In preparation for the Passion week and Easter, I’ve been preaching a series of sermons on things that Jesus said. Before we started, a 4-part series seemed like a lot. Now I almost wish we had started in January!
Most of these are taken from the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. They all try to cover too much ground for a single sermon, but let’s be honest: Jesus said some good stuff! I hope you enjoy.
People that never go to church run the risk of being an hour late to work the Monday morning after DST begins. That would be embarrassing. Continue reading
From the Emoji Bible. See more here. Continue reading
I have to admit that it caught me off guard. If WordPress hadn’t congratulated me I might have missed my own blogoversry (blog + anniversary).
In 2014 I published Six Years at the Table. That post does a good job telling the backstory and sharing some interesting facts. At that time, we were shy of one million views. As of 3/3/2016 the two blogs together (The Master’s Table and My Other Blog) have seen 1,066,005 views and the total number of posts is 1857.
Today I blog less and have diverted some time and energy into other things. I pastor a small SBC church and my sermons are posted on their website. I write once a week for our local paper and do not duplicate that same content here. Blogging has changed since our launch in 2008; there are more personal and collaborative blogs today than ever before and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have brought more voices into the conversation.
The Master’s Table gives me a larger audience than I could reach otherwise. My blog friends in Canada, Israel and Australia know what I’m talking about. I enjoy writing on several different platforms. I also enjoy the seminary classes I take with other local ministers, church staff and lay church members; I enjoy teaching Sunday School and leading prayer meetings in addition to preaching sermons. Ministry happens simultaneously at the local, regional, state, national and international level. The church has been tasked to carry the Gospel to all people and nations. The internet offers tools and resources that make the world a smaller place. But we can’t reach around the world and neglect our neighbor across the street.
The goal has not changed; to be God honoring and Christ centered. Those words are posted prominently on the masthead as much for my benefit as yours. Here’s to another eight years, and the changes they will bring. Long live the blog.
‘Tis the season when various broadcast networks and cable channels will start showing Bible films even if they don’t offer religious programming the rest of the year. Look for The Passion of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth and, for reasons I never understood, The Ten Commandments on a t.v. near you. If you have never seen The Passion of the Christ (2004, directed by Mel Gibson) be prepared for subtitles. The dialogue of the entire film is spoken in Aramaic. Continue reading
Welcome to a very special February 29th edition of Happy Monday. There will not be another Leap Day until the year 2020 and that will be on Saturday. Continue reading
James 3:1-12 is a well known portion of scripture about the mighty fires set by a small tongue. We put bits in horses mouths and rudders on great ships to steer them, and the tongue is a small member as well that boasts of great things.
The ESV and NIV subject headings title this passage Taming the Tongue. I prefer the NKJV headline, The Untamable Tongue. James doesn’t give a command to tame the tongue or instructions on how one might do so. He actually writes that “no human being can tame the tongue.” He compares blessings and cursings coming from the same mouth to a spring that gives fresh and salt water, concluding that “these ought not to be so.” He does not say, however, that anything can be done about it.
Your thoughts?
Ah, our old friend Monday. We here at The Master’s Table are committed to bringing you the scripture verses, quotations, cartoons, cute animals pics and coffee gags you need to get through the day. In the words of the Home Depot “You can do this, we can help.”
Everything that has been available for free at Bible Gateway will stay that way, and they promise it always will. But after “many months of planning, coding, and beta testing” Bible Gateway Plus is now live.
This blog post explains everything the new service makes available, and the list is pretty extensive. You can try the new premium service free for 30 days by clicking here to register. After the free trial the ad-free service is only $3.99 per month.
For those of you looking at the website, you know that lots of stuff hangs out in the sidebars. Some of that content is updated daily. I don’t post as often to the blog as I used to because much of what I write is on my church website. The Unity Baptist RSS feed shows links to recent posts at the top of the left-hand sidebar. You see those links if you visit The Master’s Table. I also realize many followers subscribe using feed readers or through email. Those folks will never see any content that is not posted.
So this is kind of like a Read & Share File for my own stuff. These links are to the two most recent Sunday sermons and a newspaper editorial from about a week and a half ago. If you have read them already or follow both blogs, great. If not, just FYI.
The Heart of Man, Feb. 7th sermon
The Master's Table 