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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Monday, 02 January 2006 16:00 |
By now if you are connected by email to the internet you will have received at least five Happy New Year greeting cards.
That?s not counting all the personal greetings if you were with other people last night. So can you stand it if you hear once again, Happy New Year! ?
I hope you have a happy New Year.
You might think, well if I do, it?s about time.
Which is an interesting phrase. Not the Happy New Year, but the "it?s about time".
I suppose Happy New Year is interesting, too, but it?s pretty straight forward.
The writer of Ecclesiastes had an interesting take on time and the seasons of life. We know it well:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance...
That is a passage that I find very . . .
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Love Brings Hope, Peace and Joy |
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Monday, 19 December 2005 17:43 |
"Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:28-30
In the sixth month of her cousin Elizabeth?s pregnancy, Gabriel, the angel of God comes to Mary.
Like the shepherds who hear of Jesus birth, she is frightened.
No doubt.
Just think about it. Here is a teen age girl like any teen age girl going about her business. She was not a school girl, but would have been helping out with the household chores. Perhaps she was sweeping or doing laundry for her mother.
Maybe she was alone so the angel could talk with her privately. Perhaps on her way home from some errand, alone in her thoughts when the angel appears to her.
How would he appear? As an angel in glowing tunic, or like they did with Abraham and Sarah, as ordinary travelers?
However he appeared, what he said clearly frightened Mary. He says, "Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you."
So you are a young girl going about your business and . . .
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Saturday, 10 December 2005 20:35 |
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear the fist sermon Jesus preached?
We heard part of it when Isaiah 61 was read this morning. In Luke?s gospel, shortly after His baptism, Jesus goes to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, reads from Isaiah 61 and then is seated. Luke says everyone was waiting to see what he might say concerning the text. Their eyes are all fixed on him, waiting. He does not disappoint them and His commentary on it was to say, "This scripture is being fulfill today." He could have added, "before your eyes, even as we speak." Apparently He didn?t need to as the people understood the implication and began muttering to themselves to the effect of "who does he think he is?"
Not only did Jesus? words not go over well, but the congregation tried to throw him off a cliff immediately after the sermon.
I prefer our custom of having coffee and cake.
What Jesus is saying is "this is why I have come...to bind the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom and release for those in slavery."
You would think a message like that would be wildly popular. Who wouldn?t want to hear a message of freedom?
It all depends on which side of the bars you are standing, I suppose.
Jesus said to a man who was . . .
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Written by Dr. Harold McNabb
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Monday, 05 December 2005 16:00 |
Another of the common jokes of our time begins with a person receiving the news from his doctor that he has only days to live. Here is one version:
A man went in for his annual checkup and received a phone call from his physician a couple of days later.
The doctor said, "I?m afraid I have some bad news for you."
"What?s the news?" the man asked.
"Well, you have only 48 hours to live."
"That is bad news!" said the shocked patient.
"I?m afraid I have even worse news," the doctor continued.
"What could be worse than what you?ve already told me?" the patient stammered.
"I?ve been trying to call you since yesterday."
God tells Isaiah, "Cry out!"
"What shall I cry?" asks Isaiah.
"All flesh are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field."
God says to Isaiah, "Go up on a mountain and call out to the people, ?Here is your God, coming with power."
In the early part of the book, that announcement would have been an announcement to bring terror, but not this time.
God says, "He comes like a shepherd who gently leads his flock and holds them close to his heart."
Isaiah forty begins with the words, "Comfort, . . .
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