Sermon Blog

A few years back Anita and I had run out of CSI type shows to watch during summer reruns when we stumbled across a show unlike any of what we usually watched.   It was a Canadian television show called Heartland which centered around the fictional story of Amy Fleming and her family and life on the ranch.   The show’s focus, with various sub-story lines, on Amy’s gift of working with horses…especially her ability to work with problem horses, even wild horses, and bring them under control…the first episode begins with Amy and her mother rescuing an abused horse named Spartan. After loading the horse and leaving, Amy, her mother, and the horse are involved in a horrific truck accident in which Amy’s mother is killed.   Amy is left to carry on the tradition of her mother’s horse whispering legacy, beginning with the horse they rescued. [Show video] Throughout the show Amy displays the amazing and uncanny ability to bring out of control and even wild horses under control.   While f

When I was a kid, I loved to lay in a chair or on the couch, with my legs in the chair and back bent backwards hanging off the side of the seat and look around the room.   I would do the same thing hanging from the swing set or laying in a lawn chair outside—nowadays, you can do it from a bar hanging in a doorway.   I just thought it was real cool to see everything turned upside down.   That is, I enjoyed it until I heard the familiar words, “you need to stop that before all the blood rushes to your head.”   I never thought about how impossible it would be for all my blood to rush to my head until this morning, I simply stopped because I figured it must be a possibility because the adults told me it was.   I don’t enjoy the hanging upside down from a chair so much anymore…back bends don’t come as easily as they used to and low blood-pressure kind of takes the fun out of getting back upright as well. Actually, as we grow up, we tend to not like to have our world turned upside

It is perhaps one of the most famous ad campaigns ever.   Depending on who is doing the ranking, it tends to swap laces back and forth with “Diamonds Are Forever.”   The first we saw of it was 80-year-old runner Walt Stack in 1988 and the campaign continues with some interesting ads from “Down Under” this year. It is Nike’s 30-year ad campaign: “Just Do It!”   Ironically enough, Nike almost didn’t do it.   When the advertising campaign was first presented to Nike in 1987 it was met with complete silence…Nike executives initially felt that the “Just Do It!” campaign was too heavy handed, but they were eventually won over and the rest is advertising history. Some might say, from our Scripture reading this evening that Jesus was coming across as a little heavy handed in the Sermon on the Mount… “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or

We are supposed to be patient people.   I mean, after all as we have learned on Wednesday nights, patience is one aspect of Jesus Fruit that we are all supposed to have if we are abiding in Christ as He abides in us.   I typically try to be a patient man, at least I think I do.   There are times where my children, Joshua, and Anita might have disagreed with that statement.   There are times where it is hard for me to be patient.   As a kid, like most kids, I had little patience for how long it took to make a trip or how long it took for my birthday or Christmas to arrive (and with both of them in December it made for a long year).   Like many men, if I take my wife clothes shopping, it is hard to be patient…especially an hour or two into the shopping trip and not even the first article of clothing has been purchased to show fruit for the time spent.   However, this year has proved to be a new test of patience for me.   Most of you know that Joshua and I planted our very first rai

One summer evening, a young child walked into the room while his parents were setting the table for supper.   Quite surprisingly, he asked if he could help. His mother responded, “No, but I appreciate your asking.” The child quickly responded, “Well, I appreciate your saying ‘no.’” Now I don’t know what kind of meal they were having…whether it was a simple supper, or a formal dinner.   It might have been a formal dinner since the mom passed on the child’s assistance.   If it was a formal dinner, then I can completely understand the child’s response at appreciating his mom’s declining of his offer of assistance. I have never tried to set the table for a formal dinner, and it is just as well.   I am one of these folks who can’t keep straight whether the fork goes on the left or the right, so you know, just ask Anita. Most of the time I just put everything on one side of the plate because I know that she is going to come behind me and fix whatever I mess up if I try to do i