Today is Mother’s Day and I want to take just a moment to acknowledge and express appreciation to all the mothers who are in the audience this morning. Abraham Lincoln was not exaggerating when he said, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother.” Mothers demonstrate the love of…
Shaped BY the cross into the shape OF the cross
Sermons on Spiritual Growth
Those of us who are Americans love success. We celebrate it; we work hard to achieve it; and we honor those who attain it. Take the Fourth of July as an example. In a few months, we will do what we do every year – we’ll have parades, and speeches, and festivals and fireworks. On…
I want to begin this morning by giving you a pop quiz. I’m going to give you an advertising slogan and I want you tell me what the product is. “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (Rice Krispies). “The Quicker Picker-Upper” (Bounty). “Just Do It” (Nike). “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in your Hand” (M&M’s). “Plop, Plop, Fizz,…
In astronomy, every now and then, there will be some unusual event that really captures people’s attention. For example, Haley’s Comet comes around every 75 years or so and it always gets people excited. Every couple of years, there will be a lunar eclipse. But probably the most spectacular astronomical event is a solar…
Russell Herman was a carpenter who lived in the state of Illinois. When he died at the age of 67, his will included a staggering list of beneficiaries. He left instructions for two billion dollars to be given to the city of East St. Louis, another billion and a half for the state of…
This morning, we have some very special guests with us. As many of you know, we have a Girl Scout troop that meets here in our church building a couple of Sunday afternoons a month. They are the ones responsible for supplying several of you with Girl Scout cookies a couple of weeks ago. …
I remember when I was a kid, all the old people would talk about “the good old days”. Now, I find myself in that category of old people because I’m one of those folks who looks back and think about the good old days. Apparently, I’m not alone. A survey was taken among people 50…
This morning is Mother’s Day, and so let me begin by wishing a “Happy Mother’s Day” to all of our mothers in the audience. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson said that this day is to be set aside as a time for ”public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of…
Have you ever noticed that if you’re holding a camera and you point the camera at something, the thing you’re pointing the camera at suddenly becomes much more interesting to everybody else? Pointing is a powerful thing. Try it for yourself when you’re out in public: find the least interesting object around, something totally ordinary,…
I heard recently about someone who used to get annoyed when he felt like preachers were being too repetitive. He said, “First, they tell me what they’re going to tell me, and then they tell me, and then they tell me what they’ve told me. Why do you have to tell me three times?…