Easter 5, April 28, 2013

The opposite of love is not hate.  It’s indifference.

The opposite of loving someone is not fighting with them.  It’s pulling away from them.

To feel unloved is not to experience conflict; it is to feel abandoned and alone.

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Easter 4, April 21, 2013

As I listened to the news reports about the bombings in Boston this week, I heard a radio commentator interview a security expert about what had happened and how these kinds of events can be avoided.  The commentator was asking the kinds of questions we all have on our minds in the aftermath of tragedies like this:  “How can we provide better security for high profile public events?  Can we ever have any confidence that we are safe?”  The security expert was very frank and honest. He said, “There is no security that is ultimate security.”

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Easter 3, April 14, 2013

It has been said that Americans love a good conversion story.  Bilquis Shiek was a Pakistani noblewoman who began questioning her Muslim faith after reading about Jesus in the Quran.  She talked to her chauffer about Jesus, he shared the promises of Scripture with her and eventually she embraced Christianity.  After she was baptized in the name of the Trinity, she was alienated from her family and relocated to the United States where she wrote about her amazing conversion in the 1978 best-selling book “I Dared to Call him Father.”  Her story continues to inspire.

 

Since 9/11, there have been numerous Islam – Christianity conversion reports including one by a prominent Baptist leader whose claims about converting to Christianity after being a trained terrorist as a youth have been disputed and largely disproved.    Sometimes there is a pressure to manufacture details about conversion to make it more exciting and sensational.  And sometimes these stories are just hard to swallow.

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Easter 2, April 7, 3013

Last Sunday was a great day!  Easter is a day that’s hard to top.  We had the highest attendance ever for a single Sunday morning worship service at Grace of God!  Wherever you were last Sunday I hope you caught the joy of Jesus’ resurrection.  And it’s not over yet!  We’ll keep the Easter spirit going in our worship for several weeks; the season of Easter is actually seven weeks long.  It’s too much to be contained in one Sunday, so we do it for a week of Sundays! We can keep repeating the Easter greeting: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”  And we’ll keep singing the great Easter hymns.

 

But let’s face it.  Today is kind of a let down. 

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The Resurrection of our Lord, March 31, 2013

As yesterday’s temperatures soared into the 50s, the snow piles melted, mothers sent their children outside without warnings about coats and hats and mittens, and we felt the warmth of the sun!  It was enough for even the most winter-hardened Minnesotan to get his hopes up.

That’s the message of Jesus’ resurrection:

GET YOUR HOPES UP!

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Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2013

“You will never wash my feet.”

 

When Jesus approached Peter with the basin and towel in the upper room, Peter objected to this impropriety. “Never,” he said.

 

There are reasons people don’t want to have their feet washed.  Good reasons.  Of all our body parts, our feet can get the most nasty looking.  And it’s not just a little dirt . . .

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