

I Am He

Have you ever thought about how often, during his earthly ministry, Jesus didn’t come right out and say who he was? I mean, for example, you think about the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Jesus doesn’t open the conversation with, “You know who I am, don’t you?” No, he […]