One of the meanings of this Biblical passage is the awareness that struggle and suffering are part of discipleship. Being a Christian involves struggle. Unfortunately, many people want to eliminate the struggle from life and also eliminate the struggle from following Christ. Such people end up being weak, weak Christians.
There was this amateur naturalist who [...]

Have you ever been down to the bank on late Friday afternoons to deposit a check? Are the lines long on Friday afternoons? Yes. Do you enjoy waiting in those lines? No. And you are pleased when you hear the voice of the bank manager echoing through the bank: ‘Tellers to the front [...]

In today’s world in America, what do you think is the most despicable occupation? According to a Harris poll, accountants were at the very bottom of the list with only 14% of Americans thinking that accountants had an honorable occupation. Others at the bottom of the list were bankers, business people, lawyers and journalists [...]

     Did you ever make sand castles when you were a child? I had a sandbox, a plastic bucket, shovel, some cookie cutters, and with a little water, I could make the sand castles of my childhood dreams. Making sand castles in my sand box was part of my early childhood, and may have [...]

Theme:  The Holy Spirit, poured out on the church, opens pathways of communication, enabling the Gospel to break through the multiple barriers to our hearing. Barriers are also broken down to enable us to to communicate with one another and with God.
A lot of the big church fights of the last thirty years or [...]

 
Theme: Christ is always stretching the boundaries beyond what we can comprehend, and his ascension stretches his presence to encompass even what seem to us to be his absence. My family have never been big on dramatic farewells, but my wife’s family seem to love them. She and all her siblings have been overseas [...]

 
A word that has been increasingly familiar in our American vocabulary is the word, “counselor.” We are all acquainted with counselors and counseling. The position of counselor is a very familiar occupation in our society. In the yellow page of a telephone book, you can find marriage counselors, wedding counselors, guidance counselors, drug counselors, [...]

  “In this passage we clearly hear two wonderful promises of Jesus. And the promises of Jesus are the promises of God, and the promises of God are the promises of Jesus, for Jesus and God are one and the same.
Jesus makes two wonderful promises: 
(1) “I am going to prepare a living space [...]

  Theme:  Jesus is the Gate
“To understand the Biblical parable of the sheep and the gate, it is helpful to trace our steps back two thousand years into the time of Christ, to the time of sheep, shepherds and watering holes.
During the time of Jesus in the land of Palestine, during the evening, the shepherds [...]

Theme: Looking for love in the right and wrong places. Image metaphor:  Searching with a telescope, binoculars, magnifying glass.

Ever search for something in the wrong place? Ever misplace your keys?
“My wife got a little testy with me this past week. An incident occurred which has happened more than once in our relationship. I borrowed [...]