You’ve all heard of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, right? It’s a common way we explain that enormous gap that exists between winning and losing. It’s quite a different feeling being the general who accepts the enemy’s surrender than being the general who is doing the surrendering. It’s thrilling when the Packers had what seemed to be an…
A Family Growing in Christ
Sermons on Pentecost (Page 11)
This morning I want to begin with a question for all the parents here today. Have you ever struggled to know how to properly discipline your child? I mean, we all want our kids to behave. We want them to be polite, respectful, obedient. But when they aren’t, what are we supposed to do? Should we give them a lecture or give…
There’s a pretty prominent concept in our society called “paying it forward.” Anyone heard of it? For those who haven’t, it’s the idea is you do something nice for a stranger. Then, they’ll doing something nice for another stranger. A chain of nice grows person by person, and ideally these actions make the world a nicer place. I’ve noticed that paying it…
Dear fellow children of God: This is the old Bible history book that we used for family devotions for a number of years. Did you know that of the usual heroes of faith we think of in the pages of Scripture: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and the apostle Paul: none of them come close to the number of chapters covering the…
The Word of God we’ll consider today is from Hebrews chapter 10. Let us pray: O Lord, your Word is a lamp for our feet and light for our path. Open our hearts and enlighten our minds that we might understand your Word, believe your Word, and live our lives according to it. Amen. (Based on a prayer by Johannes Bugenhagen –…
Have you ever had someone tell you something to the effect of “You know, I think there are many paths to God; we all believe in the same God; we just call him by different names. I don’t know how you can say one religion is better than another.” I remember a time early in my ministry when I did a lot…
In 2014, Americans paid for 15.1 million cosmetic surgery procedures. Magazines promise their readers the secret to “flawless skin” or “6-pack abs.” A month ago, social media caught fire when former Olympian Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner, the woman he feels he is, rather than the man he actually is. There’s an obsession in our society, and in our own hearts; an…