Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!’ (Num. 14:1-2) This past year I attended a Christmas Eve service at the church I …
Tag: broken
Jesus, Our Good Shepherd, Finds You
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” (Jn. 10:11) It was my first sermon. I was doing an internship after my first year in seminary, and one of our duties that summer was to lead a service at an assisted living home. When it was my turn, I choose to talk about Jesus the Good …
Room For All
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.’ (Lk. 4:17-18) One of church’s receptionists buzzed to tell me that she had a woman on the phone that demanded to talk with …
Taking Responsibility for Your Life
Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, ‘The woman whom you have to be with me, she gave me the fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ (Gen 3:11-13) Recently I was asked to help resolve some serious conflicts between two colleagues. I planned …
Jesus at Our Side
But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.' Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased.(Mark …
Faith Lost and Then Found Again
Then Job answered the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…. Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.’ (Job 42:1-3) His name was Will. He was a retired clergy person who …
God’s Breath Gives Us Life
…then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7) I was a competitive swimmer in high school. In order to stay in shape during the off-season, our coach encouraged us to become lifeguards. …
God’s Grace Can Heal Your Heart
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice... (Eph. 4:31) Let me call her Eleanor. She was in her seventies. I visited her every month. We would read scripture, pray, share communion together, and then she would launch into bitterly complaining about her mother. During …
Encouraging One Another
Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. (1 Thess. 5:11) She was a world-class athlete, who had competed at the Iron Man championship in Hawaii—which is 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, and 26.2 miles running. I had met her at the gym. If you sweat in close …
Our Struggles With Faith
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails …