Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 27, 2009
IS GOD IN RESIDENCE?
I once saw a poster of a valentine-shaped heart with a castle on top of it. There was a flag with a slogan, oversized and coming out of the top of the castle. The slogan read: "Joy is the banner flown from the heart when the King is in residence."
Well, stupid me, I didn’t
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 23, 2009
A FATHER'S DUTY NEVER ENDS
I went to a Saturday matinee showing of that great Sidney Poitier movie, "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?" and I reveled in that confrontation between Poitier’s world-renowned doctor character and his inner-city postman father. The postman father plays the "I sacrificed
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 22, 2009
I’m sort of surprised about the timetable for Philip’s journey. God commands him to get up and depart about noon. It reminds me of Robbie O’ Connell, an Irish musician who lives in the U.S., when he went back to Ireland to chase down some authentic folk songs that hadn’t yet been recorded. Since
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 22, 2009
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as having said, “It is the cause, not the death, which makes the martyr.” So, I ask you, what is the difference between the martyrdom in the early church and these would-be martyrs to false causes? First of all, the early Christians were not deliberately seeking their
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 22, 2009
Imagine, if you will, considering the fuel that runs most of our society, a gasoline station along the metaphorical road of life. It has two large signs that can be seen from all around. One sign says, “Come on in! Your bill is already paid!” That’s grace—something paid before you ever reach the
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 20, 2009
3-D THEOLOGY
When people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins claim that they can prove that God doesn’t exist, they are making an arrogant mistake. Pardon me while I draw an example from modern animation. When I was a child, the most glorious cartoons were 2-dimensional animations where
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 20, 2009
In a way, as Pastor Rod Parsley observed in Culturally Incorrect: How Clashing Worldviews Affect Your Future, today’s worldview isn’t that different from the Sadducees of Jesus’ day. Parsley engages in a bit of word play that goes like this (The Sadducees did not
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 18, 2009
IN OUR MIDST
I remember being in a meeting with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner where he noted that the human skin is not smooth. If we look at it under a microscope, the surface would vaguely resemble the coastline of California with all its coves, bays, and nooks. Then, he observed that molecules from
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 17, 2009
The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn…
The year was 1965. The movie was The Sandpiper. The stars were Elizabeth Taylor as the seductress and the late Richard Burton as the Episcopal priest she seduced. The sentiment in the song is that our
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 17, 2009
By the way, I got a prayer handkerchief in the mail about two-three weeks ago. It was a fundraising approach by an interdenominational group and it cited Acts 19 as its affirmation. They missed the point! Even as the people snuggling together under Peter’s shadow missed the point. The power—the
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 15, 2009
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I think it was G. Campbell Morgan who said, “God puts you in a FIX to FIX you; and if you get out of the FIX before you get FIXED, God has to FIX another FIX to FIX you.” I usually use that in my Jonah sermon with regard to the belly of the great fish. It means that God will put us in circumstances
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 15, 2009
I was tremendously challenged by a conversational exchange in a short-lived situation comedy. It was a comedy where the late Danny Thomas played a doctor. There was a scene in “The Practice” where a nurse overhears Thomas’ character praying. When she comments on it, the doctor denies it. “I was not
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 15, 2009
SOUTH PARK: GOD'S AUTHORITY
The hostile atheists do not want to admit that God is Creator because such an admission would give God authority over their lives. They would rather serve chance so that all experience is relative and so that there are no absolutes-—except perhaps, their certainty that
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 13, 2009
There was a time when my folks visited me and saw a bizarre arrangement in my living room. I had a nice sofa, but I couldn’t afford end tables. So, I’d taken cardboard boxes and covered them with blankets to hold lamps and magazines. It was clever, but it didn’t look nice. Frankly, it looked pretty
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 13, 2009
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"FIX IT!"
The Catholic archbishop and novelist, Andrew Greeley, brilliantly describes God’s redemptive work and holy clean-up as "God’s big crayon making crooked lines straight," but this only addresses the result, not the process. It reminds me of when, as a young boy, my mother and I would color
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 13, 2009
STRUGGLING WITH GOD
Just because God calls us or permits us to do something, it doesn't mean that we can afford to be complacent about it. Jacob’s return to the land of the promise was risky. If Jacob didn’t learn to be a little less conniving and little less arrogant, the old sibling feud would
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 12, 2009
I am reminded of Archimedes, the ancient Greek scientist who discovered the value of leverage. As he was enamored with his fulcrum, he was said to have proclaimed, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the whole world.” Beloved, God, our Rock, IS that place to stand. Indeed, if we can handle the
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 12, 2009
HOSEA 2: LOW-DOWN PERSON
I was watching an old movie on television and I heard a line that I’d missed before. The villain of this comedy was talking on the phone and said something like: "Sure, I know what kind of low-down person would sue his own mother, but we’re not talking about me!" It caught
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 12, 2009
HOW THE MIGHTY FALL
The British group, The Alarm, sang about someone of great influence who had brought himself down. I remember this song because I went through a period of personal crisis after a time of career triumph. In my depression, I heard these lyrics being about me:
Once your words were
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Contributed by Johnny Wilson on Feb 11, 2009
In verse 2, God does something about Moses’ problem. God gives him a sign. God asks Moses about the familiar symbol of his profession—the rod. A rod is not only used for protection and for sorting the sheep, but it is a symbol of authority. So God orders Moses to throw the symbol of his personal
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