Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
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Pastor’s Prayer for 19 August 2018
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone,
and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore You,
a heart to delight in You,
to follow and to enjoy You,
for Christ’s sake.
St Ambrose of Milan, 337–397 AD
Tale of the Tares
Tale of the Tares Story Lectionary 12 August 2018 The Story of God’s Gift of the Torah on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19 and 34) The Lord’s Command to Celebrate the Feast of Weeks (Deuteronomy 16 and Exodus 23:14-19 and Leviticus 23) Leave Some Grain in the Field for Foreigners and…
Good News People in a Fake News World
Good News People in a Fake News World Lectionary 12 August 2018 12th Sunday After Pentecost 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51 Text to Life “Numbers don’t lie.” You’ve all heard that expression: “Numbers don’t lie.” Don’t believe it for one second. Whenever you…
Look for the Twist –Preaching Tip for 12 August 2018
Jesus uses metaphors as a way of reeling people in only to surprise them with a different meaning or outcome than they expected. If you see Jesus using a metaphor, look for the twist!
Pastor’s Prayer –12 August 2018
Lord, help me to glorify you;
I am poor, help me to glorify you by contentment;
I am sick, help me to give you honor by patience;
I have talents, help me to extol you by spending them for you;
I have time, Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve you;
I have a heart to feel, Lord,
let that heart feel no love but yours,
and glow with no flame but affection for you;
I have a head to think,
Lord, help me to think of you and for you;
You have put me in this world for something, Lord,
show me what that is,
and help me to work out my life-purpose:
I cannot do much, but as the widow put in her two mites,
which were all her living,
so, Lord, I cast my time and eternity too into your treasury;
I am all yours;
take me, and enable me to glorify you now,
in all that I say, in all that I do, and with all that I have.
Charles Spurgeon
The Perfect Horse
The Perfect Horse:
The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis
by Elizabeth Letts
–Review by Teri Hyrkas
More than seventy years after the end of the conflict, the events of World War II continue to be important to readers today. The human aspect of the war, the massive loss of life, the attempted destruction of various cultures and the genocide committed against the Jews are the primary issues addressed in most books about the war. And yet it is wise to remember that Hitler’s plans for the Third Reich included schemes that affected the animal world as well. Author Elizabeth Letts has focused on this aspect of WWII in her award winning[1] book, The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis (Ballantine Books, 2016). read more…
Strange but True
Bidding Starts at 50K for Bible that went to the moon
Summary: “A Los Angeles auction firm is taking bids on a microform, or photographically reduced, King James Bible that went to the moon on the 1971 Apollo 14 space flight. Similar in appearance to a piece of microfilm, the microform is certified as containing the entire biblical text. Its print is so small that one needs a microscope to read it.”
Read more at: http://bit.ly/50kbible
Digitally mine read more…
Stranger to Strange
Strangers to Strange Lectionary 5 August 2018 11th Sunday After Pentecost 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a Psalm 51:1-12 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35 Text to Life A local news station takes time out from reporting “hard” news every Saturday morning and lightens things up a bit. They do this with a series called…
Mercy Me!
Mercy Me! Story Lectionary 5 August 2018 God’s Guidelines for Justice and Mercy (Exodus 23:1-9) King Solomon Judges with God’s Wisdom (1 Kings 3:16-28) God Empowers Othniel, First Savior (Judge) of Israel (Judges 3) God Entreats Judges to Judge as God Would Judge with Love (2 Chronicles 19:4-11) The Song…
Gift from the Sea –Preaching Tip for 5 August 2018
Summer seems the perfect time to call up a favorite book of metaphors –Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The book uses metaphors of shells to describe life, relationships, and the issues the author is dealing with at the time. This in a sense is what we want to…