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Poor Little Ted

Children's Story
Jack had a huge plastic bag full of conkers. He spent the whole of one evening with a skewer boring a hole in the conkers and threading each one on a piece of string. When he went to school next day he spent every spare minute in the playground playing conkers with his friends. He lost quite a few to start with, but he soon became very proficient, and watched with delight as his opponents' conkers gradually smashed and disappeared.

Jim had spent a long time searching for conkers and managed to find enough to fill a small paper bag. He too threaded his conkers on string and went off to play. He had a lot of fun in the playground, and although he nearly lost the lot, eventually he began to win until he too was regarded as a something of a champion.

Little Ted forgot to go searching for conkers. When he realised all the other children were playing with conkers at school, he rushed home to try and find some for himself. But almost all the conkers were gone, and little Ted only found a few. He bored holes in them and threaded them on to string, but he was so afraid of losing the only conkers he had that he refused to play with them. That night little Ted hid the conkers under his pillow where no one could find them.

Jack had a big canvas bag full of marbles given to him for his birthday. He loved to play marbles with all his friends, and he got better and better at the game. He lost quite a few to start with, but soon he found he was winning nearly every game, and so his collection of marbles grew bigger and bigger.

Jim had some marbles too. They weren't exactly his own, he'd borrowed them from his older brother. He played a lot with his marbles and had a lot of fun. At one point he nearly lost the lot, but eventually he began to gain marbles from the other children, until he was able to give back his brother's marbles because he'd gained so many of his own.

Little Ted had just six marbles in a little plastic container. His granny had given them to him. He loved his marbles so much that he was terrified of losing any of them, so he refused to play with them. That night little Ted hid the marbles under his pillow where no one could find them.

Jack grew up to be a brilliant businessman. He started in a small way and made lots of mistakes in the early days, but as his confidence grew he expanded his business until he became a millionaire.

Jim grew up to find a steady job. He had to search for a long time before he found work he loved, and it was all very uncertain at first. But he had a lot of fun. He was always the life and soul of the party, and people loved to be near him.

Little Ted couldn't find a job when he grew up. He didn't dare look, in case people told him he was no good. He did have one pleasure in life. He married a beautiful wife whom he loved very much. But he was terrified of losing her, and so he hid her away at home where no one could find her.

One day his beautiful wife left him because she couldn't bear her restricted life any longer. Little Ted shrivelled up inside and hated the whole world. Poor little Ted. He tried so hard to keep what he loved most just to himself, that he lost everything. And he never, ever, had any fun.
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Christopher Keating
Thomas Willadsen
Katy Stenta
Mary Austin
George Reed
Nazish Naseem
For February 1, 2026:
  • What the Lord Requires by Dean Feldmeyer. The world’s requirements are often complex and difficult. God’s requirements are simple and easy. Kinda.

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Janice B. Scott
Call to Worship:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the people how they could be blessed by God and experience God's kingdom. In our worship today let us explore the Sermon on the Mount.

Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, sometimes I'm full of pride instead of being poor in spirit.
Lord, have mercy.
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Christ, have mercy.
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Reading:

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John E. Sumwalt And Jo Perry-sumwalt
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What's Up This Week
Stories to Live By: "You Fool"/ "Us Who Are Being Saved"
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Sandra Herrmann
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"Child Sacrifice" by Sandra Herrmann (Micah 6:1-8)
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* * * * * * * *


Child Sacrifice
Sandra Herrmann
Micah 6:1-8

SermonStudio

Stephen P. McCutchan
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles....
-- 1 Corinthians 1:23-24

Russell F. Anderson
BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS

Lesson 1: Micah 6:1--8 (C, E, L)
John N. Brittain
The other day I stumbled onto a Discovery Channel show about underwater archaeology (not basket weaving). The archaeologist described the process of identifying the probable location of an underwater wreck site, the grueling work involved in beginning the process, and the same kind of methodical work that characterizes all scientific archaeology. But then her eyes twinkled as she described the joy of uncovering the first artifact, or recognizing a significant discovery. And that of course is what it is all about, the final product of discovery.
Tony S. Everett
Late one night, Pastor Bill was driving home after spending the past 23 hours in the hospital with his wife, celebrating the birth of their son. It had been a glorious day. His wife was peacefully resting. His extended family was ecstatic. His son was healthy. Surely God was in heaven and all was right with the world.

Linda Schiphorst Mccoy
When I'm teaching a class, and want to get a discussion going, I often begin with something that's called a sentence stem. I start a sentence and let the participants complete it. This morning, if I were to ask you to complete this sentence, what would you say? "Happy are those who...." What would you use to complete the thought?
Dallas A. Brauninger
E-mail
From: KDM
To: God
Subject: Demands On God
Message: All these demands don't make sense, God. Lauds, KDM
R. Glen Miles
What does God want from us? The answer is simple, but it is not easy to put into practice. What God wants is you. What God wants is me. God wants our whole selves. The prophet Micah makes it fairly clear that ultimately God does not care too much about religion and the things that come with it. Religion isn't a bad enterprise. It is okay as a way of reminding us about what God wants, but in the long run being good at religion is not what God desires. What God requires is us. It is simple to understand but not necessarily the thing we would offer to God first.
John B. Jamison
It was a strange sound. Some said it was a kind of "clanging" sound, while others said it was more of a "ka-ching," or more accurately, a "ka-chang!" It sounded like the result of metal hitting metal, which is exactly what it was.

In the valley off to the west from the hillside is a steep cliff rising up the face of Mount Arbel. The face of the cliff is covered with hundreds of caves, with no good way to get to them without climbing straight up the cliff. That's why the Zealots liked them. They were safe.
Amy C. Schifrin
Martha Shonkwiler
Prayer Of Dedication/Gathering
P: Our Lord Jesus calls each of us to a life of justice, kindness, and humility. We pray that in this hour before us our defenses would fall and your love would be set free within us.
Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit, your mercy knows no end.
C: Amen.

Intercessory Prayers

Emphasis Preaching Journal

David Kalas
We have a prejudice in favor of things complex. Not that we necessarily desire complexity, but somehow we trust it more. We figure that complexity is the prevailing reality in our world, and so we feel obliged to be in touch with it. We would love to hear that this thing or that is really quite simple, but doctors, politicians, futurists, ethicists, economists -- and even some preachers -- keep discouraging us. It's actually quite complicated, we are told, and there is no simple answer.
People tend to say in times of personal or community disaster, "God works in mysterious ways." The point they are making is that when we can't figure out any logical answer to a situation, it must be the work of God. It is one way of making sense out of an inexplicable event.
Schuyler Rhodes
In 1993 brothers Tom and David Gardner began a financial information service they named The Motley Fool. Dressed in their trademark court jester hats, the motley fools can be seen and heard offering their advice and warnings concerning the stock market on a variety of talk shows and financial news channels.

CSSPlus

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have spent time around babies? (let them answer) Babies are so cute when they are happy but hard to please when they are upset. Babies can't talk, can they? (let them answer) So when they don't get what they want they cry. When they are hungry they cry. When they are sleepy they cry. When a stranger tries to hold them they cry. How do we know if babies are sick, hungry, or tired? (let them answer) Most of the time a baby's mom can figure out what's wrong even when we can't.
Teachers or Parents: Have the children sit on the floor and pretend that they are on a mountaintop and learning at Jesus' feet. Ask: "How is this classroom different from classrooms you have seen?" "How is it like them?" Read various portions of the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7) that they might understand (such as Matthew 7:7-11 -- prayer; 7:12 -- the Golden Rule; 7:15 -- being true). Be careful -- many parts of the Sermon on the Mount are difficult for children to understand and may lead to great misunderstanding and perhaps fear.

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