Mark 11:15-19 {Prayer} On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a little hut with only one boat and a few devoted members who kept a constant watch over the sea. With no thought for themselves, they went out day and…
Zechariah 1:18-21 {Prayer} One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Home Improvement staring Tim Allen. In each episode, Tim hosted his own home improvement show with his trusty, mild-mannered assistant Al. They were introduced with the question, “Does everybody know what time it is?” And the response was always what? “It’s Tool…
Zechariah 1:1-6 {Prayer} This painting titled The Tower of Babel was painted in 1563 by Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel. The painting depicts the story in Genesis 11 where the people say, “Come, let us build a tower and let us make a name for ourselves” (11:4). What lies at the heart of The Tower…
{Prayer} Even though I know we are middle of winter, I want us to skip ahead and think about a popular and interesting little creature of summer … the grasshopper. Grasshoppers are interesting in that even though one would think by their name that they just hop, they don’t really. Grasshoppers have wings and…
Mark 1:21-28 {Prayer} Hymnals or screens. Liturgy out of hymnals or Creative Worship printed out in bulletins. Organ or piano or praise teams. Robes or suits or jeans and a polo or sweater. Children’s message or not. Traditional worship or Contemporary worship. Stage and auditorium or gym or an altar area and sanctuary. These…
Matthew 20:20-28 {Prayer} An elementary classroom teacher gives a thorough explanation of the significance and location of the subject and verb in a sentence. Immediately after the explanation, a student gives a blank and confused look back to the teacher. The teacher is like, “Don’t you get it?” In defense to any of…
1 Samuel 16:4-13 A homeless man one day went to a 10,000-member church. He walked around the church for 30 minutes while it was filling up with people for service. In that time, only three people out of the 7-10,000 people stopped to say hello to him. He asked people for change so he…
Romans 6:1-11 {Prayer} Winslow Homer, who lived from 1836 to 1910, is regarded by many as the greatest American painter of the nineteenth century. He began his career by illustrating popular periodicals in Boston. His experiences sent him to cover the Civil War in 1862, to France after the Civil War for ten months…
Matthew 2:1-12 {Prayer} Straight No Chaser … that’s the name of the a cappella group which originated in 1996 at Indiana University. Majority of the group got back together in 2008 simply because a 1998 video of them singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” went viral, it blew up all over the internet with…
{Prayer} Of all the different Christmas songs and Christmas hymns out there, one of my favorites if not my all-time favorite, is the hymn we just sung, “What Child Is This.” Even though it can be a hard hymn to sing, even though it is all about Jesus, the babe, the son of Mary…