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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
GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY: GRANDMA'S APRON There are all sorts of "questionably clean" things that spread love and give meaning to our lives. Does anyone this morning remember a grandma or great-grandma swathed in a big all-enveloping apron? Not some perky little decorative thing worn on Christmas. ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 20:25-28
Tags: Love, Servanthood
NO OTHER PLAN An old legend imagines Jesus arriving in heaven right after the Ascension, welcomed by all the angels. Then the angel Gabriel asks Jesus, "You suffered much, dying for the sins of mankind. Does everyone down on earth know it?" "Oh, no," replied the Savior, "just a handful of folks ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20
Tags: Evangelism Urgency
Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed
HOPE YOU NEVER SIN When John Wesley served as a missionary to the American colonies, he had a difficult time with General James Oglethorpe. The general was known for his pride and harshness. One time Oglethorpe declared, "I never forgive." Wesley replied, "Then, ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
Tags: Forgiveness General
BLESSED ARE THE PURE A couple of years ago we went to Ottawa as my wife Joanne had some work to do there, so Thomas and I tagged along to check out our nation’s capital. One of the places we visited was the historic Canadian mint – where money is made – and we had a tour but unfortunately no free ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 5:8
Tags: Sermon On The Mount
ADMIRER OR FOLLOWER? Recently I heard that in Scotland, a voluntary survey was given to law enforcement officers of their religious affiliations. That may not sound very interesting, but what caught my attention was that 8 of the officers claimed their religious affiliation to be "Jedi". I ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21
Tags: Discipleship
Denomination: Other
HE WILL DEMAND EVERYTHING Breezy, self-confident Christians tell us how wonderful it is to accept Christ and then have a good time all the rest of your life; the Lord won’t demand anything of you. Yes, He will, my friend! The Lord will demand everything of you. And when you give it ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 19:16-30
Tags: Salvation, Hills, Tozer
Denomination: Church Of God
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT We hear good news in lots of different ways, and I am glad that we got to hear the Easter story told by some of our children this morning. There is something about hearing a child tell this great story that gives it new power. I can no longer hear the Resurrection story ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10
Tags: Easter Resurrection
JESUS HAD A ROSE Judy Packard of Lake Leelanau, Michigan, talks about the time her neighbor, visiting the Holy Land, sent a letter describing the beautiful gardens. Her 6-year-old mused, "I wonder if he saw the rose." "What rose?" Judy asked. "You know," said her child, "like the Bible women ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 28:1-7
FALSE HOPE IN A GOLD COIN George Dixon was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army who carried around a $20 gold piece that his fiancée had given him in the early days of the war. During the battle of Shiloh, a union musket ball struck him--actually it struck the gold coin, which saved his life. From ...read more
NO ENTRANCE AND NO EXIT Peter Larson: "Despite our efforts to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked 'No Entrance' and left through a door marked 'No Exit.'" ...read more
FIRM FOUNDATION Ravi Zacharias told about doing a lectureship several years ago at the Ohio State University. As he was being driven to the lecture, they passed what was then the "new" Wexner Art Center. The driver commented, "This is a new art building for the university. It is a fascinating ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 7:24-27
Tags: Foundation
WHICH HOUSE WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE IN? On October 19, 2010, a test was conducted at the Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina. Researchers constructed two 1,300-square-foot houses inside a $40 million laboratory and then observed how a simulated hurricane would impact ...read more
HOW TO BE A SERVANT You need to answer a very important question this morning. Are you more interested in being served or being a servant? A first grade teacher asked her students, "What do you do to help at home?" One little girl said, "I dry the dishes." One of the boys said, "I sweep the ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 20:20-28
Tags: Servanthood
BELIEVING IN ANYTHING G.K. Chesterton once said, "It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything." Without God the only standard of TRUST - of right and wrong - is what ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11
Tags: Trust
Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ
J. OSWALD SANDERS ON LONELINESS J. Oswald Sanders once pointed out: "The round of pleasure or the amassing of wealth are [often] but vain attempts to escape from the persistent ache. The millionaire is usually a lonely man and the comedian is often more unhappy than his audience." In his book, ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34
Tags: Goals, Suffering Loneliness
RAVI ZACHARIAS: CHANGED LIVES SHOW THE TRUTH OF CHRIST In his book Has Christianity Failed You? Ravi Zacharias points to one of the greatest proofs for the truth of Christ and the reality of his resurrection: the changed lives of Christians. He writes: "During the course of nearly 40 years, I ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16
Tags: Christian Witness
WALKING ON WATER IN LOS ANGELES [James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life (InterVarsity Press, 2010), pp. 131-132 | posted 7/05/2010] In the early 1990s, gang violence erupted in Boyle Heights, a section of East Los Angeles. Eight gangs were in conflict in the parish around the Dolores ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 5:9
WORKING FOR FOOD I like the story of the rich executive who announced to his church one morning that he was going to give up all he owned so that he had to depend on his faith in God for everything he needed. He sold everything, gave it to the poor, and moved into a rented home down on the bad ...read more
Tags: Prayer Of Faith
TEARING OF THE VEIL QUOTE: Note 194 “This veil, which was the thickness of a palm breadth, was sixty feet long and thirty broad, and separated the Holy and Most Holy Places. Various attempts have been made to explain this strange phenomenon on naturalistic grounds, such as the earthquake, or as ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 27:45-51
Tags: Crucifixion, Peas
Denomination: Baptist
ONLY IN THE LONE STAR STATE My daughter’s family moved to Del Rio, Texas. One night my 4-year-old granddaughter recited the Lord’s Pryaer with a slight variation; "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will ...read more
Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13
Tags: Children
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