Today's Word for Pastors...

1 John 1:8-10
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 

Today's Preaching Insight...

Transformed Hearts, Transformed Homes

The sermon begins in a traditional format, then switches into a first-person dramatic narrative format, and finally back to a traditional format for the conclusion.   The speaker did not use period costuming for the dramatic narrative portion of the sermon.  Platform positioning was utilized to indicate when the speaker was “in character.”

A frustrated father was heard to quip, “By the time a man is old enough to recognize that his father was right, he has a son who thinks he is wrong.”  Well, it is Father’s Day again — it’s time to honor that man we used to think was so wrong until we grew up and he suddenly got smart. 

We chuckle at the joke, but to be honest the humor awakens a sense of uneasiness in us.  From deep within us, we feel that, among all the human relationships we experience in this life, there is something unique about the relationship of fathers and children.  There is something about it that runs very deep, that touches close to the very center of our lives.  When that relationship is good, it positively affects every other relationship in your life.  And when that relationship is bad, it hands you a heartload of pain that chips away at the joy you feel about the good parts of your life.  Such is the power of the father/child relationship in God’s world.

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Today's Extra...

Illustration: Christian Life

Ben Kingsley starred as the main character in the motion picture Gandhi. He spent months preparing for the role, visiting the various Indian locales Gandhi had frequented. He even learned to spin cotton thread on a wooden wheel while holding conversations as Gandhi did. The physical resemblance between Gandhi and Kingsley was almost startling. After filming a scene in a village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of a car, and an elderly peasant knelt to touch his feet. Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an actor playing Gandhi. "We know," replied the villager, "but through you he will surely live again."

Let me ask you, "Does the Son of God live again through us? You see, that's also part of Jesus' prayer for us -- that the world will see Christ in us, through our unity and through our love.

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