Christmas Day is Just the Beginning

 Christmas is not a season that begins with commercials at the end of summer and builds toward Dec.25 only to end on Christmas Day. Christmas morning with presents and the afternoon with its heavy meal are not climactic events. The Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve with worship. The older European experience of the Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve with worship and gift giving, then continues for two weeks until Epiphany,…

The Real Christmas Question 2017 AD 

Consider this: all the medical advancments, economic achievements, educational progress, political development, spiritual involvement, amazing technologies, the building of hospitals and social services, missions to the poor and disabled, advancments of theater, fine arts, architecture and the vast discoveries and inventions having occurred in these last centuries; what initiated them? You might quote that ‘necessity is the mother of…

Christmas, Looking the Lord Jesus in the Eye

 As we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus, there are several things we need to keep in mind, His origin, His reality, His mission and where we are.

 His origin---Jesus existed before Creation and He was always One with the Father. He…

This is a quote from John Stott,

Jesus and politics

The words 'politics' and 'political' may be given either a broad or a narrow definition. Broadly speaking, 'politics' denotes the life of the city (*polis*) and the responsibilities of the citizen (*polites*). It is concerned therefore with the whole of our life in human society. Politics is the art of living together in a community. According to its narrow…

The Force Behind Civilization 

Looking at history in its broad context there are three themes that seem to emerge and merge from its length and breadth.  First, you have the development of Greek thought.  Second, there is the galvanizing of organization with its planning and administration in the Roman Empire.  Third, the urge to discover, invent and explore pushing European expansion around the world.  Put these three together and we have birth of Western civilization.  Obviously,…

Parable of the Sower

 The most immediate thing we see as we look at the Parable of the Sower, it follows a statement of intimacy.  Someone told Jesus that His mother and brothers were outside waiting for Him.  He replies with a question as to who made up His real family.  He told them that anyone who follows the will of His Father is His brother and sister and mother (12:48-49).  He starts His parables in the context of relational intimacy by saying “That same day…” to open the…

Parables and Their Meaning

You May Know, But, Do You Really Know? 

Two vacation events awhile back got me to thinking about the difference between religion and relationship and how they are so completely different.  One was a discussion in a men’s group about Joseph and Mary’s relationship based on Matthew 1:25. The other was with a young plumber’s assistant who came to fix a leak in the place we were renting and proceeded to try and convert me to be a Jehovah’s witness.  The…

Looking for Treasure? It’s All Around Us

Speaking to an audience in Melbourne Florida recently, Tim Tebow brought them a clear truth about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus where we are.  “You’re not in it alone,” Tebow said. “Church isn’t a building we go to on Sunday. It’s people we get to do life with every day.” 

 “It’s people we get to do life with every day.”  He’s right.  Think about the believers we know and are in contact with on a daily or frequent basis.  Or,…

Distance is a Heart Away 

One the of the truly great promises of God is His forgiveness of sins.  Specifically, it happens at the point of our repentance.  Regardless of the sins we commit, when we are repentant He forgives us and then does one more thing to deal with them.   That one more thing is, He forgets the sins.  I know that’s hard to grasp especially since we ourselves tend to hang on to hurts and pains others have caused.  But that’s what sin gets us to indulge in.  We feel…

Distance is a Heart Away 

One the of the truly great promises of God is His forgiveness of sins.  Specifically, it happens at the point of our repentance.  Regardless of the sins we commit, when we are repentant He forgives us and then does one more thing to deal with them.   That one more thing is, He forgets the sins.  I know that’s hard to grasp especially since we ourselves tend to hang on to hurts and pains others have caused.  But that’s what sin gets us to indulge in.  We feel…

To Be an ‘e.g.’ or Not an ‘e.g.’ 

This morning I had to use a very familiar abbreviation, e.g., as a way to give an illustration of what I meant.  “e.g.” from the Latin, exempli gratia, literally means ‘for the sake of an example’ or more closely ‘I hope this illustration is gracious in its explanation.’  I was using it to explain how we can move from personal aggravations to keeping our selves focused on our real purpose.  When the world around us throws us curves, it’s so…

It’s All About Resting Places 

It was April 1978 when a group of believers from All Saints Church were led by faith in the Lord Jesus and a word of knowledge, through the Spirit, understood by 25 families, to start a mission in the Mandarin section of Jacksonville.  Within the first year, after meeting in a storefront, a steel building was erected to become All Souls Church worship center.  Every Sunday was an exciting experience.  From the first worship meetings, where we brought…

What Have We Been Designed For?

I might have mentioned this little vignette before, but it’s worth repeating.  Many years ago, I knew a family that wanted to build a house that fit who they were.  It was a family that had a beach house on the Gulf and spent a lot time there.  I would fish occasionally with one of their sons and dive for scallops out in the shallow weed circled sand beds where those tasty delicacies thrived. 

 They were a unique family with outdoor interests and…

Psalm 132  Moving into Wisdom 

There’s a TV ad that shows a couple moving up a mountain path with an obscure looking castle on top.  Half way there they meet a bearded man sitting cross legged with his elbows on his knees and his palms extended upward.  He is supposed to represent the wisdom the ad is claiming will gratify both the buyer and the viewers who see it.  Here wisdom is defined as making a good visual choice, having a good visual possession and making a good visual…

The Peaceful Heart

Our bodies are temples given us who are images of God, to worship the Lord God and to serve others around us who are images of God.  Jesus said it this way, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself (Mt.22:37. Lk.10:27, ref. Deut.6:5).”  To arrive at this love, which is not native to us sinfully born, we turn to the loving Person who said those words in…

Letting God in Right Where We Are 

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you (Is.46:4).”  Remember up front, as we look at this verse, it is the Father making these promises through His Son Jesus. 

This verse carries several contexts.  Like all the Prophets, they hold a primary theme showing a spiritual God dealing with a spiritual people.  But He deals with them…

The Good, the Better and the Best

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in…

Were You Ever a Hitchhiker? 

Hitchhiking as a young teenager, I really didn’t have any idea where I was headed except to get out of the city, New York City to be exact.  Having lived in other places I knew there was more than the ‘asphalt jungle’ of subways, buses, gangs and definitive ethnic and class separation.  Life there was finding a safe haven, a protected atmosphere, a comfort zone where you didn’t have to keep looking over your shoulder all the time.  I was looking for…

Newness, A New Humanity 

Years ago, I was moderating a Bible Study on a local TV station that appeared early on Sunday morning.  We relied on a well-known series outline that many churches in the viewing area were using.  One taping session we found ourselves dealing with a new show director.  She approached us and said that we needed to kind of spice it up with a little controversy so that the viewership would grow.  We told her we had an established outline that was widely…

Focus on Looking Forward

“This is what the Lord says---He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, ‘Forget, the former things, do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…