Pastor Armsrtong’s sermon is based on Luke 19:44.
Archive for July, 2008
The time of God’s coming to you.
Sunday, July 27th, 2008Life by Design
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008For a violinist to make music, the strings on his instrument must be taut—but only to a degree. If they are too tight, they will snap. But if the strings are too loose, they will produce no sound at all. The proper amount of tension or stress lies somewhere between the two extremes.
Life is inherently stressful, by God’s own design, and your life is like a taut violin string. His purpose for you involves stress, but God knows your limits. He will not allow you to be stressed or tested beyond those limits. But when we fail any test, He provides mercy, the way of escape from all condemnation—a full pardon for all failures by the blood of Christ who died for all our failures.
Pastor Armstrong’s sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 .
Discerning Truth from error: making judgments in a non-judgmental world
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008Why do apostle after apostle warn of false prophets? Where did they learn to speak so strongly against people who had different ideas than they did? It is from Jesus himself that the first pastors of the church learned to judge right teaching from wrong, and unabashed to cry stern warning about following anyone that would bring a different, and therefore false, Gospel. Christ Himeself has no room for a tolerance that compromises the whole will of God. Whether it is other teachers or the wolves within the very ranks of the church, it is critical to have a narrow view of the truth of God’s Word. “Narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Pastor Armstrong’s sermon is based on Matthew 7:13-23.
Discerning Truth from error: making judgments in a non-judgmental world [35:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadStay-cation
Saturday, July 12th, 2008(a stay-at-home vacation)
It’s great to go away, but with gas prices so high, the back yard looks better all the time. One Indianapolis television reporter advises, “Look at your hometown the way a tourist would.” Columbus, Indianapolis, and south central Indiana offer a variety of sightseeing opportunities. Discover places nearby that you’ve been meaning to visit but never have, and with the savings you pocket, remember our neighbors’ need of flood relief and our Lutheran students’ need of scholarships. (Gifts to the Grace Scholarship Fund are due by this Tuesday, July 15! Help a child and help further Lutheran education.)
The artistry of God
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008The Creation/Fall account in Genesis 2-3 is artfully constructed and reveals the skill of God Himself, the Master Storyteller. The action may be divided into seven scenes:*
(1) 2:5-17 (Narrative) God the sole actor: man present but passive
(2) 2:18-25 (Narrative) God main actor, man minor role, woman and animals passive
(3) 3:1-5 (Dialogue) Snake and woman
(4) 3:6-8 (Narrative) Man and woman
(5) 3:9-13 (Dialogue) God, man and woman
(6) 3:14-21 (Narrative) God main actor, man minor role, woman and snake passive
(7) 3:22-24 (Narrative) God the sole actor: man present but passive
The story comes full circle in that man is made from the “dust of the land” and placed in the garden in scene 1, whereas in scene 7 man is driven from the garden and, by implication, back to the dust of the land from which he was taken.
The rest of the Bible is the story of how God, as the sole actor, redeems fallen man through “the seed of the woman,” Jesus Christ our Lord.
* Gordon Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary: Genesis 1-15 (Word: Waco, TX, 1987), p. 50.
Save the males.
Sunday, July 27th, 2008why men matter; why women should care
That’s the title of a new book by Kathleen Parker, who is tired of seeing men and fatherhood mocked and belittled in the media, pop culture and education. Parker argues that even young boys in America today get the unmistakable message: women good, men bad.
Listen carefully to subtle messages in advertisements today: fathers/men are ignorant and the butt of jokes—they never seem to have a clue–while children and women are smart and almost always get the last word. Nowhere, not even in “Christian” TV programming, does one hear the biblical truth that “the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church.” (Eph. 5:23) (So much for the oft-repeated evangelical mantra: “We haven’t changed the message, only the packaging.” Yeah, right!)
Boys and men need encouragement now more than ever, especially from God’s Word. This isn’t about fostering inequality. I have two daughters, and I want them to have every opportunity available to them from God. It’s about the Gospel and it’s about men being Christ to their households.
Ms. Parker’s endnote—that what’s bad for one sex certainly cannot be good for the other—should be something else upon which we all can agree.
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