Posts made in August, 2010

Then some people came, bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. -Mark 3:3 NRSV        How many sermons have we heard about this paralytic and his four friends? We have made much of their camaraderie. But what if the four weren’t the man’s friends? What if they didn’t know him very well – or even at all? What if one of them just happened to see the paralyzed man, recruit three helpers, and carry the man to see Jesus because they believed something good might happen?      A worker in the school where my wife teaches told us about an 83 – year old woman living near us whom we did not know, This grandmother had reared her grandson from infancy and, in his forties, he had died of cancer. She was worried sick about being unable to...

Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God               .. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the...