The great British Bible teacher David Pawson was in fine form. Visiting a rather traditional church with a large choir, he made this statement: “Sentimentality is the worst enemy of the kingdom.” And then he stuck his hand out in the general direction of the choir and said, “That is sentimentality!”
I never ceased to be amazed he was not shot from behind before he finished the rest of his message.
You may argue with the way he made his point, but the point itself is worth considering.
Yesterday we walked past a recently closed diner. In the window was a sign with these words: “Prepare to meet thy God.” Hmmm. Was the food really that bad?
Then I talked with my friend Stuart, living in the eye of an epic hurricane in Houston. I asked him how he was preparing for the storm.
We did a lot of things to prepare for our move. The list seemed endless, and we just had to work our way through it. I’m glad we did, because now we are reaping the benefits of our preparation.
Last week I talked about moving and the challenge of change. You have to pack everything up, live in a state of upheaval for weeks, if not months, and then hope you can actually make it from one place to another with your stuff and your sanity intact. With the sacrificial help of a great bunch of friends, we did.
If you’re smart, you give away a lot of stuff, and take note of how we accumulate way too many possessions, especially for those of us who profess to follow a man who owned none.
Where is the best text to preach about the resurrection? Not where you think it is.
I think the place to start is Revelation chapter 12. There John paints a picture for us of a woman in labour. She is crowned with the sun, moon and stars. The woman represents the covenant line of the Messiah, just like in the dream Joseph had that got him into all that trouble.
She brings forth the child destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Genesis 3 and Psalm 2 show this is Jesus.
