A Famine Not of Bread

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our text for today, Matthew 10:34-37, is a terribly difficult passage of Scripture. Not so difficult to understand, but difficult to accept. These words are even more disturbing because they come from the One whom Scripture calls the Prince of Peace. Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”   Most Christians want to think of our home as a place of refuge and peace, our family as a source of strength and comfort—especially in times of difficulty and tumult. Heaven help anyone who would try t...

            The text for today is Acts 2:1-21, which has already been read.   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Moses’ patience was at its breaking point.   God had delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt and was on the verge of bringing them into the Promised Land.   But it didn’t take long and the grumbling had started.   It seemed like nothing was good enough for them and Moses was taking the brunt of their criticism.   They wanted meat to eat and were tired of following Moses.   Frustrated, Moses cried out to the Lord.   His murmuring and weeping resembled Israel ’s, but it was different in an important way.   Moses turned to the Lord in his feelings of insufficiency and frustration, so his complaint did not degenerate into rebellion. The Lord came to the aid of His weak and distraught servant: He provided a steady supply of me...

            The text for this evening is Acts 1:9-11: “ And when [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.   A nd while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?   This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”   Here ends the text. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well.   It came and went.   Did you miss it?   The great worldwide earthquakes and the May 21 st rapture of all believers promised by Harold Camping foreshadowing the October 21 st end of the world?   I’ve wondered: What do you suppose Mr. Camping and his followers did on May 22 nd ?   I can just picture them cloistered in their own l...