1. Behold, the Lord is our mirror. Open your eyes and see them in Him.
2. And learn the manner of your face, then declare praises to His Spirit.
3. And wipe the paint from your face, and love His holiness and put it on.
4. Then you will be unblemished at all times with Him.
Hallelujah.
In this week’s sermon notes, I pointed out how the complaint about Jesus going to the home of Zaccheus was a distraction from the plot of the story. The same is true today. When religious people start scrutinizing other believers for what they feel are flaws in their doctrine and publish their criticism, they steal attention away from what Jesus is doing through the ministry of those they criticize. In fact, I cannot help but think that some people criticize others that God uses in a big way, not only for jealousy, but in order to draw attention to themselves. Continue reading
Luke 19:1-10
[And, behold,] He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; [and] he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. [And] Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. [And] he ran on ahead, climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. Continue reading
Ezekiel 33:10-11
Now as for you Son of man, say to the house of Israel, “Thus you have spoken, saying, ‘Surely our transgresions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?’ Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn form his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'”
INTRO: I always get frustrated when reading the few chapters of 1 Kings Continue reading
Colossians 4:7-18
INTRO: We come to end of letter where we run into all these names
These short lists resemble the lists we’ve been putting together here at Reflexion
the purpose is to connect with each other
This is the human face of the church Continue reading
Colossians 4:2-6
INTRO: I received one of the best emails ever
A guy involved in ministry – got divorced and then went off the deep end
One morning, miserable, he remembered a sermon of mine that had meant something to him
So he looked for me on Google
The first hit, he said, was a negative one that included a printed transcript of a talk I had given Continue reading
Colossians 3:18-41
INTRO: When Jesus began his public ministry, he quickly became popular
People crowded streets, came to the seashore, or climbed mountains to be near him
Then he returned to Nazareth, where he faced toughest crowd
Mt. 13:57, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” Continue reading
Sometimes I come to a passage of scripture that I know well and wonder, could there possibly be anything here that I have not seen before? Of course, there always is something new. That’s the wonder of it.
Yesterday I began reading through 1 Samuel, and it hit me that right from the outset worship is the central theme of the opening chapters. After we are briefly introduced to the characters and given a couple of details (1:1-2), the plot begins with Elkanah taking his family every year “to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh.” In the same paragraph we learn that the two sons of Eli the priest were there (1:3). This is significant, because these young Continue reading