We are down to two weeks left of the quarter and I am lacking all motivation to finish the final papers and assignments. The weather was so nice yesterday and today, I had to play tennis and basketball with the guys. I also preached Saturday night and Sunday morning. This link is taping og this mornings preaching. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Sermon Video
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Here is the link to the video of me preaching my sermon this morning. The reason I don't have any hair is because I was persuaded into shaving my head for St. Baldricks. St. Baldricks is a national organization that raises money for research for childhood cancer. Over the last four years, the faculty, staff, and students of the seminary have raised over $30,000 for this cause. I did it my first two years on campus. I wasn't going to do it this year, until President Dr. Meyer asked me one question. He saw me and asked, "Do you want a call?" I told him I very much wanted a call and he told me I had better shave my head then. So there was an offer of $1000 to shave my beard and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't shave it off three months before my year mark. However, the lady who offered $1000 for the beard, still donated the $1000 for just shaving my head. I told her if I would have agreed to shave the beard, she would have just paid a lot of money to see a grown man cry.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Lent Devotion
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. It is starting to snow here!!! I could definitely go for one more big snow storm before spring officially arrives. We had a Groundhog Get Down party Saturday. My friend with an awesome sense of humor has this party every year to tell the Phil the groundhog on groundhog's day not to see his shadow so there is not six more weeks of winter. He went all out with fun facts about groundhogs posted all over his house. He has a shadow photo booth and had the movie Groundhog's Day playing. Then tonight I went to two different friend's house to watch the Superbowl. Yesterday I spent several hours making a bunch of deer jerky and grinding up deer meat to make chili. I made a big batch of deer chili for the party Saturday and for the parties tonight. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the chili and the jerky came out awesome.
Only three more weeks of this quarter left. I cannot wait. I am excited for next quarter. A friend who is a pastor in Minnesota asked me to help him with a project for Lent. He is putting together a forty day Lenten Devotional book, so I wrote one of the devotions for him. I know it is not Lent yet, but to help you get ready for Lent in a couple of weeks, here is my devotion. Enjoy!
Text: John 19:1-6
Title: “Not Bad Enough!”
Have you ever heard people use the phrase, “Not good enough”? You try to win an argument by presenting some statistic or fact and the other person simply responds with, “Not good enough.” Maybe you were trying to really impress someone with a grand gesture but they were not impressed because the act was simply “not good enough.” No matter what the circumstance is, this phrase is used to state that the other person wants something more, something better.
In our text, the Jewish leaders have brought Jesus to Pilate to be tried for his “crimes”. Pilate tries Jesus by speaking to him and finds no guilt in him. However, Pilate can tell the Jewish leaders are outraged and furious. So in order to not upset them more in fear of a riot or rebellion, Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged. Pilate’s soldiers not only brutally beat Jesus with whips in the flogging, but dress him up in a robe and crown of thorns to mock him. Beaten, bloody, and humiliated, Pilate presents the frail and battered Jesus to the crowd. Pilate even tells the crowd that he found no guilt in Jesus, he found no reason to punish him at all, but he still had this brutal punishment carried out anyway. How do the Jewish leaders respond? Not good enough! They were not satisfied with merely torturing and beating this man Jesus. This heinous punishment was not good enough for the crimes they felt Jesus had committed.
And yet can you really say a beating and battering is a good thing? This horrible and gruesome punishment done to an innocent Jesus is definitely not a good thing. So really what the Jewish leaders were saying was, “Not BAD enough!” Flogging, beating, and mocking him was not a bad enough punishment. Their evil greed, their hate-filled hearts demanded even worse of a punishment for this man they loathed so much. Their unified cries of “Crucify Him” were really screaming out, “Not Bad Enough!” “They demanded a worse punishment, they demanded death! Him being a live, no matter how badly beaten, was simply not bad enough to satisfy their thirst for his blood.
Their demand would be satisfied as Pilate gives into their evil demands and sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. It was not bad enough that our Lord had to die, but first also had to suffer the whippings, beatings, and mocking of men who found him innocent. He suffered pain and humiliation to try to appease he wrath of sinful men, but this was not bad enough! Only His death would be bad enough to appease evil. And yet, through His death, the very thing evil demanded, He was able to rise from the dead and defeat sin and evil once and for all. His resurrection conquered all of the sin and evil that had tried so hard to get rid of Him. Beating Him was not bad enough, but His death and resurrection was GOOD enough to give Him authority over all sin and evil once and for all. The crowd cried, “Not bad enough” on Good Friday, but now we cry, “It was good enough” on Easter morning and every morning since!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for sending Your Son to be GOOD enough to defeat sin, death, and the Devil once and for all. Thank you so much that by Your grace you claim us as good enough in the name of Jesus Christ to have eternal life in You. It is in the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
Only three more weeks of this quarter left. I cannot wait. I am excited for next quarter. A friend who is a pastor in Minnesota asked me to help him with a project for Lent. He is putting together a forty day Lenten Devotional book, so I wrote one of the devotions for him. I know it is not Lent yet, but to help you get ready for Lent in a couple of weeks, here is my devotion. Enjoy!
Text: John 19:1-6
Title: “Not Bad Enough!”
Have you ever heard people use the phrase, “Not good enough”? You try to win an argument by presenting some statistic or fact and the other person simply responds with, “Not good enough.” Maybe you were trying to really impress someone with a grand gesture but they were not impressed because the act was simply “not good enough.” No matter what the circumstance is, this phrase is used to state that the other person wants something more, something better.
In our text, the Jewish leaders have brought Jesus to Pilate to be tried for his “crimes”. Pilate tries Jesus by speaking to him and finds no guilt in him. However, Pilate can tell the Jewish leaders are outraged and furious. So in order to not upset them more in fear of a riot or rebellion, Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged. Pilate’s soldiers not only brutally beat Jesus with whips in the flogging, but dress him up in a robe and crown of thorns to mock him. Beaten, bloody, and humiliated, Pilate presents the frail and battered Jesus to the crowd. Pilate even tells the crowd that he found no guilt in Jesus, he found no reason to punish him at all, but he still had this brutal punishment carried out anyway. How do the Jewish leaders respond? Not good enough! They were not satisfied with merely torturing and beating this man Jesus. This heinous punishment was not good enough for the crimes they felt Jesus had committed.
And yet can you really say a beating and battering is a good thing? This horrible and gruesome punishment done to an innocent Jesus is definitely not a good thing. So really what the Jewish leaders were saying was, “Not BAD enough!” Flogging, beating, and mocking him was not a bad enough punishment. Their evil greed, their hate-filled hearts demanded even worse of a punishment for this man they loathed so much. Their unified cries of “Crucify Him” were really screaming out, “Not Bad Enough!” “They demanded a worse punishment, they demanded death! Him being a live, no matter how badly beaten, was simply not bad enough to satisfy their thirst for his blood.
Their demand would be satisfied as Pilate gives into their evil demands and sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion. It was not bad enough that our Lord had to die, but first also had to suffer the whippings, beatings, and mocking of men who found him innocent. He suffered pain and humiliation to try to appease he wrath of sinful men, but this was not bad enough! Only His death would be bad enough to appease evil. And yet, through His death, the very thing evil demanded, He was able to rise from the dead and defeat sin and evil once and for all. His resurrection conquered all of the sin and evil that had tried so hard to get rid of Him. Beating Him was not bad enough, but His death and resurrection was GOOD enough to give Him authority over all sin and evil once and for all. The crowd cried, “Not bad enough” on Good Friday, but now we cry, “It was good enough” on Easter morning and every morning since!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for sending Your Son to be GOOD enough to defeat sin, death, and the Devil once and for all. Thank you so much that by Your grace you claim us as good enough in the name of Jesus Christ to have eternal life in You. It is in the same Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.