Thu, 30 March 2017
Signs: So You May Believe “Lessons from the Loaves” John 6:1-15
|
Sun, 12 March 2017
By 1940 WWII was underway in Europe. The Allied western front in Europe was crumbling before the Nazi war machine. The Germans drove the Allied forces all the way back to the English Channel. They felt that they had them trapped. They had them surrounded and the sea at the Allieds’ back was thought to be an impassable wall.
But the English mounted a daring rescue known to history as the “Miracle at Dunkirk.” In a few desperate days they rescued 338,226 men from the shores of Dunkkirk. Pivotal in that effort were the “little ships of Dunkirk.” More than a thousand small boats manned by fathers and grandfathers came across the channel. They could navigate the shallow waters of that shoreline and shuttle the soldiers on to larger naval ships that would transport the soldiers back to Dover.
It seemed hopeless until help came from home! And that help, at first glance, seemed insignificant and small.
We are going to meet in the scriptures today a man whose condition was hopeless until help came from heaven! He had been an invalid for 38 years and he had no one to help him until Jesus found him. That encounter changed everything!
Signs: So You May Believe “Hope for the Hopeless” John 5:1-18
|
Sun, 5 March 2017
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
On April 26, 2003 Aron Ralston set out on a solo hike through Blue John Canyon, in Utah, near the Canyonlands National Park. While he was descending a narrow canyon, a boulder shifted while he was climbing down from it. The 800 pound rock smashed his left hand, and then crushed his right hand against the canyon wall. Ralston had not informed anyone of his hiking plans, so no one would have been searching for him.
Assuming that he would die without intervention, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water, approximately 12 ounces and slowly eating his small amount of food, two burritos, while trying to free his arm. After three days of trying to lift and break the boulder, the dehydrated and delirious Ralston decided to amputate his trapped right arm at a point on the mid-forearm, in order to escape.
He lost his arm but saved his life.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
This morning we will meet in John 4:46-54 a desperate man. His desperate circumstances drove him to action and the action he took brought life to him and his family.
Signs: So You May Believe “Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures” John 4:46-54
So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, (BL)“Unless you[c] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down (BM)before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour[e] the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, (BN)and all his household. 54 (BO)This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him . . . .
Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.
The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household |