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Showing posts from October, 2013

Flesh Vs. Spirit

Scripture: Romans 8:12–18 (NRSV) 12  So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13  for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16  it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17  and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.   Meditation:             Whether we move toward revival in our lives depends on how we see and experience the world. God has given us a clear choice which the above scripture outlines very well. We have the choice every moment of every day to reject the flesh and embrace t

Repentance

Scripture: Matthew4:12-17 12  Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13  And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14  so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:             15          “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—             16          the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light,                         and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” 17  From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”   Meditation:             Today’s scripture gives us Matthew’s account of the beginning of Jesus public ministry. Jesus begins with a call to repentance. Jesus was announcing that the kingdom of God was coming and folks would need to repent of their self

A New Attitude

Scripture: Philippians 2:1-4(NLT)     1 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.  3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Devotion:     Wouldn’t it be great if every church were like the church that the Apostle Paul was encouraging us to be in this passage! Of course churches aren’t perfect places, but what if we actually tried? Can we do better than we are doing?     Certainly we can. If the church really wants to make a difference in this troubled world in which we live, this would certainly be one way. Can you imagine how hard it would be in this day and age to get into a place whe

A Legacy of Love

My first copy of scripture was a King James Version of the New Testament and Psalms. Inscribed on a blank page in the front of the book are the following words:     To: John Merle Haselton on his 3 rd birthday, November 25, 1963. My beloved Grandson and namesake,   My wish is that when you are old enough to read and understand this New Testament and Psalms that you will seek its council and then follow its advice freely. It will help you to become a man of high stature and respect, wherever you go or live.   Very Affectionately Your Grandfather, C. Merle Haselton     Now obviously at the tender age of three I was not able to read the King’s English or even this note from my Grandfather. Why then did Grandpa want to get scripture into my hands before I could even read?   Here is one reason I can give as I look back over my life. I have a photograph of my Baptism. The pastor is there in the middle to his right is my Grandpa as a representative of the sessi

Be Content

  Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:6-8 6  But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7  for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8  But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.   Meditation:             Discontent and restlessness are two of the great issues of our day. They are driven by the consumerism of our culture. If you watch or listen to any kind of media there are the every present advertisements. These ads try to convince you that your life is somehow incomplete without their new and improved project.             The appeal to our vanity is often plain as day. If you go on this diet you too can look like the shapely model in the advertisement. If you drive car x you will be irresistible to the opposite sex. And on and on it goes. Advertisers seeking to convince us that we will not be the best that we can be without their products. Even our military branches have gotten in on the act.         

Is Knowing Jesus Personally Enought?

Is Knowing Jesus Personally Enough? Scripture: Matthew 7:21-23 (NRSV) 21  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ 23  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ Devotion:             All my life I have heard preachers preach that you must know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior if you want to get to heaven. I have seen many people pray the “sinner’s prayer” and received assurance of their everlasting life. But all my life I have wondered what this passage has to say to about this. Glossing over it does us no good. All scripture is inspired and is profitable for us according to Paul as he writes to Timothy. So we must find a way to deal with it.             This passage should giv

New Creations From 10/11/12

    Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:16-21 16  From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  18  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  19  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  20  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   Devotion:             We have been transformed into new creations says Paul in this scripture. I think if we are honest we would have to confess

Owe Nothing But Love

Owe Nothing but Love   Scripture: Romans 13:8-10 (ESV) 8  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9  For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.   Meditation             Paul’s words here run very much against the grain of 21 st century America. In this age of 17 trillion dollar national debts, the many billions in student loan and credit card debt we owe. It seems we owe everybody something. We owe so much money that we perhaps forget the love we owe God and our neighbor.             Since we become slaves to those to whom we owe money, and since we owe so much of it, it is no wonder that we have blinders on when it comes to loving our neighbors a

From November 2011 "Is Christ Divided"

Scripture 1 Corinthians 1:13-23 Selected Verses 13 Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not! . . . 17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” 20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the

Love is the Best Revenge

  Scripture: Matthew 5:43-45 (ESV) 43  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.   Meditation             In a previous meditation we read and discussed Jesus words of non-violence toward those who persecute you. Today we will look at what Jesus commands us to do in place of seeking revenge on those who persecute us. And others we may consider our enemies. If you thought non-violence was difficult today’s scripture is impossible without help from the Holy Spirit.             Loving those who persecute and oppress you is just not the way of the world. However, we Christians are called to live above the standards world. Loving and praying for our enemies (at least for me) is simply mo

Work for What Lasts

  Scripture: Haggai 1:5-6 (ESV) 5  Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.   Meditation:             Today’s scripture is one of several in the Hebrew Scriptures which admonish us to be careful about how we spend our time and money. We humans tend to live our lives without reference to God at all. When we do live that way we become self-centered and fail to notice that our lives are not making any progress at all. Our lives become stagnant pools in which nothing useful will grow.             Each of these passages is followed by an admonition to give to the Lord and to our neighbor. This is a basic spiritual law. Acquisition without giving results in stagnation of our souls. Without giving to our neighbors all of o

Non-Violence

    Scripture Matthew 5:38-42 38  “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39  But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40  And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42  Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.   Meditation             This message would have sounded just as strange in Jesus day as does in ours. Jesus was speaking with his disciples and the crowd. They were living in the Promised Land, but it was occupied and controlled by the Romans. They were heavily taxed, and their freedoms were severely restricted. Yet here Jesus is taking one of the Hebrew Scriptures most often quoted maxims and turning it on its head.             In doing so he caused difficulties for his hearers, bo

The Honest Faith of Job (Sermon)

Honest Faith           I remember back in my high school days seeing people from my church youth group go off to college and come back after one or two semesters having completely rejected their faith. Their parents were beside themselves not knowing how to answer the questions their sons and daughters were raising. Whether their kids were questioning the sexual mores of their parents or the truth of the creation story. Their parents just could not understand why this was happening.           Today we are going to use the book and life of Job as a paradigm of an honest faith. A faith that indeed seemed unshakeable. After all as we just read Job was a called a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil not once, not twice, but three times. And you may remember hearing that triple repetition of a saying means that the saying is the highest level of intensity in Hebrew. (Take Holy, Holy, Holy for example meaning God is the holiest of all beings.) How can we