Out of the House of Bondage
Out of the House of Bondage Hebrews 2:15; Exodus 20:1 Sunday, March 3, 2024 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa The anxiety I felt after a few months in Ohio. The Spirit-if you stay long enough, then you’ve come to the place where you will die. Many years ago, I moved to Ohio and lived there for a number of years. After about four years, roughly around 2023, I experience this strange sense of anxiety that I…
A Chariot of Fire
A Chariot of Fire Mark 9:1-9; 2 Kings 2:1-12 Transfiguration Sunday February 11, 2024 Introduction: Something rare Certain things are rare in Scripture and that makes it hard to see how it relates to following Christ today. For example, the experience of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is an experience that applies only to her. We can learn from her experience, but there will never be another Mary, the mother of Jesus. I read this about rare things in…
Purpose
Purpose Sunday, February 4, 2024, at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa Mark 1:38But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” Opening Remarks: A Joke about purpose I’d like to begin my remarks by mentioning a philosophical conversation between an employee of a company and his supervisor in which the employee waxes eloquently about the nature and purpose of time. He…
Authority in the Spiritual Realm
Mark 1:21-28; Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Sunday, January 28, 2024 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa 4th Sunday after Epiphany Authority-who belongs on the church board “There will be a meeting of the Church Board immediately after the service,” announced the pastor. After the close of the service, the Church Board gathered at the back of the sanctuary for the announced meeting. But there was a stranger in their midst — a visitor who had never attended their church before. …
The Most Unruly Part of Us
Sunday,January7,2024 Acts 19:6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. *www.rdasia.com/big-mouth
The Fullness of Time
Scriptures: Luke 2:25-32; Galatians 4:4-7 Sunday, December 31, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa As recorded in Luke 2, Joseph and Mary came to the temple in Jerusalem, and two people met them. One was Anna, a prophetess who lived near the Temple. The other was Simeon, a godly man who learned from the Holy Spirit that he would see the Messiah before he died. He recognized that the time had come, and that this baby was…
God of the Backwater
God of the Backwater Sunday, December 24, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Our Story Begins in Backwater The regions mentioned in this passage were far away from Jerusalem, the center of cultural and religious life in Israel. Their history was rough; foreign invaders oppressed them on…
The Beginning of the Gospel
Mark 1:1-8; (Isaiah 40:1-11) Sunday, December 10, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa Mark is the Gospel that “gets right to the point.” Believed to be heavily influenced by the preaching of Peter, Mark spends no time on the birth of Jesus and gets to action right away. The words “baptize” or “baptism” show up more than once in the passage, so baptism, for Peter, is right at the beginning of the Gospel, the story of redemption…
The Mind of Christ
The Mind of Christ Sunday, December 3, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,.. I read recently that the ancients believed that a person could get the “mind of God,” that they learn, or somehow gain, the ability to think like God, to look at life from God’s perspective, which, according to the Old Testament, is very different from the way we view the…
Building a Life
Matthew 25:21 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. Sunday, November 19, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa I think that we build a life over the course of years that we have on this earth. All that we say and do on a daily basis contributes to that life, which,…
Watch
Sunday, November 12, 2017 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa Matthew 25:13 Used again November 12, 2023 Gardening is a war of attrition. Weeds have developed means of surviving almost anything, and if there is even one small tip of a root left in the ground, it will grow back. It is said that people who are retired make the best gardeners because they can go out there every day. It doesn’t matter how often the weeds come…
Just as He is Pure
1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:9-17 Sunday, November 5, 2023 at The First Congregational Church of Marshalltown, Iowa I recently read an article about purity, and that the many ceremonial works in the Old Testament had powerful symbolic meaning. The author wrote this: “Israel had an elaborate purification and cleansing system in the Old Testament. Under the Mosaic Law the holiness of Israel was from the first recognized as moral separation from sin, but it was expressed outwardly by separation from…