Sermon Blog

  In Paul Blart - Mall Cop , Kevin James place Paul Blart who fails the physical for the police academy, and through a series of events lands the job as a mall security officer.   Kevin is not a brave man.   He has trouble working up the courage to tell the girl of his dreams how he truly feels about her.   However, when it truly becomes time for him to garner up his courage, he does. We too often see images of courage that are marked by men (or women) who appear to have no fear.   In fact, there is that common concept that a goal to aspire to is to operate with “no fear” if all the “no fear” bumper and window stickers we see are any indication.   And my brothers and sisters, once we attain the ability to put our whole trust in God, the absence of any fear is something that will mark our lives.   However, Paul Blart gives us the image of how to act in the meantime.   Paul was plenty afraid, you could see it in his face, and in his initia...

We find ourselves in October.   It is a month that has come to have very little focus on Columbus Day and the discovery of the New World, and if we can get past all of the Christmas decorations in the stores, we find that the “big” event of October is Halloween.   Halloween is often known for is bodily-challenged characters: the “peg-legged” pirates, the dis-jointed and even limbless zombies, the “headless” horseman, and the completely bodiless ghosts.   On the scary side of Halloween, there is a great emphasis on missing body parts. If we take into consideration Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth, in which he reminds us that we are the Body of Christ, each disciple being a crucial and contributing member to the Body, then we can almost hear that the author of Hebrews great concern is about missing body parts. With the church in Corinth, Paul has been dealing with many divisions within the church, one group of folks feeling like they are better than other...

We followed her story for much of the first part of this year. She was charged with adultery and apostasy.   Her name is Mariam Yehya Ibrahim.   Born in Sudan, and raised as a Christian by her mother who was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, Mariam had met and married Daniel Wadi, an American citizen.   Accusations of apostasy were brought by Mariam’s father’s side of the family who accused her of being a Muslim who converted to Christianity—an illegal act in Sudan.   Accusations of apostasy were followed by charges of adultery, with the Sudanese government failing to recognize her Christianity, she could therefore not be legally married to a Christian, and therefore the fact that she already had one child and was pregnant with another, indicated at least two instances of sex out of a legal recognized marriage.   She was arrested and imprisoned.   Pregnant and in prison, she was sentenced to 100 lashes before being hung to death following the delivery of...