After Easter:A Journey to Pentecost
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I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice
Experiencing the mercy of God in our lives
Ready & Faithful
Looking to Jesus for help now and hope in the future
Why Suffering?
Help your church understand God's plan in pain
WAITING 20 YEARS FOR THE END OF THE STORY In her book The God Who Hung on the Cross, journalist Ellen Vaughn retells a gripping story of how the Gospel came to a small village in Cambodia. In September 1999, Pastor Tuy Seng (not his real name) traveled to Kampong Thom Province in northern ...read more
Scripture: Luke 24:46-48
Tags: Evangelism Urgency
THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE 6 "Then Jesus told this story: 'A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, 'I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it ...read more
Scripture: Luke 13:6-9
Tags: Suffering Joy In
Denomination: Other
What Really Matters It was two weeks before Christmas and it began to start. Everyone was scrambling and rushing to get to Wal-Mart. Their credit cards were in the orange and checking account in the red in hopes that their rich uncle would soon be dead. Old Saint Nick sitting high on a mountain ...read more
Scripture: Luke 2:1-40
Tags: Christmas, Tree, Poem, Santa Claus
Denomination: Baptist
THE RING OF SALVATION It began at West Point in 1835. It is a practice that has endured almost 200 years. You may have chosen to obtain one, and undoubtedly you waited anxiously for it to arrive. Others of you weren’t really that into it and decided to pass. Some of you in the room may still wear ...read more
Scripture: Luke 15:22-24
Tags: Easter Good Friday
DO YOU BELIEVE THE EASTER STORY? I heard a story about a family that tragically lost three of their four children within just two weeks to a deadly, virulent disease. One child was left--a four year old boy. The family had buried the third child just two weeks before Easter. On Easter morning ...read more
Scripture: Luke 24:1-49
Tags: Easter Resurrection
MAMA'S PRAYERS E. V. (Ed) Hill, who pastored Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, tells the story of how "Mama’s" love and prayers changed his life. During the height of the Depression, Hill’s real mother, who had five children of her own, didn’t have enough food to go around, so ...read more
Scripture: Luke 11:1-13
Tags: Mother's Day
A UNIQUE EXCUSE A man who bought a brand new Mercedes and got out on the interstate. It was a convertible and the top was down, the breeze was blowing through his hair, and he decided he would open it up to see what it could do. The needle hit 80 miles an hour, then 90, then 100, then 110, then ...read more
Scripture: Luke 14:16-24
Tags: Lies
BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE USA Today had an article on the front page about those who escaped the World Trade Center on September 11. After interviewing over 300 survivors and family members of victims, USA Today concluded that in the South tower those who didn’t delay but ran for safety immediately ...read more
Scripture: Luke 9:57-62
SPINNING A WEB: ANDY'S STORY Andy Fastow was a brilliant kid in the high school graduating class in New Providence, New Jersey. He was one of the really good kids. In fact, he was the student body president of his senior class. He went on to get a great education and a fantastic job. He climbed ...read more
Scripture: Luke 9:23-26
RISKS AND EXPECTATIONS Sohio, the Alaskan subsidiary of Standard Oil of Ohio, drilled a well in the Beaufort Sea in 1983, hoping to tap a geological formation holding several billion barrels of oil. Instead, they hit water, and $120 million went a glimmering. The oil companies know the risk. They ...read more
Tags: Commitment To Christ
TONY DUNGY ON CHARACTER Tony Dungy, "Character begins with the little things in life. We must show that we can be trusted with even the trivial ...read more
Scripture: Luke 16:10-15
Tags: Character
CHRIS PAUL: FORGIVING THE MURDERERS In April, 2011, Rick Reilly wrote a moving story about forgiveness from the life of Chris Paul, the all-star basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets. Reilly writes: On the moonless night of November 15, 2002, five boys ran across a park, jumped a ...read more
Scripture: Luke 11:4
Tags: Forgiveness For Others, Ask Seek Knock
THE FIRST RADIO BROADCAST Allow me to start our time by reading you a nifty story. It is called, "The First Radio Broadcast." For their entire careers, wireless operators onboard US Navy and merchant ships had only heard Morse code coming through their headphones. However, a few days before ...read more
Scripture: Luke 2:1-20
Tags: Christmas Eve, Peace, Eternal
THE "REGARD FOR OTHERS" ETHIC John Sommerville currently teaches history at the University of Florida. He has been carrying out an exercise with his students for years. He challenges his students with the following thought experiment. Imagine that you see a little old lady coming down the ...read more
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
Tags: Neighbor
E.S.P. I heard about a man who asked his wife to balance the checkbook. He came home that night to find she had four neatly typed pages, detailing all the expenses of the past months--the milkman, the cleaners, the grocery store, and many others. One entry read, "E.S.P. $24.21." "What does that ...read more
Scripture: Luke 16:10
Tags: Money
We are not asked to believe the doctrine of the Resurrection. We are asked to meet this person raised from the dead. Larson, B., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1983). Vol. 26: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26 : Luke. The ...read more
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
Tags: Jesus Christ, Easter Resurrection
I recently read an insightful story that would serve as a good reminder for us both as we prepare to part ways. The story is about a group of climbers who set out to scale a large mountain in Europe. The view boasted a breathtaking peak of snowcapped rocks. On clear days the crested point reigned ...read more
Tags: Complaining, God Brings Purpose
MOTHER TERESA'S FEET Shane Claiborne, who spent a summer in the slums of Calcutta with Mother Teresa, wrote the following about one of his experiences: People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Did she glow in the dark or have a halo? She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a ...read more
Tags: Compassion
A STUDY IN COMPASSION John Darley and Daniel Batson decided to replicate the story of the Good Samaritan with seminary students. A few variables were introduced. The seminarians were interviewed and asked why they wanted to go into ministry. There were a variety of responses, but the vast majority ...read more
A friend in Montana told me about a sheepherder who discovered oil on his land and became enormously rich. One of the first things he bought was a Rolls Royce limousine, the kind usually driven by a chauffeur who sits in front of a glass partition. When the sheepherder brought this splendid car in ...read more
Scripture: Luke 16:13
Tags: Money, Materialism