This week my cousin Barbara sent me an e·mail containing a list of aphorisms called “Things I’ve Learned.” She got it from a friend in Florida who got it from somewhere else. I’ve taken a few from the list I received and I’ve added a few of my own. I’ve learned that ·You can do something in an instant that will give you…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Not long ago I was asked what happens to the people who either follow other religions or who die without ever hearing about Jesus Christ. It’s an important issue because even if you take the most optimistic numbers possible, that is, if you add up all the people who might be remotely related to any group related to Christia…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Many years ago (almost 20, to be exact) I took a night course called “Advanced Apologetics” from Dr. John Warwick Montgomery at a place called Melodyland School of Theology. I’m not making up that name. The school met in a big church building located right across the street from Disneyland. At that time I was pastoring a sm…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14). Two nicely dressed people knocked on our door, a man and a woman who said they were from the local Kingdom Hal…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000A few days ago Senator Joseph Lieberman came to Chicago to meet with a group of local religious leaders. A day earlier he was in Detroit speaking at an inner city church called Fellowship Chapel. During his remarks in both places he made headline news with his emphasis on the important role religious faith plays in the Amer…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Last week David Steinhart, pastor of Forest Park Baptist Church, shared some insights on humility from a tape on leadership by Dallas Willard. Humility is a quality that is hard to define and even harder to develop. Very few people would admit to praying for humility even though the Bible instructs us to humble ourselves un…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Q: Name a good book you’ve read recently. A: Stonewall by John Dwyer. Q: Name two more. A: All the Best by George Bush; The Gold of Exodus by Howard Blum. Q: Do you read lots of books? A: I read parts of lots of books. I don’t read very many books all the way to the end. Q: Why is that? A: It must be a character f…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000In a recent interview, Christopher Matthews asked Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush a thought-provoking question: “Can good people be gay?” The answer came back without hesitation: “Sure, absolutely.” Case closed, at least for a politician seeking the White House who wants to round up as m…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Mark Twain once said golf was “a good walk spoiled.” I had a chance to put that to the test this week when I played nine holes at Columbus Park with Fred Most, Glen Gale, and Vern Henrikson. I should admit right up front that I won the match handily in the sense that I had a much higher score than anyone else. Fre…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000Hello and congratulations. You are the first graduating class of the new millennium. There won’t be another class like yours for a thousand years. That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? You might as well celebrate the occasion because what we used to call “real life” is about to hit you in the face. A f…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 2000