In the section of Mark we are studying, we have been watching Jesus through a variety of ways instruct the disciples in the true nature of the Kingdom of God. We have seen that Jesus makes it clear that the cross comes before glory, but this is a difficult thing for the disciples to comprehend. And this lesson is very applicable to us, because, if you are like me, you do not like the cross in your life. Christians often make much about the blessings and the glory of Christianity. But usually we avoid the thought of suffering and persecution,

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  As most of you know, our family went to Santa Barbara, CA to spend the holidays with our kids. And it truly was a great time that we had there together. The weather was fantastic, we had all our children under one roof, the house we stayed in was cool, overlooking the ocean. You just couldn’t ask for a nicer time together. And I have to admit, that just the thought of getting on the plane to come back to Delaware during the middle of the winter here was kind of tough. Little did we realize just how tough

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  I suppose that in many ways, the transfiguration is the greatest miracle given in the Bible. To see Jesus in His human form, and then unveiled to reveal His true nature and glory, glory as of the Only Begotten Son of God, and to have the appearance of both of the greatest prophets from history appear to give credence to His majesty, and then to cap it all off with nothing less than the shekinah glory of God envelop them all and to hear God speak from the cloud, all of that combined must equal the greatest miracle recorded

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I don’t normally go out of my way to preach a topical holiday message. And I don’t plan on doing that today either. But I did want to tie the Christmas story which Nick read for us a few minutes ago in Luke 2 to our text for today, because I feel it helps us to better understand the text as well as the true meaning of Christmas. And the main thing I want to point out about the account in Luke is that it is simply a proclamation of the gospel. It’s not just a story about baby Jesus

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  I think it was the last time I visited my mother before she passed away, she recited to me the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. I think Nick did a great job of presenting that the other night at the Luau. I think it’s a great tradition to have with your family, to read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus on Christmas morning. If nothing else, it gives pause to the mad rush to open presents, and gives us a moment to reflect upon the real reason for all of the traditions that we have during

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  This last week we put up our Christmas tree. We have a tradition around our house that we go to this farm where we get a living tree, have it cut down, and bring it home. I usually have the job of trimming it, and mounting it on it’s stand, and then we would light some candles, have some egg nog and play some Nat King Cole Christmas carols on the cd player. Susie would make cookies, and all the kids would help hang the decorations. That was our tradition. This year it didn’t seem to go that way.

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  Today we are looking at two events which I believe are designed to be looked at as a couplet. I’m sure many of you have heard messages on both of these events; the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus walking on the water, and in most cases I think they are presented independently of one another. But as someone observed, my job is to be a preacher, not a commentator. I am looking for Biblical principles which are presented in the text, and I’m trying to extract them and expound them. I’m not interested in giving a commentary

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Let me start today by posing a hypothetical situation to you. If you were able to live a truly exemplary Christian life, a life of ministry, a life of righteousness, a life that pointed people to Christ – if that was something that not only your friends said about you, but also more importantly something that God said about you, how would you expect your life to turn out? Wouldn’t you think that for such a person, there would be the proverbial “showers of blessings?” Wouldn’t you expect at the very least, a long life, all your financial needs met,

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  I’m going to try to tackle two sermons in one this morning. I should perhaps have broken the text into two messages. But somehow I felt that the faster pace of Mark’s gospel lends itself to a faster paced exposition. We can spend a lot of time on historical details, and so forth, and not place the proper emphasis on the principles being taught. And I don’t want to teach you a prolonged history lesson this morning. But I want to present what I think are life changing principles in regards to the gospel of Christ, which I believe

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Today we are looking at a tale of two daughters. Two females, both referred to here in the text as daughters. One is older, having been sick with a serious ailment for 12 years, and one who was only 12 years old, being sick unto death. Mark doesn’t give us insight into why these two daughters are connected in this way, but it is evident that they are connected for posterity by the very chronology of the events described. There are two separate events recorded here, but the second plays out in parentheses, so to speak, after the first incident

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