PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Happy Unscrupulous Fishing: You Have a Divine License!” Recently, my son Justin, reminded me that now that I am a Senior Citizen that I do not have to buy a fishing license any longer. What an exasperating feeling! One definite reason to get back into a habit that I have always enjoyed,…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “IDENTITY-YOU CAN’T GO BACK HOME TO FIND IT!” In 1975, two years before his death, Charlie Chaplin was visiting France. He visited nearby Monaco, and while there he entered “Charlie-Chaplin Look-Alike Contest”. He thought he was a shoe-in to win the prize money, and everyone would have a good laugh. Charlie came…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: BELONGING IS VERY NECESSARY There are many voices today decrying the Church of Jesus Christ. They tell us that she is outdated. Irrelevant. Impotent. Unneccesary. The focus basically is-you can be a Christian. You can love the Lord. You can live for Him in the world today-but you don’t need, nor will…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE; “Encountering a Living Presence”. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, told a very fascinating story about an encounter he had while getting his hair cut at a Barbershop. Listen to his words: “I was sitting in a barber chair when I was aware that a powerful personality had entered…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “LAST DAY FAITH-LASTING OR LAPSING?” I remember hearing Adrian Rogers, who passed away in November 2005, said in a sermon, “In the last days people will be deserting the Church like rats deserting a sinking ship!” He was basing it on what Paul said in I Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit expressly says, in…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: THE INESCAPABLE PERTUBATIONS OF GOD’S LOVE “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung, and possibly be broken…the only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of (God’s) love is Hell”. The Bible’s main message…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Hollow Saints-Hollow Church” Things are not always as they appear. No one has hammered that message home with more impact than the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, in his poem Richard Cory. He tells the story of a model citizen who was the envy of his entire town. Then he pulls the rug…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Lost Passion-Lost Persuasion”. One of the great agnostics of all time was Bertrand Russell. He was a very outspoken enemy of Christ and the Church. He wrote many books refuting the arguments for Christianity. Yet, in one of his books he spoke very pointedly to the key to our ministry and mission. His…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Resigning or Re-Signing?” In 1937 Picasso was in Paris working on a major art project. Back in his home country there was a civil war raging in Spain. The Axis powers of Germany and Italy attacked the little town of Guernica, in the Basque country of Spain. The horror was devastating. Picasso,…
PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “More Star-like Than a Star” This past week Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, citing the reason being his masterful talent of writing lyrical poetry like no one else in history. Most who are familiar with Dylan’s music, would admit that his vocal abilities are sometimes hard to endure,…