Matthew 22: 15-22 Caesar had his coins, and God has God’s coins, I suppose. A man asked God how long a million years was to God. God replied, “It’s just like a single second of your time.” So the man asked, “And what about a million dollars?” The Lord replied, “To me, it’s just like…
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Manifestations of God In You, Part 3
This is our last message on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in connection with what our GROW class, our new members /refreshing class will offer next Sunday morning, a spiritual gifts inventory each attendee will be offered to take. What I’ve sought to do these Sundays is enlighten all of us in some of…
Manifestations of God in You
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 I don’t want you to be uninformed. There are gifts of the Holy Spirit given to believers, “there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” Each Sunday morning as they began their Sunday school class, the fifth graders would line up…
To the Last the Same As the First
Matthew 20: 1-16 I had a pastoral assignment, understood in United Methodist parlance as an appointment, in west Birmingham in the 90s. It was a two-church appointment. I remained at one church for six years. I exchanged the other church for leading a missional outreach project. The idea was to pastor in an “island community,”…
You Should Always Pay What You Owe
Matthew 18: 21-35 These days we’ve talked, listened and considered several stories from the gospel of Matthew. These months in the liturgical, church calendar between the day of Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent we’re meant to learn as the disciples learned from Jesus about how to live as citizens of a new kingdom,…
A Sense of Urgency
Matthew 18: 1-10 These verses call the reader and listener to respond with vigilance, a wide awake, sober, alert Christianity. It begins with disciples asking Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It’s a curious question. Is Jesus supposed to point out the greatest? Is he supposed to say a name? Is…
Believe It! Its God’s Business
Matthew 16: 21-23 Peter could very well have thought Jesus’ words were not a revelation from God but simply wrong. Peter believed Jesus to be the Son of the living God, one who was close to the source of all truth and love. He was right. He received revelation from the Father about this. He…
Who Am I? Who Are You?
Peter could have affirmed that he knew himself in a different way because something was revealed to him. When you encounter God, something is revealed to you about God and yourself.
What Changes Jesus?
Matthew 15: 21-28 I love the stories in the Bible that have to do with faith. Jesus went to Canaanite territory. Probably because of the ongoing contact he had with crowds he went to Gentile territory to get some rest. Nobody would bother him there. Jesus had a mission, and it was to the lost…
Stuck with My Own Strength
Matthew 14: 22-33 He asked the disciples to go ahead of him to the other side of the sea. He went up the mountain by himself to pray. The wind on the sea was against the boat and kept it from reaching the other side all night long. Early the next morning he came walking…
Psalm 102 in The Message 