When preachers get together, someone may comment, “That will preach.” Inspiration for a sermon comes from many people and places. A few weeks ago in our Academy for Christian Training and Service one of our readings for reflection came from the book YEARING TO KNOW GOD’S WILL by Danny E. Morris,
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Paul Nixon stresses that “a growing number of people will associate with organized churches only when those places ‘WORK FOR THEM’ in their personal quests for meaningful theology, community, and service.” [Paul Nixon, I REFUSE TO LEAD A DYING CHURCH (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2006), 10 ] He
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Mack Armstrong on Jul 15, 2007
His Return
He was a young book peddler. Back before the days of numerous public libraries, book stores, the Internet and various other places from where one could buy or borrow a book, the book peddlers made their living by “peddling books.”
These men would begin their livelihood by acquiring
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jul 15, 2007
based on 3 ratings
| 2,280 views
I was shamed this week as I read about the first time a Hindu chaplain, Rajan Zed, attempted to offer a prayer in the Senate. He was booed and shouted down by three Christians who bellowed out Scriptures to the man and anyone else who could hear. They screamed: “No Lord but Jesus Christ,” and
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Rodney Buchanan on Jul 15, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 2,653 views
If anyone had a reason to feel good about themselves it was Ruth Bell Graham. She was the daughter of missionaries to China, where she lived through her childhood. She was the wife of Billy Graham, whose ministry to the world has possibly had more impact than any other individual in history. T.
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist
In Ephesians we are told to imitate Christ. What does this mean in today’s world? Have we forgotten what Christ did for each of us? Has the world pulled us so far away with all of the luxuries and niceties that we have forgotten that Jesus died for us to take away our sin? And that we were told
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
When I was a little girl, I can still remember seeing a picture of Jesus. He had curly blonde hair, blue, blue eyes and skin as fair as fair can be. Is that how we picture our Jesus? Do we really grasp how Jesus looked the battering and scars that he bore for us? Sure we see the crown of thorns
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
based on 1 rating
| 1,483 views
Several years ago as I was coming home from Wesley Seminary at the end of four very long weeks, I felt a bubbling of energy within myself. I felt like I was waiting on a precipice about to jump into a new life. Energy was being sparked within me. I was ready to follow Christ wherever I was led
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 2,303 views
A woman named Ruth went to her mail box and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again.
There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:
Dear Ruth:
I’m going to be in your neighborhood
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
based on 1 rating
| 1,949 views
A little boy and a little girl were singing their favorite Christmas carol in church the Sunday before Christmas. The boy concluded “Silent Night” with the words, “sleep in heavenly beans.”
His sister elbowed him, and said, “No. Not beans, peas!”
The way many of us feel by the time
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
based on 2 ratings
| 2,377 views
In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!"
Charlie Brown says, "But I thought you had inner peace."
Lucy
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
A man named Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, discovered this great truth in the midst of a Jewish concentration camp during WW II. While seeking to survive the horror of this imprisonment Frankl began observing his fellow prisoners in the hope of discovering what coping
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
based on 2 ratings
| 1,217 views
When King Louis XIV of France was dethroned, someone kidnapped his son. They tried to spoil him and dethrone him. The people who captured him exposed him to vulgar language, excessive alcohol and women—anything to feed his passions and to try to keep him from fulfilling his destiny. After 6 months
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 10, 2007
There’s a story about a rich man who loved horses. So he bought about a dozen beautiful, powerful horses. He hired a man to coach and train the horses. The guy happened to be inept and wasn’t very passionate about training horses. After a couple of weeks the horses were getting dull and lazy and
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Mark Early tells this remarkable story of how truly following Jesus transforms the lives of those who follow him and the lives with whom they come into contact. “For thirteen weeks, former child soldier Ishmael Beah has seen his memoir, A Long Way Gone, hover in the top ranks of the New York Times
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Don Hawks on Jul 5, 2007
There’s a story about a hiker who encounters a man in the forest who’s furiously swinging his axe at a tree.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
The hiker observes for a minute and says: “Man, why don’t you stop for a moment to rest and sharpen your axe? You’ll be happy you did when you’re able to chop more
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
Contributed by Carl Benge on Jul 2, 2007
Reverend Gregory Dawson of the North Congregational Church in New Hartford, CT.
In the mid-17th century, Oliver Cromwell sent his secretary to the continent on some important, state business. One night during his travels he found he was unable to sleep. According to an old custom a servant slept in
...read more
Denomination:
Methodist
based on 2 ratings
| 3,940 views
By the power of His Holy Spirit filling and empowering us, let us fulfill the fervor of Dorothea Day’s poem “My Captain”:
Out of the night that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ the conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of
...read more
Tags:
Denomination:
Methodist