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Silence
“By then day had broken everywhere, but here it was still night – no, more than night.” Pliny the Younger Years ago, while serving as a counselor at youth crusades, we were trained to hand each person making a decision for Christ a pocket version of the Gospel of John. Why? Because our leaders thought it captured the love of God better than any of the other Gospels. The stories of the Samaritan woman at the well, Nicodemus, the blind beggar healed, the feeding of the five thousand, and the raising of Lazarus – as well as what may be the most famous verse in the Bible – were all…
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1 Peter 2:13-17
This morning we are going to look at the passage from the perspective of Paul in Romans 13 as well as Peter. It’s important to realize that the earliest Church fathers were in agreement about the relationship between the church and the government. The early church was not a revolutionary movement. It was not a conservative movement. It was a fellowship of foreigners and exiles living temporarily in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. If you look at the several passages in 1 Timothy, 1 Peter and Titus there is a consistent theme. “Pray and be grateful for those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet…
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Finishing My Father’s Journey
Steve Martin is known most widely for his early work in absurd comedy but he has also evolved into a serious art collector playwright and fine writer. In his memoir, “Born Standing Up” he recounts the death of his father. Growing up in Waco, Texas, Steve remembers his feelings toward his father as “mostly ones of hatred” as his father was cold and stern. He was critical of Steve’s career. and their relationship was awkward at best: “In his early 80s my father’s health declined further and he became bedridden. There must be an instinct about when the end is near as we all found ourselves gathered at my parents’home…
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1 Peter 2:1-12
In 2 Chronicles we read the stories of two kings: Josiah and Jehoiakim. They are father and son but they could not be more different in every way. Josiah became king at eight years old. When he was sixteen he “began to seek the God of his father David” and at twenty he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, carved idols and cast images. When he was twenty-six he began to repair the Temple and it was in that process that a great discovery was made: the Book of the Law that the Lord had given to Moses. At the news, Josiah tore his robes and said,…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Here Are Your Gods
The final commentary on the lives of many of the kings of Israel is, “He did evil and walked in the ways of Jeroboam.” But even when they did good things, the Old Testament always offers an addendum – a last line in their obituary and funeral eulogy, “Yet he walked in the ways of Jeroboam.” This has been the final word on the kings of Israel for hundreds of years. What is this defining sin, the standard by which all the kings came to be judged? What is the sin of the house of Jeroboam and does it have any relevance for us today? Jeroboam understood the nature of…
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1 Peter 1:13-25
This morning we are looking at the second half of the first chapter and I want to mention five or six things here. First, Peter is encouraging the early and scattered church to prepare their minds for action. Literally, he is saying stand “on the balls of your feet” and be ready to move. Don’t be flat-footed in the faith. It’s not enough to know more if we have lost the ability to do something with what we know. It’s not enough to be reflective if we have become exclusively reflective and thoughtful and full of interesting questions that we have lost the desire to accomplish something. We need prepared…
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Duty-Free Giving?
A friend asked me to write a few words about a passage of Scripture that has been meaningful in my personal giving. That sounded easy enough. But as I thought about it I realized I do not have one verse. Different phases of my giving have been informed by different verses. Early in life, I was required by my parents to “tithe to the storehouse.” That meant putting a coin in the Sunday School envelope. There was no questioning them on this. It was my duty, and yes, there were times I resented having to part with even one coin, but every study on giving I have ever seen has…
