Love For One Another

John 13:31-35 Love can be a very complicated thing. On this particular Sunday, which is Mother's Day, we not only honor our mothers and celebrate the memory of those whose faith is now sight, we also take advantage of a moment to hear a timely reminder from Jesus. I sense it has been expressed through...

The Signature Of The Shepherd

John 10: 22-30 For forty-three years I signed official documents for three colleges and two seminaries. Often I write out the full name complete with middle initial, but in-house documents required only the initials KOG which I have surely signed thousands of times. Putting either my name or initials on...

The Way of the Cross

Matthew 16:22-26 If Jesus had lived in the deep south in the years following the Civil War, His "cross" probably would have been a rope around his neck and His crucifixion a lynching. If he'd been ...

Strength In Suffering: Eighth in a Series on 1 & 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:7, 11-12 "For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him." There are various kinds of...

Jesus the Trouble-Maker

John 2:13-22 Recently we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Quite properly we hailed him as a latter-day prophet to America, a drum-major for justice, a visionary whose dream still inspires us. But I am old enough to remember our attitude toward Dr. King while he was alive. He was ...