Luke 22:14-38 {Prayer} The artist Rembrandt tried to paint the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. He did it twice. Twice he tried to help others see what faith looks like in that moment. The first time, Rembrandt made a grand painting. This was done early in his life. At that time Rembrandt was…
Luke 22:1-23 {Prayer} Caroline was a woman who had her place. If this was her church, it would there on the right-hand side, near the stained glass window with Luther’s Rose, and closest to the side aisle. That was where she worshiped and to her, that was her place. Caroline’s pastor learned this as…
Luke 15:11-32 {Prayer} Children, children are truly a gift from God. Even in the midst of a temper tantrum, the sassiness, or a full-blown teenage attitude, even though we may think we are being punished for the way we adults treated our parents when we were their age … despite all that … children…
Luke 24:36-49 {Prayer} Nothing intensifies a night out camping quite like a good ole fashion ghost story. Sitting around the campfire with the flames dancing up through the wood casting all kinds of shadows on the trees above and around you, having someone holding a flashlight up from under face, and then tell you…
Luke 22:1:6 {Prayer} Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, Guy Fawkes, Robert Ford, Judas Iscariot … these four all have something in common with each other. They are all traitors. Marcus Junius Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman senator who served under Julius Caesar. He is best known from Shakespeare’s…
Isaiah 9:2-7 As we gather this morning, the theme for all of our little devotions focus around this idea of home. In case you didn’t pick up a bulletin or if you are watching this online, let me read part of the opening “As We Gather”. “An old song expresses the yearning well:…
Luke 9:23 (ESV)Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Dear Friends in Christ, You’ve probably never heard of this fellow before, but his name is Dan Mazur. He’s one of the many people who have tried…
Luke 24:13-35 (ESV)On the Road to Emmaus13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing…
Luke 9:23 (ESV)Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Dear Friends in Christ, Everyone loves a parade, don’t they? The bands, the floats, the clowns, the horses, the candy that gets tossed to the crowd. I…
Luke 2:7 (ESV)7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Dear Friends in Christ, I have a confession to make this evening that I just have to get off my chest because the guilt is about…