And A Preacher In A Pear Tree?

In the spirit of the holidays (to be sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"): On the first day of Christmas, my preacher gave to me, A sermon on the birth of a King. On the second day of Christmas, my preacher gave to me, Two Christmas plays,...

Innocence

A wonderful little story is making the rounds: It was almost time for school to dismiss and a mother noticed it looked like rain. So she drove toward school to pick up her eight-year-old daughter. She turned down the street to see her daughter running toward her down the sidewalk. A lightning...

Heaven

On Oct. 3, 2004 - for the first time in American history - someone became a U.S. citizen on foreign soil. On that date 34 foreign born American soldiers gained their citizenship in Iraq. Paul says we are citizens of Heaven. In that case, we all received our heavenly citizenship on foreign...

A Change Of Course

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 It was a time of tumult and turmoil. The Northern Kingdom was losing ground, literally. Only when the ruthless Assyrian army invaded Damascus in 797 B.C., was Aramean power destabilized. Only then was Israel's military, under Jeroboam II, able...

Forgiveness

A story is told of two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND ...

Some Body To Love

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 "You can lose unwanted pounds. You can gain more muscle. You can feel fit and trim. You can look years younger. You can do it all in the next 30 days, without breaking a sweat, guaranteed. But you must act now! This is a limited-time offer. Have your credit card...

Despair

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the last written words of "gonzo" journalist Hunter Thompson were in a note written to his wife, four days before his suicide. The note said: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More...

Criticism

A woman walked into the huge mega church. The friendly usher greeted her at the door and led her up the flight of steps. "Where would you like to sit?" he asked politely. "The front row please," she answered. "You really don't want to do that," the usher said. "The preacher is really...

Believe And Be Baptized, Belong And Be Loved

Mark 1:4-11 Now that the holidays are past, do you still enjoy family gatherings? Are you looking forward to celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, weddings, graduations and other events in 2006 with your extended family? Hopefully so! When it comes to church family gatherings, we grow...