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Salvation
"The
word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with
your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is
justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved."-Romans 10:
8-9
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Swim with a Purpose
Salmon begin their lives in the fresh
water rivers of the frigid Northwest. Not long after they’re born
they begin a long swim downstream. Their destination is the ocean.
It is here that they spend the majority of their adult lives. Then
something strange happens. Scientists don’t even understand how, but
at some point the adult salmon begins to swim back home. Though they
may have swum thousands of miles from that original river location
they head back home. That’s right! They swim upstream, against the
current of the river. You’ve probably seen nature programs on TV
that show them leaping out of the water to overcome waterfalls and
other barriers impeding their progress.
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Renewal and Salvation
Short and sweet. Paul pulls no
punches, makes no qualifications, offers no refuge. Sin=death.
Think about what he is saying here. If we think of life as an
economy, as if it were a job itself, then we can see quite quickly
that everything we do has some sort of payoff, a wage. When I
sleep at night, the wage is energy in the morning. When I
watch baseball, the wage is escape. When I worship God, the
wage is joy. You see the relationship; nothing you do is value
neutral in your life. Nothing. Paul, recognizing this,
points out a simple truth. That the wages of sin, the value of
it in our lives, is eventually death. He pulls back the
curtain on our darksides.
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All That You Have
"In
the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a
formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from
God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’;
and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated
the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first
day."-Genesis 1: 1-5
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Change
"Therefore, friends, select
from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of
wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will
devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word."-Acts 6:3
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Happy Endings!
The teacher
was extremely enthusiastic. She looked at the class of
four-year-olds and asked this question: “Does anyone know what today
is?” A little girl held up her hand and said, “Yes, today is Palm
Sunday.” The teacher said, “That’s fantastic. That’s wonderful. Now
does anyone know what next Sunday is?”
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The Piano Lesson
The story has been told
several times through the years called, “The Piano Lesson!” Wishing
to encourage her young son's progress on the piano, a mother took
the small boy to a Paderewski concert. After they were seated, the
mother spotted a friend in the audience and walked down the aisle to
greet her.
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Christ's Body
"Listen, I will tell
you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we
will be changed. For this perishable body must put on
imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality."
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A Lonely World
"Do not speak harshly to an older
man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, to
older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute
purity."
-1 Timothy 5: 1-2
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"Why Does this Happen?"
"But
the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil."-Genesis 3: 4-5
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Community
"But when Simon Peter
saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Go away from me,
Lord, for I am a sinful man!' For he and all who were with him were
amazed at the catch of fish they had taken; and so als were James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then
Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid, from now on you will be
catching people.' When they had brought their boats to shore, they
left everything and followed him."-Luke 5: 8-11
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God's Creation
"God said, ‘See, I
have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of
all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have
them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of
the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’
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The
Good Samaritan
"Jesus replied, ‘A
man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the
hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving
him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the
other side.
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The Best Way
It is
worth talking a bit about Mary since we, as Protestants, often sell
her short because we don't want to overdo things as our Roman
Catholic brothers and sisters tend to do. Mary is an absolute
model of faithfulness. God comes to her and tells her that she
will bear the Messiah and she just goes right along with it.
This fidelity is evident to her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant
with John the Baptist, and she tells Mary so. Surely
Elizabeth's words helped Mary through her pregnancy and eased any
lingering doubts she might have had, but it is her faithfulness and
her willingness to carry out God's Will that makes her so
remarkable.
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The King
As the Gospel of John winds down there seems to be a lot of
confusion about Jesus. Just prior to this passage, Peter, Jesus'
most trusted disciple, denies knowing who he is. Then Jesus was
brought before the Roman governor of the region, Pontius Pilate, and
was further questioned. Pilate, not a Jew by the way, was unsure why
the Jews sought Jesus' execution and so he started asking Jesus
questions including the question listed above. Jesus was evasive in
his answers but apparently he said enough to give Pilate some clue
as to his true identity. Nonetheless Pilate seems confused by the
whole event.
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The Source
For those of you who have been in worship
over the past several weeks you will be very familiar with this text
since I have been preaching on it since the beginning of the month.
This week we will be talking about Jesus as "the life." Note that
Jesus does not say he is life, rather he adds a definite article in
proclaiming himself "the life." In that simple "the" there is a
world of substance. What Jesus understood is that there are many
lives available to us. One choice leads to another and then another
and then another with the sum of those choices being the course of
our lives.
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Commitment Issues
The organ anthem fades
as the bride and groom draw together. The pastor announces that the
groom will now declare the vows that he has written himself. He
clears his throat and, looking deeply into his bride’s eyes, begins
to speak. “I promise to love you with all my heart, sacrificing for
you whenever you are in need, standing by you at all times,
providing for your every need. I will never leave you.” The bride’s
turn soon comes. “I will accept all that you have to give me. I
anticipate that I will always have a house and car, plenty of
clothes and 3 children, all healthy. When I want, I will clean and
cook, but you will be expected to do this at all other times. And
don’t forget to put the lid down.”
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Stewardship
Thanks to greedy charlatans parading as
pastors, talking about money and the Church in our culture is a
challenge. "Why should I give to the Church," we think, "God
doesn't need money." And this is true, God doesn't need any
money, but we should give for two reasons. First, giving is a
spiritual discipline. Just as prayer, worship, study and
service all draw us closer to God, so does giving in His name.
When we give of our money we embody the words of Christ above.
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Up The Hill
I
was at the Illinois football game last Saturday morning and as the Illini did their best welcome mat impression I wondered to myself,
"why do I show up for this?" I mean, even if the team I was
supporting was winning, why actually go to a game? Think about it. I
could watch the game on TV for free or I could drive to the stadium,
pay for parking, tickets and food. Why not just stay home? The
reason, for me, is that being at the game, with the crowd, feels
different
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Giving Credit
In case you have not forgotten, this is
the Psalm Jesus quotes as he writhes in agony on the cross. He
speaks only verse 1, "My God, My God, why have your forsaken me?"
But his intent is to call all of his followers to the Psalm in its
entirety. And the verse above is how that Psalm concludes. In
quoting Psalm 22 Jesus is quickly referencing the most complete
Psalm in its exploration of the human condition as it relates to
faith in God. All of us who are believers swing wildly from, "Where
are you God?" to "You are pretty awesome God!"
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Present Yourself Back to God
Ken
Read in his book Created to Worship tells us: “Another aspect of
worship is to actively respond to His nature and His deeds, by
presenting ourselves back to God. Romans 12 urges us, after taking a
good, long look at the mercies of God and the forgiveness that He
has given us, to turn the gift around and give ourselves back to Him
as living sacrifices, which is our spiritual act of worship.
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Rough Seas
The most powerful enemy of the Christian
is fear. Fear is the one thing which can most easily undermine our
faith and overwhelm our desire to serve and follow Jesus. We may
have a loved one who is behaving like a boor, but we won't confront
him. Why? Because we are afraid he will be angry at us. We may see
payday loan shops littering our town and functionally stealing from
our neighbors, but we won't challenge them.
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Healing
This healing story is working on several
different levels. First, Jesus is healing a man who had been sick
for 38 years. The man was lying by the Bethzatha pool, known in
those days for its healing powers, but he had no one to help him
into the pool. Jesus asks the man if he would like to be made well,
the man of course says "yes," and Jesus calmly tells him to take his
mat, stand up and walk.
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Nourishment
It is the only miracle story to appear in
all 4 Gospels. It is the one story almost everyone knows outside of
the birth story and the crucifixion. It is the feeding of the five
thousand. So, what's the big deal? Why all the repeat this
particular story so many times? Well, I think there is a simple
reason for that. In this story we find the richness and depth of who
Jesus is. We see the compassion, the power, the love. We find a
powerful metaphor for Holy Communion
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The Living Water
These days most of us probably spend a lot
of time thinking about what we don't have. Most of us have less
money than we did 18 months ago. Most of us are older than we'd like
to be. Most of us have lost someone that we wish we could have back.
Most of us don't have the car or television or house we want. Most
of us look around our lives and we see what is absent. And that is
because our lives are filled with things that are finite, that have
limits. Not to bring you down, but someday, everything we have will
be gone.
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Miracles
"Now
standing there were six stone waters jars for the Jewish rites of
purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to
them, 'Fill the jars with water.' And they filled them up to the
brim. He said to them, 'Now draw some out, and take it to the chief
steward.' So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that
had become wine...he said, 'everyone serves the good wine first and
the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have
kept the good wine until now.'"-John 2: 6-10
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