A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Scot, Patti, Mark, Todd, other family members, and friends: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Our Gospel for today is one that you will frequently hear at funerals. In fact, Bill was sitting here with many of you about a year-and-a-half ago and we all heard the very same words that Sandy had chosen for her funeral service: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to Him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:1-6). So, why do you suppose Bill chos...

Click here to listen to this sermon.

Click here to listen to this sermon. Or here. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! There are days and times when the going gets tough. Of that you are well aware. Who would have thought less than two months ago that we would be here today? Even two weeks ago, we all had much hope for Lois’ treatment and recovery. And now you’re caught up in the swirl of thoughts and emotions that come with mourning: a deep sense of loss, confusion, or perhaps even shock, at the death of a loved one just recently so active and vibrant.  These reactions are perfectly normal and natural. It’s death that’s not normal and natural. Oh, I know it happens all the time, but death was never a part of God’s perfect plan for creation. Man and woman were made to be eternal, to live forever—body and soul—in God’s holy presence. There is something deep in the very fiber of who we are as human beings that recognizes the damage caused by sin. Even the most hard-core athei...