Sermon Blog

When I hear these words of Jesus, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” I automatically think of the poem by Robert Frost that many of us had to memorize in school (I will read it to you, because the recess of my brain that had it memorized have long since been erased and the info replaced with something else): TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,  And sorry I could not travel both               And be one traveler, long I stood             And looked down one as far as I could   To where it bent in the undergrowth;    Then took the other, as just as fair,         And having per...

Five-year old Robbie was not a lot different than other children his age who had been an only child for so long and then was forced to deal with a new-comer in the house.  Robbie had been used to being the center of attention.  However, when his little sister was born, most of the attention was diverted from him and focused on her.  Robbie naturally became jealous. A few months after Robbie’s sister was born, his parents realized that they needed a new home with more space.  Once they decided on a new home, they sat Robbie down and proceeded to tell him that now that his sister was getting older, they realized that the house they lived in was too small and that they needed to move. “It’s no use.” Robbie said, “She’s crawling good now and she’d probably just follow us.” We’ve encountered those children before—the children that have to be the center of attention.  You know the ones I am talking about.  It does not matter what is going on.  The fa...

When I was in middle school and high school, I was part of Boy Scout Troop 648.  For those of you familiar with scouting, you know that there are always lots of activities that go on with Scouting.  However, February was a big month for our scout troop.  It was not simply because February was scouting month.  February, with Troop 648, was our annual trip.  We would load all our equipment and selves on to the National Guard bus (the local National Guard unit was our sponsor), and head up to Meadows of Dan.  For those of you not familiar with the area, it is outside Patrick, Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Each February we would make this trip and would hike a series of three mountains known as the Pinnacles.  I know what a lot of you are saying now, “Preacher, you’re kidding us.  You went hiking and mountain climbing?  Give us a break, we know you.”  Truthfully, yes I did this.  I didn’t say I liked it, but I did i...

In the 1995 Academy Awards Picture of the Year, Forrest Gump,  Forrest, as a little child starts running to escape some bullies, and as his leg braces fell off and he really started to run, he said, “from that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!”   In sections of the movie Forrest is really running, often times for some apparent reason, such as running to Jenny or running to rescue his buddies in Vietnam, but at another point , “for no particular reason, [he] decided to go for a little run.”   The run started to be just to the town limits, the county line, across Alabama, and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.   When he arrived at the Pacific, he turned around and ran clear to the East Coast, then turned around and ran to the other coast again, and then turned around and ran across the nation again—talk about cross-country running.   In the end, when he finally stops, he says, “I had run for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours.” Once he stops...