Joshua 5:9-12 Luther...
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Joshua 5:9-12
Luther Burbank (1849-1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science. According to Wikipedia, he is credited with developing more than 800 strains and varieties of plants in his 55-year career. He improved several varieties of apples and other fruit, evolved rose bushes and other flowers; and took the spines from the cactus, and made it into food for stock. In a speech at First Congregational Church in San Francisco in 1926, he said, "What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness … a new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come."
God does that to our lives. He takes the bitter, thorny, unlovely parts of human life and transforms them by his grace into beauty, fruitfulness, and holiness. Through his hands the hardest criminal can be transformed and made into Christ's own likeness. A new person is produced by the grace of God for eternity!
Derl K.
Joshua 5:9-12
Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Maybe you started with a tiny tricycle, pedaling around the yard or the driveway on your spiffy red wheels. Then you graduated to a big boy or big girl bike; but you couldn't balance as well as the big kids. So your parents gave you something to help you learn: training wheels. You rode that bike all around the block with your training wheels, and one day you didn't need the training wheels at all. Sure, you fell down a few more times, but you were one of the big kids! You could do it on your own. In our Bible story, manna is God's version of training wheels -- tiding the Israelites through until they could make it on their own.
Leah T.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The office of ambassador brings with it a great deal of power and authority. When a nation's ambassador attends a function, that person is serving as the sole representative of an entire country, negotiating on behalf of them and communicating the will and position of that country's head of state. Even the embassy in which an ambassador resides is considered the home soil of that ambassador's country. The ambassador is the face of a nation.
Paul notes that we are "ambassadors for Christ" (v. 20), which means that we are the face of Christ to the rest of the world. We are to represent his will, his interests, and his sovereignty to the rest of the world. The fact that we are Christ's ambassadors also tells us that we are not at home here in the world, just as a nation's ambassador to the United States does not consider Washington his home. We were simply sent here to do the work of our head of state, Jesus. The question is: How well are we representing him to the world?
Craig K.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs.
Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."
Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God's, the old life is over.
He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.
Bethany S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
It is said that Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, once had captured a prince and his family. When they came before him, the monarch asked the prisoner, "What will you give me if I release you?"
"The half of my wealth," was his reply.
"And if I release your children?"
"Everything I possess."
"And if I release your wife?"
"Your Majesty, I will give myself."
Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all. As they returned home, the prince said to his wife, "Wasn't Cyrus a handsome man!" With a look of deep love for her husband, she said to him, "I didn't notice. I could only keep my eyes on you -- the one who was willing to give himself for me."
Bethany S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
There was a time in Josh's life when he felt completely lost. He was in his senior year of high school and lacked a clear sense of identity and purpose. "More than anything," he explains, "I wanted something that I could give my life to." When he looked at himself in the mirror he was not the person he wanted to be. It was then that Josh felt the presence of God in his life for the first time.
"I can recall the exact moment when I opened up and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior," he says. With maturity beyond his years, he writes, "The rains I had prayed for brought about winds of change. As the clouds shifted and the skies cleared, my shadow fell upon my futile ways as if to form a line behind me marking the past as a symbol of a new beginning." He continues to describe his experiences as being captivated by God's grace and love.
Through this experience he came to realize that God had been present throughout his life. Soon after this experience Josh met other young Christians who helped him learn and grow in the faith.
The apostle Paul writing to the troubled Corinthians reminded them that in Christ we become new people. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" On this the Fourth Sunday in Lent may we discover the new thing that God is doing in our lives.
Tim S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
"Would you give your blood to Mary?" the doctor asked.
Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, "Sure, for my sister."
Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room -- Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned.
As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence.
"Doctor, when do I die?"
Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his blood. He's thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he'd made his great decision.
Johnny, fortunately, didn't have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary's, and it required Jesus to give not just his blood but his life.
Bethany S.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made." The prodigal son, in his pigsty, is in the unenviable position of looking up at hell.
Bethany S.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
It was a hot summer's evening in Ocean City, New Jersey, when a minister was tweaking his sermon for a church where he was a speaker. His window was open so he could hear the mumbled voices at an amusement park below his room. As the night progressed a sharp distinctive voice pierced the air announcing that a little five-year-old girl named Wendy had wandered away from her parents. The voice stated that little Wendy was wearing a yellow dress and carrying a teddy bear. She had auburn hair and dark brown eyes. If anyone found her they were asked to take her to the music pier where two anxious parents waited for her.
As the clergyman paused at his window, it seemed, he said, as though none of the thousands who strolled up and down the famous boardwalk, heard, responded, or even cared that Wendy was lost. Their interests were elsewhere.
Imagine the fear that five-year-old Wendy was experiencing on that hot, summer night. She was probably clutching that soft teddy bear tightly, tear drops falling from her eyes, heart pounding with fright … and empty feeling.
What about her parents? Horrifying thoughts, sickening feelings, nerves on edge … mom softly crying and dad silently wringing his hands.
Two hours later over the loud speaker the announcer states that Wendy had been found in good condition! The preacher looked down the pier from his window at the mass of humanity wandering aimlessly up and down the boardwalk. He asked himself …
* How many of those people were spiritually lost and did not know it?
* How many felt a deep lostness inside wishing that someone would make an announcement asking for help?
* Did anyone care about them?
* Did anybody know how they felt
* How many of them needed a heavenly Father to hold their hand like Wendy's dad?
The Lord is sending us out into a world that is lost. There may not be many of us, but the harvest is plentiful. The lost are waiting? Are we going?
Derl K.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
How many of you know what the word "prodigal" actually means? We hear this word -- and use this word -- often; the parable of the prodigal son is one of the better-known stories in the Bible. But what is a "prodigal son"? Most people assume it means "wandering" -- the prodigal son, the wandering son, returns home! Have you ever called someone "prodigal" after they return from a long absence? But actually, prodigal does not mean "wandering" at all. Instead, the title "prodigal son" focuses not on the son's absence, but on his behavior. "Prodigal" means "wasteful." The man in the story is the prodigal son because he spent his money and had to live with the pigs. We usually think that the name of this story is focusing on his return; actually, the name is focusing on his wastefulness -- and his father's willingness to forgive him and welcome him home in spite of it.
Leah T.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
In a dream, Martin Luther found himself being attacked by Satan. The devil unrolled a long scroll containing a list of Luther's sins, and held it before him. On reaching the end of the scroll Luther asked the devil, "Is that all?" "No," came the reply, and a second scroll was thrust in front of him. Then, after a second came a third. But now the devil had no more. "You've forgotten something," Luther exclaimed triumphantly. "Quickly write on each of them, 'The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sins.' "
Bethany S.
Luther Burbank (1849-1926) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science. According to Wikipedia, he is credited with developing more than 800 strains and varieties of plants in his 55-year career. He improved several varieties of apples and other fruit, evolved rose bushes and other flowers; and took the spines from the cactus, and made it into food for stock. In a speech at First Congregational Church in San Francisco in 1926, he said, "What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness … a new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come."
God does that to our lives. He takes the bitter, thorny, unlovely parts of human life and transforms them by his grace into beauty, fruitfulness, and holiness. Through his hands the hardest criminal can be transformed and made into Christ's own likeness. A new person is produced by the grace of God for eternity!
Derl K.
Joshua 5:9-12
Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Maybe you started with a tiny tricycle, pedaling around the yard or the driveway on your spiffy red wheels. Then you graduated to a big boy or big girl bike; but you couldn't balance as well as the big kids. So your parents gave you something to help you learn: training wheels. You rode that bike all around the block with your training wheels, and one day you didn't need the training wheels at all. Sure, you fell down a few more times, but you were one of the big kids! You could do it on your own. In our Bible story, manna is God's version of training wheels -- tiding the Israelites through until they could make it on their own.
Leah T.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The office of ambassador brings with it a great deal of power and authority. When a nation's ambassador attends a function, that person is serving as the sole representative of an entire country, negotiating on behalf of them and communicating the will and position of that country's head of state. Even the embassy in which an ambassador resides is considered the home soil of that ambassador's country. The ambassador is the face of a nation.
Paul notes that we are "ambassadors for Christ" (v. 20), which means that we are the face of Christ to the rest of the world. We are to represent his will, his interests, and his sovereignty to the rest of the world. The fact that we are Christ's ambassadors also tells us that we are not at home here in the world, just as a nation's ambassador to the United States does not consider Washington his home. We were simply sent here to do the work of our head of state, Jesus. The question is: How well are we representing him to the world?
Craig K.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs.
Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.
As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.
"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."
Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God's, the old life is over.
He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.
Bethany S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
It is said that Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, once had captured a prince and his family. When they came before him, the monarch asked the prisoner, "What will you give me if I release you?"
"The half of my wealth," was his reply.
"And if I release your children?"
"Everything I possess."
"And if I release your wife?"
"Your Majesty, I will give myself."
Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all. As they returned home, the prince said to his wife, "Wasn't Cyrus a handsome man!" With a look of deep love for her husband, she said to him, "I didn't notice. I could only keep my eyes on you -- the one who was willing to give himself for me."
Bethany S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
There was a time in Josh's life when he felt completely lost. He was in his senior year of high school and lacked a clear sense of identity and purpose. "More than anything," he explains, "I wanted something that I could give my life to." When he looked at himself in the mirror he was not the person he wanted to be. It was then that Josh felt the presence of God in his life for the first time.
"I can recall the exact moment when I opened up and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior," he says. With maturity beyond his years, he writes, "The rains I had prayed for brought about winds of change. As the clouds shifted and the skies cleared, my shadow fell upon my futile ways as if to form a line behind me marking the past as a symbol of a new beginning." He continues to describe his experiences as being captivated by God's grace and love.
Through this experience he came to realize that God had been present throughout his life. Soon after this experience Josh met other young Christians who helped him learn and grow in the faith.
The apostle Paul writing to the troubled Corinthians reminded them that in Christ we become new people. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" On this the Fourth Sunday in Lent may we discover the new thing that God is doing in our lives.
Tim S.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
"Would you give your blood to Mary?" the doctor asked.
Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, "Sure, for my sister."
Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room -- Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned.
As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence.
"Doctor, when do I die?"
Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his blood. He's thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he'd made his great decision.
Johnny, fortunately, didn't have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary's, and it required Jesus to give not just his blood but his life.
Bethany S.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made." The prodigal son, in his pigsty, is in the unenviable position of looking up at hell.
Bethany S.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
It was a hot summer's evening in Ocean City, New Jersey, when a minister was tweaking his sermon for a church where he was a speaker. His window was open so he could hear the mumbled voices at an amusement park below his room. As the night progressed a sharp distinctive voice pierced the air announcing that a little five-year-old girl named Wendy had wandered away from her parents. The voice stated that little Wendy was wearing a yellow dress and carrying a teddy bear. She had auburn hair and dark brown eyes. If anyone found her they were asked to take her to the music pier where two anxious parents waited for her.
As the clergyman paused at his window, it seemed, he said, as though none of the thousands who strolled up and down the famous boardwalk, heard, responded, or even cared that Wendy was lost. Their interests were elsewhere.
Imagine the fear that five-year-old Wendy was experiencing on that hot, summer night. She was probably clutching that soft teddy bear tightly, tear drops falling from her eyes, heart pounding with fright … and empty feeling.
What about her parents? Horrifying thoughts, sickening feelings, nerves on edge … mom softly crying and dad silently wringing his hands.
Two hours later over the loud speaker the announcer states that Wendy had been found in good condition! The preacher looked down the pier from his window at the mass of humanity wandering aimlessly up and down the boardwalk. He asked himself …
* How many of those people were spiritually lost and did not know it?
* How many felt a deep lostness inside wishing that someone would make an announcement asking for help?
* Did anyone care about them?
* Did anybody know how they felt
* How many of them needed a heavenly Father to hold their hand like Wendy's dad?
The Lord is sending us out into a world that is lost. There may not be many of us, but the harvest is plentiful. The lost are waiting? Are we going?
Derl K.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
How many of you know what the word "prodigal" actually means? We hear this word -- and use this word -- often; the parable of the prodigal son is one of the better-known stories in the Bible. But what is a "prodigal son"? Most people assume it means "wandering" -- the prodigal son, the wandering son, returns home! Have you ever called someone "prodigal" after they return from a long absence? But actually, prodigal does not mean "wandering" at all. Instead, the title "prodigal son" focuses not on the son's absence, but on his behavior. "Prodigal" means "wasteful." The man in the story is the prodigal son because he spent his money and had to live with the pigs. We usually think that the name of this story is focusing on his return; actually, the name is focusing on his wastefulness -- and his father's willingness to forgive him and welcome him home in spite of it.
Leah T.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
In a dream, Martin Luther found himself being attacked by Satan. The devil unrolled a long scroll containing a list of Luther's sins, and held it before him. On reaching the end of the scroll Luther asked the devil, "Is that all?" "No," came the reply, and a second scroll was thrust in front of him. Then, after a second came a third. But now the devil had no more. "You've forgotten something," Luther exclaimed triumphantly. "Quickly write on each of them, 'The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sins.' "
Bethany S.
