Signs

“Peter preached for the residences of Jerusalem to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The cat was out of the bag. We can have what Jesus had.”

Perfection Multiplied

Matthew 18: 21-35 “Forgive your enemies” was the topic of the reverend’s sermon on this particular Sunday morning. At the close of his rather long message, he asked how many were willing to forgive their enemies. About half of the congregation raised their hands. Not satisfied, he preached for another twenty minutes and repeated the…

How Will This Be?

Luke 1: 26-38 Two boys were walking home from church and talking about their Sunday school lesson. They were studying the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Little Peter said to his friend John, “Do you believe that stuff about the Devil? Do you really think there is a Devil?” John looked at him and…

More Joy in Heaven

Luke 15: 1-10  A little boy needed $100 for a school field trip, so his mother told him to ask God for it. He prayed for two weeks, but nothing turned up. So, he decided to ask God for the money in a letter. At the post office, the postmaster opened the letter to God…

The Place to Be

Mark 4: 26-34 It is in the fourth chapter of Mark the readers and hearers are told if you don’t understand the parable of the sower of seeds, how will you understand all parables? In this chapter, there is the parable of the sower (we read together Matthew’s version last July), the parable of the…

The Cat Was Out of the Bag

Acts 2: 1-24, 32-36 For years, Tony Campolo, renowned preacher, college professor and author, would speak at a Christian festival in central Pennsylvania. Thousands of young people would attend the festival which had a definite Pentecostal flavor to it. The festival always reached a crescendo on Saturday night. Tony was often the featured speaker on…

God’s Love Is That Close

John 15: 9-17 A man stood in his front yard accessing the damage to his front porch after a storm came through the night before. It didn’t appear severe, but he knew he didn’t have all the tools he needed to remove the damage and begin the work of repairing his house. Before long, several…

Two Prayers

What are you praying these days? Is discouragement overrun by confusion while case numbers continue to rise, friends are furloughed, and justice is far from fulfillment?