Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  How long, O Lord? Mark 13 Introduction : Yogi Berra said, “It’s very difficult to make predictions, especially about the future!”   Well, there is Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog… He even has a web page so he must be reliable right (Groundhog.org)? Oh well!        Even with satellites and all the sophisticated computer-models meteorologists have, they still miss a forecast sometimes. And the more extended the forecast, the greater the chance of error.   We read about God’s standard for prophets in Dt 18:21-22… 21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'-   22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him . Ok then, the National Weather Service is clearly a “non-prophet” organization! Today we’re going to introduce M...

 [A Thanksgiving devotional, SN] Thanksgiving 2023 – Psalm 117 Ps 117… the goal of our mission is worship of the One true God. That involves praise for who He is — His   character and attributes, and also praise for what He has done, that is, Thanksgiving. Let’s read first the Thanksgiving Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln… "It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins,...

  Religion Unmasked, Unmasked Religion! Mark 12:37b-44 Introduction : In the book of I Samuel we have a very instructive scene in which the prophet Samuel goes to the house of Jesse, led by the Spirit of God, to find the one who is to be anointed as the next king of Israel, to replace Saul. Jesse had eight sons, and when Samuel saw the eldest, Eliab, he thought, surely this is the one the Lord has chosen! But God had another plan. He said to Samuel, “ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart ...” (I Sam 16:7). We can only see the outward appearance, we don’t know the heart of another human. Part of what God would teach us in our passage today is that He does know our hearts . He understands our thoughts. He knows what motivates our actions. We might fool other people, we might even deceive oursel...

  WHO IS JESUS? Son of Man and Son of God! Mark 12:35-37 Introduction : The controversies in this context in Mark have delighted the crowd, and surely frustrated the opponents of Jesus. Jesus knew where this story was going, where it must go, but He continued to teach, inviting those with ears to hear to consider His words. As readers of the Gospel, Mark has held before us the answer to a key question since the first verse: Who is Jesus? That is the first, fundamental question we need to consider. Who is this One, who loved us so much that He laid down His life for us? Why should an itinerate rabbi from the first century be the central figure in all of human history ?   Knowing and believing the truth about Jesus is the most important question facing every human.” This passage will ask us again: Who is Jesus ? What say you ?        One of the tendencies today is to minimize the importance, or even deny the possibility, of absolute truth. C...