Christ Insight

Based on: Mark 10:17-27

Are you ready for the trick-or-treaters?  Halloween is this Saturday and, depending on where you live, you may have kids coming to your door expecting candy.  Don't forget, it is also Reformation Day, the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses regarding indulgences to the church door in Wittenberg – more about that next week. 

Based on: Mark 9:30-37

Today we look at another paradox of the Christian faith.  Last week we heard Jesus say that in order to keep your life you must lose it.  And now we hear that in order to be great in God's kingdom you must be least.  In order to lead you must serve.  These paradoxes are not simple mental exercises to be solved in the mind and then cast aside in order to solve the next.  No, each one is to be  a constant paradox within the whole person of the believer.  All our life we struggle to let go of life so that we can have life.  We struggle to be least among the people of God so that we can be great in the eyes of God . . . in a sanctified way.  This struggle to follow God's will for us even when it doesn't make sense to us is the ongoing paradox of the Christian life.

Based on: Mark 8:27-35

Over the summer I finished reading “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.  It is a very long book and I will not say when I started.  To be honest I don't remember when I started – it  was that long ago.  “War and Peace” is historical fiction.  It describes Russia at the time Napoleon invaded Russia, interweaving the stories of fictional characters into the historical events of the time.

Based on: Nehemiah 4:1-3; 6:15-16

What do you think about history? Did you like history as a subject in school?  I would guess that many of you would say that history was not your favorite subject.  That seems to be a fairly common sentiment.  But what about family history?  Do you find that a little more interesting?  I think that when the history is a little closer to home we tend to be a little more interested.  As we look at the Jews and their good times and bad times, we should realize that they are our spiritual ancestors.  They were God's church in their time, and we are not very different from them.  What we see happening to physical Israel then, we also find happening to spiritual Israel now.

Based on: Jeremiah 29:10-14

I have to tell you about the surprise birthday party I planned for my wife.  I rented the basement of the church we attended in Milwaukee; I invited her friends; I had a Powerpoint presentation with pictures of her throughout her life.  There was cake, decorations and even cardboard cutouts of my parents and her parents so they could be involved even though they lived far away.  All of this planning and Sallie didn't know a thing about it. 

Based on: Jonah 4:5-11

Edward Spencer was a Bible student in Illinois in 1860.  He was planning to be a minister of the Gospel, but a shipwreck in the fall of 1860 changed his life.  The steam boat, “Lady Elgin” collided with another boat on Lake Michigan near Evanston, Illinois.  Edward Spencer was not on the boat.  He was on the shore.  When he saw some of the passengers struggling for shore he tied a rope around his waist and swam out to help them.  Sixteen times in a six hour period he went out into the frigid water of Lake Michigan and rescued a total of seventeen people.  The exposure and exhaustion left Spencer in poor health the rest of his life.

Based on: 1 Kings 12:3-11

What would you do?  You have before you one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life.  You are the new king of Israel and the people come to you and say that taxes are too high.  They want you to lessen the financial burden they are under.  How do you answer?

You have one group of advisers who helped your father make decisions and they say, “Give them what they ask for and things will go well for you in the future.”  But they are from a different generation and you don't know them very well.  They just don't seem to think the same way you do.

Based on: 2 Samuel 12:9-14

You have seen commercials and advertisements, whether on TV, in the paper or on the Internet, that show you “before” and “after” pictures so you can see what their product will do.  It may be cleaning supplies, beauty products, plant growth, or whatever, but none of them can compare to the difference in a person who is forgiven by God.  Today as we see King David forgiven by God, we will look at the “before” and “after” pictures of his spiritual life.

Based on: Ruth 1:15-18

In our sermons this summer we have followed the family tree of Jesus Christ beginning with Adam and Eve, through Noah, Abraham, and the Children of Israel governed by Moses.  Today we move forward in time and find the Israelites living the land of Canaan just as God promised Abraham they would.  It is the time after entering the land of Canaan but before King Saul and King David ruled over them.  As long as they remained faithful to God, things would go marvelously well for them, but every time they started to slip away – when God's Word and church attendance became less important – God would bring enemies to trouble them so they would turn back to God.  During this time period we see Ruth playing her part in the coming of the Savior.

Based on: Exodus 3:14-17

It was only about a month ago that Ed McMahon died. He was well known as the co-host to Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  He was also seen quite often in commercials for American Family Publishers urging you to send in your sweepstakes entry and sign up for magazine subscriptions because, as he would say, “You may have already won ten million dollars!”  As a result, I'm sure many people dreamed of seeing Ed McMahon walk up to their front door and of hearing him deliver the good news that they had won $10,000,000.