Above painting: Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633 ************************* From sermon at Calvary Lutheran Church, Rapidan, MN., June 23, 2024; for their 150th Anniversary year celebration. I was their pastor for six years in the 1980’s. Mark 4:35-41 — That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to […]
2873) Through the Storm (1/2) Read More »
  Shadrach Meshach Lockridge (March 7, 1913 – April 4, 2000) was the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993.  He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world.    In his classic message, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming!,”  Lockeridge
2853) It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming Read More »
   John Fogerty (1945- ) was watching television late one night and came across the 1941 movie The Devil and Daniel Webster, based on a 1936 short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. It is an intense movie, filled with temptation by the devil himself, all sorts of wickedness, ruin, death, hell, and, a violent
2842) Bad Moon Rising Read More »
  (…continued)  The end of the story is what counts most, says Ecclesiastes, and the Bible is big on happy endings.  The Bible is realistic about the suffering in the middle of the story, but teaches us to view the suffering in light of the end.  Sometimes, as in the book of Romans, that
2792) In the Middle (part two of two) Read More »
Above: Rembrandt’s depiction of Elijah raising the widow’s son *********************************    Walking by her son’s bedroom, a mother was astonished to see that the room was clean and the bed was made.  She had not seen that for a very long time, so she figured something must be wrong.  Then she saw an envelope,
2791) In the Middle (part one of two) Read More »
“Some day you will read in the newspaper that D. L. Moody of East Northfield, Massachusetts is dead.  Don’t you believe a word of it.  At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now.  I will have gone up higher, that’s all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that
2786) “If You Hear That I am Dead, Don’t Believe It…” Read More »
By John Piper, at http://www.desiringgod.org, January 21, 2013    The racial world I grew up in and the one we live in today are amazingly different. Racism remains in many forms in America and around the world. But in the days of my youth the segregation was almost absolute and the defense of it
2761) “I Have Seen the Promised Land” Read More »
   Once upon a time there were three billy goats, and the name of all three was Gruff.  One day the three Billy Goats Gruff set off to the hills where the sweet grass grew.    On the way was a bridge over a stream, and under this bridge there lived a troll.
2687) The Three Billy Goats Gruff Read More »
   Jesus once told his disciples to “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, this promise is for you also; and, these are the most important words you will ever hear anywhere, from anyone.  Almost all of the words we hear and say
2670) Your Name is Written Down Read More »
From a 2018 funeral sermon. ———————–   In the New Testament book of I Peter, the old disciple was writing to encourage fellow Christians who were suffering under severe persecution. In a closing benediction, in chapter five (verses 10-11), Peter wrote: “And the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in
2660) In Just a Little While Read More »
