Third Sunday after Epiphany, Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Old Testament Lesson

Genesis 16:1-14

One thing I love about the Bible is that the folks that are the heroes aren't always painted to look like saints. Today, we have Abram say, sure I'll sleep with my wife's servant. We know that will end well. We have Sarai first deciding that she will not wait on God, and then when her plan works (!) she gets upset and runs off her servant. The only that looks sort of moral in the entire scene is Hagar.

And these are the folks through whom God's promise will come to pass. God doesn't choose the perfect. We are all imperfect. What He does is He takes us where we are and makes us who we should be. The question becomes, will we submit to God Today Abram and Sarai didn't submit; they wanted to do ti there way. And look how that turned out. The question for you today is not are perfect, but are you submitting to God's plan for you life. If you are following God, His grace will work on those imperfections and get rid of them. If you follow. If we try to do it on our own, we may wind up like this terrible situation.

New Testament Lesson

Hebrews 9:15-28

"(W)ithout the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" I had a professor in seminary that didn't like what he called the "blood songs." Are you Washed in the Blood, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, those type songs. He said it didn't leave a good image in our minds. While I am not a big fan of blood in general, I disagree. The Word says this morning without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the blood of Jesus, without what he did for you and me, we could not know God's forgiveness. That is why Jesus came; to save you and me. The bible says that God was reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus Christ. God longs to have us come home, and that is able only through the shed blood of Jesus. Are you waiting until you are "good enough" to come home? We will never be good enough. God has already made a way home through the blood of Jesus. Are at peace with God today? God has made a way. Will we take it?

Gospel Lesson

John 5:19-29

As many of you know, I had to answer a bunch of questions recently for the process of ordination in the Methodist church. One of them dealt with the resurrection what was it? I said it is the body bringing back to life of Jesus Christ, and something that all that believe will experience one day. I also said it is the greater evidence that God wins, that the power of death and the grave have been defeated. Do you believe that today? Death has been defeated. Now it will have what looks like a momentary victory when our loved one dies because of the the grief we have, but in reality, even then death has no one, for we grieve not for the one that has gone, we grieve for ourselves. Jesus Christ has the power to raise the dead to life, and to those of us that believe, one day that will happen to us. The question is, will you wait until then be alive? Today, we can know a glimpse of God's eternal life through walking with Jesus Christ. Do you walk with Him daily? Or do we wait until the end, thinking that we'll know it then. The problem is, if we aren't walking daily, we may not make it in the end. Do you know that you will have that life in the end? Do you know that you have life today? If you can answer the second question, you can answer the first.