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…
John 6:16-21 {Prayer} Back in 2017, a newspaper reporter in Galveston, Texas, published a story about Chirpy the parakeet. One minute Chirpy was peacefully perched in his cage and singing a song. The next minute, he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over! Let me explain. It all began when Chirpy’s owner…
John 6:1-15 {Prayer} As a kid I remember watching TV when, out of the blue, an announcer would break in with these words … “This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test.” Then, for what seemed like forever, there would be that loud, ear drum piercing sound. Somewhat…
John 5:1-17 {Prayer} Johnny Lechner is finally moving on. Actually, the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater forced Johnny Lechner to move on. You probably know someone who extended a 4-year college program into 7 or 8 years, but Johnny went beyond that. Johnny had been working on a 4-year degree for 12 years. Yes,…
John 4:46-54 {Prayer} Team Hoyt consists of a father and a son. Together, Dick and Rick Hoyt race. And they race a lot. They have completed 64 marathons, 206 triathlons, 6 Ironman triathlons and 204 10K runs. Since 1975, these two have crossed over 1,000 finish lines. They’ve even crossed the United States. …
John 2:1-11 {Prayer} For Christmas, Faith had been asking for this pendulum clock. Now, this clock comes with probably a thousand different pieces. Some of them the size of my head, some of them about the height of an eraser on the end of a regular pencil. To say that “some assembly is required”…
Matthew 2:1-12 {Prayer} As with most Christmas hymns, we pretty much have only the first verse of them memorized. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, by only having the first verse memorized, we can easily miss out on the depth and the true meaning of the hymn. Take “What Child Is This”…
John 1:14a {Prayer} August 24, 2006. That’s when it all happened. That’s when things went south. That’s when the bottom fell out and that’s when everything came completely undone. August 24, 2006. On March 24, 1930 things had begun with so much joy and excitement. There were fireworks. There was this great flourish…
John 1:14b {Prayer} “We have seen his glory.” Five simple words. These five words will change our life. These five words will change our life, forever. “We have seen his glory.” For fifty-one years, Bob Edens was blind. Bob couldn’t see a darn thing. His world was a black hole. But Bob Edens…