THREE CHEERS FOR THE SALVATION ARMY by Ray Pritchard Would you accept a $100,000 gift if someone told you they won it in the lottery? I suspect that most of us would say yes. Probably some of us would wonder why anyone would even ask the question. Recently the Salvation Army said no and made the news as a result. The story …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2003PRAYING WITH PAUL by Ray Pritchard Our 2003 church theme is “Lord, Teach Us to Pray.” If you wonder how we choose the themes each year, the answer is, “It varies.” Sometimes the pastors spend a long time discussing it and sometimes the answer comes very quickly. This year the theme came very early, durin…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2003TWO PREDICTIONS by Ray Pritchard It’s always dangerous to try to predict the future. The Old Testament offers a simple test for anyone claiming to be a prophet of God. If what he says comes true, then he’s a prophet. If it doesn’t, then he’s an imposter and should be stoned to death. That last condition …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002DONAHUE AND JESUS by Ray Pritchard On MSNBC last Tuesday night, Phil Donahue hosted a raucous discussion on the topic: “Is the highway to heaven only open to the Christians? Some say only faith in Jesus will earn you a place beyond the pearly gates. So what about Jews, Muslims, and followers of other faiths?” The …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002THE JAMES OSSUARY BY RAY PRITCHARD The recent discovery of the “James ossuary” has given the world a close encounter with Jesus and his family. An ossuary was a small limestone box in which the bones of a deceased loved one were placed. This sort of burial was very common among the Jews of the first century. What …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002WHAT WOULD JESUS DRIVE? by Ray Pritchard A few weeks ago an organization called the Evangelical Environmental Network began sponsoring a series of newspaper ads with the catchy slogan, “What Would Jesus Drive?” The people behind the ads want to convince all of us to get rid of our gas-guzzling SUVs (too much pollu…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002HOW LONG SHOULD I PRAY? by Ray Pritchard Last Tuesday I had an hour-long interview with a radio station in Philadelphia. A listener called in with a heart-searching question. He had come to Christ from a Jewish background and has a burden to see his family saved. After years of prayer for them, and many hours of discussion,…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002SOBRIETY KNOWING WHEN TO SAY NO “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1 There are a great many references to wine, strong drink, and drunkenness scattered throughout the Bible. The earliest reference is in Genesis, the last in Revelation. The total number of …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002WHY YOU OUGHT TO PRAY FOR YOUR ENEMIES by Ray Pritchard I suppose one of the hardest commands in the Bible to obey is the command of Jesus that we should pray for our enemies. It is hard because prayer is the last thing we want to do for our enemies. Mostly, there a lot of things we would like to do to our enemies–like ge…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002SAVED IN THE NICK OF TIME by Ray Pritchard Recently I heard about a man in his 80s who came to Christ shortly before he died. It happened like this. For nearly his entire life, the man had lived without any conscious dependence on God. He wasn’t an atheist or an agnostic and he wasn’t an evangelist for his unbelie…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2002