Prayer of Illumination: Draw us close, Holy Spirit, as the Scriptures are read, and the Word is proclaimed. Let the word of faith be on our lips and in our…
Prayer for Illumination Amid the distractions of our times, give us undivided hearts and attentive minds, O God. Help us discern Your wisdom in the scriptures, so that we may…
Prayer for Illumination Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the truth of Your word. We pray, O Lord, that You would open our hearts so that we yield our…
Luke 7:1-10 and Matthew 15:21-28 Definitions of “Faith” We can easily be confused about what "faith" really means because the word is used to signify so many different things: •…
My mother is 85 years old. She is a very wise, determined, and faithful woman of God. She was born in a wealthy family in the northern side of Korea.…
Prayer for Illumination Spirit of God, You came down and filled Your disciples so they would have a helper and a guide at all times. Holy Spirit, we ask You…
Commonly Heard “That may be true for you, but it's not true for me.” “No one has the right to tell me what's right or wrong for me.” “It's wrong…
In August 2018, my family went to Spain to experience the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage walk, known in English as the Way of Saint James. It’s a network of…
A few years ago, after a big transition in my life, I was going through an emotionally and spiritually down time. When I feel down, I don’t want to see…
When I was younger growing up in Korea, sometimes I wondered why Jesus was white. Korea was, at least until the 20th century, a homogeneous nation despite being invaded and…
On February 8, 2023, phone notifications started ringing everywhere at Asbury University in Kentucky. People uploaded videos and pictures of the students’ singing and praying on Social media like YouTube,…
John 12: 19-33 Years ago, the Polish government under Prime Minister Jaruzelski, ordered that all crucifixes be removed from classroom walls, factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. So when the…
Philippians 3: 1-10 About 250 years ago, two young Moravian men heard of an island in the West Indies which was virtually owned by one plantation master. He was a…
Deus Absconditus: Why Does God Hide Himself? Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t make things more clear? We pray and pray and pray. We desperately want to know God’s…
Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes which began coming over…
Julies Verne, a famous writer in the late eighteen hundreds was known for his science fiction and his ability to envision things Surpassing Our Understanding. In a world before flight,…
Philippians 4:10-20 “Being Content” January 29, 2023 A little girl was walking in a garden and noticed a particularly beautiful flower. She admired its beauty and enjoyed its fragrance. “It’s…
What Is Mankind? Rev. Robin Ross Psalm 8:1,3 1Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. 3When I…
Pastor Eugene Morell once shared about God's Game Plan. A few years after he committed his heart to Christ, he felt he was called to the Ministry. He told his…
John D. Rockefeller, was very determined as a young person to become successful and rich. At age 33, he earned his first million. At age 43, he controlled the biggest…
Somewhere in a restaurant in Paris, there is a picture of children leaping in the air, because of great joy they experienced. It was taken on the day Paris was…
It was Christmas Eve 1963 when Henry and his wife Judy made the 15 miles trip back home after the service. The unthinkable happened. Their car hit black ice and…
THE ROAD TO BETHLEHEM (2) 2 Samuel 23:8-17 The season of Advent is intended to be a time of soul-searching, repentance, and preparation for the coming of Jesus –…
It's the second Sunday of Advent, a word that derives from Latin "advenire" – "to arrive or come", a traditional time of repentance and preparation for the celebration of the…
Is peace possible? Is it beyond all reasonable expectation that we on planet earth will somehow, some day, live in peace? That’s what the angels sang about, on the fields…
Ephesians 2: 1-10 The first Sunday in Advent – HOPE Joe Bailey in his book "A View From a Hearse" tells of the time his son died of cancer. He…
Some tell us that Jesus’ earthly life was not very important. They say He wrote no books, composed no songs, drew no pictures, carved no statues, accumaleted no fortune, commanded…
Exodus 16:1-15 This part of Exodus occurs after the miracle of crossing the Red Sea on dry ground with a wall of water on each side. Now, in the desert,…
During World War I a Protestant chaplain with the American troops in Italy became a friend of a local Roman Catholic priest. In time, the chaplain who moved on with…
Israel Is Enslaved 1875 BC – Joseph brings his father Isaac to Egypt to escape famine – 70 people. 1450 BC. – 2 million+ descendants (foreigners) are enslaved to build…
I don’t know about you but I like to watch shows about the solving of crimes – shows like Forensic Files, CSI Miami and Law and Order. One of the…
William Barclay wrote the following in his Romans commentary: “One of the great stories of the Christian Church is that of Telemachus. He was a hermit of the desert, but…
Why is trusting God hard? When we receive Christ as our Saviour and Lord, we trust Him to forgive our sins and give us a restored relationship with Himself and…
A man in a psychiatric ward told a therapist, “I can only take so much. I lost my job, my wife left me because of that...and then my children don't…
The beauty of our Christian faith is trusting God to save us from our sins. 1 Peter 1:21 reads, "Through Christ you have come to trust in God." But trusting…
Rudyard Kipling, who was the author of “The Jungle Book”, was so popular that his writings were earning him about $10-00 per word. A few college students however didn’t appreciate…
Edward Steichen, who eventually became one of the world's most renowned photographers, almost gave up on the day he shot his first pictures. At 16, he bought a camera and…
Picture this. A couple in their mid-fifties settle back into their lounge chairs on their Caribbean cruise as they celebrate early retirement. They had three grown children, two of whom…
Of all the parables Jesus told, today's certainly is one of the most difficult to understand. What can we make of an irresponsible employee shafting his boss and getting praised…
The 1 Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea for a reason: it's dead. This is because of its salt content. It is the saltiest body of water on the…
Conversations with a young mechanic who finds his job unfulfilling: he wants to become a fire fighter, but it's not happening. He's distracted on the job, thinking of what else…
“How Great Thou Art” is a treasured hymn of praise among God’s people. The inspiration came from a Swedish poem entitled “O Store Gud”, which means “O Great God.” It…
A newspaper group in Austria had its annual event of selecting the most beautiful woman in their region. People were asked to send in pictures of the woman they thought…
Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, was once asked, “What is the hardest instrument to play?” Without any hesitation, he replied, “Second fiddle. I can always get plenty of first violinists. But…
Dr. Tony Campolo, sociology professor and ordained Baptist minister one evening took a late flight back home after a conference. The passenger next to him talked non-stop. He bragged about…
Many years ago there was a restaurant, The Anchor, that was the pride of a coastal village in Dunbar Scotland. But over time with the building getting older and older…
For many people in the world life is a journey filled with thorns, obstacles and dark valleys. Many have created life situations where they enslaved themselves an d they curse…
A little girl had been trying for hours to learn the art of tying her shoes. She became very agitated and started crying. Again and again her mother had to…
The great Evangelist, Dwight L. Moody shared the following story: “At the mouth of Cleveland harbour, there were two lights, one at each side of the bay, called the upper…
In Charles Dickens’s novel “ A Tale of Two Cities” Cities”, a young French aristocrat was condemned to die by the guillotine during the bloody French Revolution. He was sentenced…
A retired couple was alarmed by the threat of nuclear war so they undertook a serious study of all the inhabited places on the globe. Their goal w as to…
Perhaps you’ve heard the classic story about the faithful pastor who was told by his superior that something was wrong with his ministry. The supervisor told him, “Only one person…