Zechariah 9:11-12 {Prayer} I invite you to look at this pit. It looks pretty deep and what you can’t see is that there is no water in it. Now envision a 17-year-old teenager stuck in the waterless pit. His hands are bound. His ankles are tied together. His eyes are wet from tears. His…
Zechariah 9:9-10 {Prayer} Expectations meet reality. The sandwich looked good on the menu, but it didn’t look good when it was served. You thought you had taken a great picture, but now you want a retake. You thought loading the car for the trip would be easy, but your children wanted to bring way…
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…
Zechariah 13:1-2 {Prayer} When Jessica and I were dating, she lived in Perryville, Missouri and I lived in the west suburbs of Chicago. After work, which was in downtown Chicago, I would be driving down I-55 and see these large oil refineries in Joliet. The jungle of tubes, pipes, valves, switches and pumps could…
John 12:23-36 {Prayer} We just sang these words: “In the cross of Christ I glory, Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime” (LW 101, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory”) In the cross of Christ I glory. Really? Just listen to this … “Roman citizens…
Zechariah 8:20-23 {Prayer} “First secure your own oxygen mask.” This directive is familiar to anyone who has traveled on commercial airplanes. In the event of an emergency, like a sudden loss of cabin pressure, we’re told by the flight attendant that an oxygen mask for each person will drop from the overhead compartment. In…
Matthew 23:1-12 {Prayer} Deception … to some, it’s a game, to others … well, whether they mean it to be or not … it’s a way of life. Either way … it is something which every single one of us is good at. During the Prohibition Era a California product was being sold…
Zechariah 5:5-11 {Prayer} Who will take the garbage out? That is a question which has been asked in households for years. Obviously if your single that question doesn’t apply simply because you are the only trash-taker-outer there is. But for married couples and those with kids … now that’s a whole different story. …
Zechariah 3:1-10 {Prayer} Dr. Reed Lessing, the author of our series on the book of Zechariah, tells the story of a time when he was stuck in the Atlanta airport. His flight to St. Louis for whatever reason was canceled. The next flight was jam-packed and he knew that if he didn’t get on…
Mark 12:28-34 {Prayer} In high school but mainly in college, if I had to ride with someone and there was a group of us going, there was always a race to the car. It didn’t matter if we were driving two blocks to the local convenient store or if we were going 20 minutes…