Tag Archives: Christianity

A Thanksgiving Sermon

Posted on by

Tomorrow is Sunday, November 23, and Thanksgiving Day is the following Thursday.  I will be preaching this sermon in the morning, perhaps it will be a blessing to someone here as well.  Anyone may feel free to use this material in a way that brings glory and honor to God.

We are going to begin with 4 scripture readings, used at different times during the service.  You will note that there is one reading each from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and a Gospel.  The final reading is the text of the sermon. Continue reading →

The Abbreviated Jesus

Posted on by

bargainjesusWhen I started this blog, one of the secret little promises I made myself was that it wouldn’t be an Internet Monk fan site.  Listening to his podcast is one of the reasons I started blogging myself.  If you read this blog, you know that from time to time I link other blogs with posts of interest.  Michael Spencer wrote a piece on the “abbreviated Jesus” this week, here’s a snippet that made me laugh out loud:

“The abbreviated Jesus can convincingly seem like the real Jesus, until you look and listen closely. Then it appears that he’s lost his laptop, his luggage and his cell phone. So for right now, he’s reading it all off the teleprompter.”

Read Do You Trust the Abbreviated Jesus?  at internetmonk for the full story.

Old Testament God is the God of the New Testament

Posted on by

angry_godIn a lot of people’s minds, God is this angry, loud, vengeful monster in the Old Testament of the Bible.  Some non-Christians tell us we have two gods, the Old Testament one with the commandments and judgements, and the New Testament one offering grace and mercy.  The God of the Bible is one; he gives commandments, he judges, but also offers to extend grace and mercy instead.  The dichotomy may be apparent, but isn’t a matter of fact. Continue reading →

The Bible, Uses and Misuses

Posted on by

bible-pagesImagine you wanted to open a one gallon can of paint.  Most all of us have a flathead screwdriver lying around in the kitchen junk drawer or else someplace handy.  You grab that and pry the lid from the can.  It’s not exactly what the screwdriver was made for, but it does the job well enough.  The Bible is like that also. Continue reading →

On the Issue of Slavery

Posted on by

slavesinegypt“And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.”  Numbers 20:5 

In Numbers chapter 20 the Hebrews are complaining to Moses that he has brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness.  You see, even though they had been slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews were used to having certain things.  There they had lived in houses, not tents.  There was plenty of water to drink via the Nile River.  And one thing they brought up a lot was the food.  The Hebrews missed the pomegranates of all things.  Egypt had those. Continue reading →

American Christians

Posted on by

crystalcathedralpipeorgansAmerican Christians are just not exactly the same as “Christians.”  That’s a sweeping generalization that I know is not true in some cases.  There are plenty of exceptions I’m sure.  But by in large, Christianity in America is light-years away from the first century church described in the New Testament. Continue reading →

Why Should Christians Hear the Gospel?

Posted on by

jesusWhen Jesus preached his first sermon, it was a simple message of “Repent, and believe the gospel.”  (Mark 1:14-15)  It was obviously an invitation to the lost; Jesus the evangelist inviting souls to get saved.  So the question is, why do Christians need to keep hearing the gospel?  Continue reading →

Does anyone know who Jesus is?

Posted on by

I was watching this video on Who Jesus Is and one thought in particular came to mind.  It shouldn’t surprise us that many people have no idea who Jesus is, or even that they don’t know exactly what they believe.  Ask the typical person on the street about Jesus, and you’ll always get answers like “He was a pretty cool guy,” or “He was a wise teacher, but he’s not my savior,” or maybe even “I don’t believe there was any such person.”  Most people believe he existed, but not that he was the Son of God or even that he meant to start Christianity.  But like I said, we shouldn’t be surprised by any of these answers. Continue reading →

Catholic Vote 2008

Posted on by

No, I am not Roman Catholic.  CatholicVote2008.com has put together an excellent video to remind us all that it’s not as important who you vote for as it is that you vote.  I believe all Christians should be able to agree with the message of this film.  It’s a good way to spend the next 3 1/2 minutes. 

My video quit working, watch it here on InternetMonk. 

A Scriptural Perspective on Economic Collapse and Financial Bailout

Posted on by

We live in the richest nation on earth.  It may be borrowed money, and we may be about to pay the piper for it, but Americans are simply the wealthiest society ever in history.  We currently consume over half of the world’s natural resources.  The poverty line in the United States is higher than the per capita income of many nations.  My dog drinks cleaner water than about half of the world’s children.  We spent more money last year on ice cream than NASA spent in the entire space program.  That is the beauty of capitalism.  The revenues generated go back into fueling the system.  Carl Marx predicted capitalism would destroy itself, but you see, greed makes it work.  Our greed drives us to work harder, put in more hours, educate ourselves to get higher positions, etc.  And what do we do with all of that additional hard-earned cash?  WE SPEND IT, creating jobs and providing increasing salaries for our friends and neighbors.  So what went wrong? Continue reading →