A Famine Not of Bread

The text for today is 1 Peter 3:18-22: “For Christ also suffered once for sins… being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit… who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.”   Here ends the text. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Lord Acton of England once said that power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.   Isn’t that true about power as we see it?   Those who don’t have it want it; and those who have it abuse it.   The powerful may have started out with good intentions, but sooner or later, that same power corrupts them.   Just read the newspaper and you’ll find plenty of examples in governmental agencies and large corporations. But the corrupting influence of power is not confined to Washington, D.C. or Wall Street.   We all want control and power, don’t we?   We all want the power to tell our b...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for this evening is our Old Testament lesson, Proverbs 8:32-36: “And now, O sons, listen to Me: blessed are those who keep My ways.   Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.   Blessed is the one who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting beside My doors.   For whoever finds Me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find Me injures himself; all who hate Me love death.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ! Wisdom speaks, promising life and blessings to those who will listen, to those who hear its instruction and keep its virtuous ways; but warning of disaster and death to those who do not.   Given such a choice, who would not heed Wisdom’s call?   Only a fool!   But that’s the problem.   By our sinful nature, we are all fools, not only unable to grasp Wisdom’s call to a better life, but stubbornly resistant, clingin...