Baptism: Your Gospel “Show and Tell”
The men, women, and children I regularly speak with usually approach the who, what, why, when, and how of baptism with a note of seriousness, recognizing it’s no trivial matter. But many, many people have heard such a variety of opinions about baptism that they are left rather confused about the biblical meaning and pattern for this important ordinance Christ’s established for His followers.
Are you unsure about the meaning or practice of baptism? Have you not yet taken the step to be baptized as a follower of Jesus? Were you baptized as an infant, yet now wonder if you should be baptized as a believer?
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A Sermon From My 16-year-old Self
A few days ago I uncovered an old spiral-bound notebook from my high school days. “Aha! This should be humorous!” I thought. “What sort of peculiar ideas was I scribbling down at that age?”
As I thumbed through various notes from my landscape business, exam preparation material on American government and economics, backpacking food recipes, and other random jots, my interest perked up when I happened upon a sermon I wrote concerning prayer and the status of our country. Interestingly, all the dates in this notebook are from 1999, which indicates I penned this sermon-essay a little over 16 years ago, when I was 16 years old…
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Dear Pastor Michael… My Heart Aches
Pastor Michael, Thank you for your sermon today and the elements and reminders that give us believers such hope. The thing I struggle with is not being able to say, “Jesus, Come Quickly”. What about all the people that believers might know who don’t know the Lord Jesus as their Savior? One of my close relatives, for instance, is living a life separate from God. There are many more I could think of.
My heart aches for what the day would look like for the unsaved…
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Transparency: A Four-Letter Word
Transparency: a four-letter word.
A four-letter word? Really? Perhaps you read that and raised your eyebrows. Maybe your lip curled in disgust that I would dare liken a harmless word such as transparency to a cuss word.
Regardless, we treat transparency and all that comes with it, with an attitude of disdain and fear. Why? We need it, yet we dread it. We are afraid of it or of what it may bring. So we treat transparency, in it’s raw and honest form, as taboo. Genuine, relational transparency seems like unnecessary or awkward territory to traverse.
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Show Me Some Mercy!
“Show me just one shred of evidence that God has mercy! Give me some mercy!” shouted a small, elderly woman named Gladys.
Her words stung into my heart and rang like a bell throughout our empty auditorium. Silence swallowed up the end of each sentence that burst forth from deep within her grieving soul. A piercing sound, then hushed silence… as if she were waiting to see if God might audibly respond for all to hear.
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Sun in the Storms
As the old saying goes, “If you don’t like the weather in Michigan, just wait five minutes.” Today is proving the wise old sage knew what he was talking about. Yet from sunshine to storms…and back again to sunshine then storms this is the day the Lord has made, therefore, let us rejoice and be glad in the One who has ordained it…
