The Second Time Around

What happened before Jesus preached His Sermon of the Mount gives us a way to apply a context to our own lives. Remember, Jesus was born into a human body to show what a real human being, that is, a perfect human being, was like inside and out.…

The Election Leftovers

There is one thing that has left me unsettled since the end of the election process: the way the media is scrambling to explain the election results. Their focus has been classifying voters by race, ethnicity, education and gender. There's the African American voter, Latino voter, female black voter, white male voter, urban housewife voter, inner city…

Perceived Needs or Real Needs, When Your Ears Itch

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears aways from the truth and turn aside to myths…

What Block Blocks the Way on the Block?

When we were kids we played with sets of blocks and created all kinds of forts and buildings. We stacked them one on one. When we built a tower we knew the higher it got the more it would teeter. It was really fun to watch it tumble and rebuild another one. Of course we had to be told to pick them up and put…

Faith 20 Welcome to My World

Remember when we mentioned that country song, “We Live in Two Different Worlds” back in Faith 11? There's another one that has the same feel. Read on. We'll get to it. But let’s continue this idea of loving God and loving our neighbor. There is a deeper meaning to the Great Commandment than we might first recognize.…

Faith 19 Putting Our Security System to Work

The security system we have been talking about is far more than just maintaining mere physical, economic and social survival. We are not here just to have the right belief and go home, shut the garage door and feel complacently self- assured. As the writer of Ecclesiastes assures us, that is simply ‘chasing…

Faith 18 Security in an Insecure World

Do you have a security system? The answer we have given is in a name and a title, Jesus, who is the Christ. Jesus the name means savior (He is a constant presence saving us from ourselves, our inclination to sin) and Christ the title means the anointed one (The way, the truth and the life leading us in every next…

Faith 17 Do You Have a Security System?

It seems that almost every show you see on TV contains an ad for a security system. In those ads there is always a frightened victim, a strong offering of protection and a system that guarantees it. Keep that thought in mind as we deal with the mind.…

Faith 16 Heart and Soul

That was the title of a Frank Loesser song from the late 1930’s. It’s romantic lean, like the song we quoted last time, narrows love to emotional longing and leaves you there. “Heart and soul, I fell in love with you, lost control, the way a fool would do, Gladly... Because you held me tight...” Note the ‘lost control.’ Keep…

 Faith 14a  When You Think About Intuition

These next three segments will open up the way we love God with all our heart, soul and mind as He directed. We start with the heart for three reasons, it’s core, it’s deceitful and it’s willful. But most importantly, the key…

Faith 15 Deep in the Heart of Me

Those are words from an old ‘40’s’ romantic ballad that describe where we begin almost all of our human understanding about love. It's our need for it and our desire to have it satisfied. God made us to love, but how? It’s right there, ‘deep in the heart of…

Faith 12 Faith, God's Love Plan

Love. Sometimes it’s vented in romantic sentiment as in the song and movie theme ‘A Many Splendored Thing’ or in its rejection that ends up on Elvis Presley's ‘Lonely Street’ and ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’ Note that every song ends up in feelings, feelings that fantasize, feelings built around wishful thinking, an imaginary…

Faith 10 Image-Conscious? I Hope So!

Are we concerned about how we look when we go out? If we appear at a party where everyone is dressed in a coat and tie and we have on jeans and a sport shirt how do we feel? Why didn't anyone tell me? And, not only that, the party is in full swing and I'm an hour late. Then we have to find someone to blame like the…

Faith 9 True Wisdom Through True Faith

Life Is What You Make It, Or Is It?

There was an old banter around years ago. It went like this:

“Life’s tough.”

“…

Why the Lord's Supper?

In a recent discussion about the Lord's Supper it was evident that the person I was talking to didn't understand where I was coming from when I said that we have to be like Jesus who was a sacrifice for others. I was explaining I believed Jesus was giving us a lifestyle as well as a way to worship Him. He was concerned that…

Faith 1a

Faith, The Light to Life Is the Right to Life

We're still on the theme of faith as it is described in…

Faith 1

What You Can't See Is What You Really Want

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb.11:1).”

Faith, substance and evidence; this assemblage of words is well known and appears quite often in sermons and writings to touch the heart and challenge the mind to embrace God’s offer of an eternal relationship with Him. They are important words, words of salvation, words of life and words of invitation to share God's real…

Prelude to the Beatitudes

When Moses received the 10 Commandments, he was given a commentary with them on how to live them out for the community (Exodus 21 through Deuteronomy 34). The Commandments and the Law came from without, from God to Moses.

When Jesus gave us the Beatitudes, they and their commentary came from within Him, the 'how' we live them out from the heart (Mt.5:13-7:29).

There is however, an enormous difference, a night and day difference. Through Abraham…

There is a recent switch in liberal linguistics. It's called 'the new norm.' Typical of this mindset is the attempt to constantly change the meaning of words so that meaning is determined by whoever wants it to define what they want. When we use the word 'norm' or 'normal' it means a standard by which we judge. But suppose 'norm' is changeable according to one's personal whimsy? Then we have 'normal' not being normal at all and norms disappear. This is what is happening in education, social…

Two Testaments, One God

“We have a strong city, God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you (Is.26:1-3).”

First, it is important that we don't view the God of the Old Testament and its prophets as different than the God of the New Testament whom Jesus reveals. The first sets the stage. The second carries it out.…