A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus said:] “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that He is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not kn...

"The Gathering of the Manna" by James Tissot   Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Forty years earlier, Moses had led the people of Israel out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. Now they are camped, looking across the Jordan River to the land that God had promised to their forefathers. Not able to go into the Promised Land himself, Moses recounts what had happened during the wilderness wandering and he prepares them for the new land they will now receive. “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Forty years it had taken them to make the 300-mile-long journey, an average movement of about 100 feet per day. Obviously, there had been a few bumps in the road along the way. The people ran out of water mor...

"Christ Appearing to His Disciples after the Resurrection" by William Blake Click here to listen to this sermon.   “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’” (John 20:19-23). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! To say it had been a few stressful days would be a huge understatement. Jesus had been arrested, tried, convicted, crucified, and buried on Friday. Saturday, they’d been ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is Matthew 25:31-46, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It was 3:00 a.m. A piercing scream woke me. I thought it was the fire alarm, until I realized it was my own sweet baby daughter. Through the fog of my interrupted sleep I somehow realized that I was not equipped with the physical ability to nurse the famished little girl, especially at such an ungodly hour. So I nudged Aimee, who never has been as light a sleeper as I am. “She’s awake,” I said. Her response came so quickly I can only imagine that she had been rehearsing it every day while she’d been taking it easy in the hospital. “What’s your point?” Always the patient one, I said calmly and quite rationally: “She’s hungry. I can’t feed her. I don’t have the right equipment.” Again, it was like she had it all planned out. “Well, she probably also has a dirty diaper and the last time I noticed you still h...

"Wheat Field in Rain" by Vincent Van Gogh Click here to listen to this sermon. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:6-11). Tammy, Kari, family and friends of Carl: Grace to you and peace from ...

  Click here to listen to this sermon. “Encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you’ve watched any amount of religious programming on TV, you know that the majority of what many televangelists preach about is Judgment Day and the signs of the end times. They are forever exploring, interpreting, and guessing about what some of the more obscure prophecies about the future might mean, as they study the books of Daniel and Revelation and apply them to the headlines of the day, overlooking what Scripture says about “times and dates.” God has not chosen to reveal the time when Christ will come nor the reason that He planned it for when He did. Anyone who says he knows the time contradicts Jesus’ clear words: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36). Thereby he also reveals himsel...