Salvogesis

Creator. Genesis 1: The first chapter of Genesis reads like a love story of sorts or like a wonderful little children’s book. It shows a loving God who carefully prepares an environment for his newborn creatures just as a mother bird carefully lines her nest in anticipation of the advent of her little ones. Let us read this story ( to view it in picture book format click   HERE ):  [1]   It was the first day and God the Father made a wonderful room for His creation and it was good. On day one, He made in this room, light and He made the darkness; He made the day and He made the night. And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the second day, made another wonderful room for His creation.    On day two, He made this room, separating the waters. He made the sky and then it was evening. And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the third day, made another wonderful room for His creation.    On day three, He made this room, gatherin...

Jesus tells three loves stories involving sheep that we are going to read today. The first one is recorded in Matthew 12:7-15: 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. 15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from tha...

The Lord is blessing the evangelistic efforts of the apostles beyond expectation. Everyone is pleased as more people are joining their congregation. They are all glad to see Gentiles and everyone else saved. Some Christian Pharisees, however, have a problem with these new Gentile believers. What is their difficulty? The new converts aren’t acting like the old converts. Until now the only people the Christian evangelists were approaching were Jews. The Christian Pharisees in Acts here understand that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and that salvation only comes through the Messiah (cf. Ro 1:16-17); so now that these Gentiles are saved, those already in the Church expect that they will also become Jews. If you are saved, they reason, you will want to become a Jew and do all the things that Jews do; once you are a Christian, they reason, to make your salvation sure you must also become a Jew and many Gentile Christians to this point have been Jewish proselytes. This viewpoint was...

This parable of the lost boy is the third of three stories. Who here likes to lose things? How do you feel when you lose your keys? You know that feeling? You think you put them somewhere but they are not there. You are running late. You need to be somewhere and your keys are missing. This is like the first story, the parable of the lost sheep (vv. 8-10). . Now imagine that you find your keys; you go to the mall, buy groceries, and then walk to where your car is (or at least where you think it is) but it is not there. Your car is lost. You look around. You fumble for your fob trying to make the horn honk or the lights blink but it is icy and you have your hands full and you are sure that this is where you left your car but it is lost and you are frantically scanning the parking lot wondering where it might be. This is a parable of the lost coin (vv. 3-7). Now imagine that you are still standing there completely disoriented with your hands full, in the middle of the parking lot...

14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. Joseph, the 'slave' in this story was actually a powerful man. He was in charge of all of the properties, possessions, wealth, and the whole estate of the captain of Pharaoh's guards. Women in Egypt of the Pharaohs had a lot less power t...

John 3:16 is among the verses in the Bible that almost everyone knows. If people memorize no other verse in the Bible they usually memorize this one. Let’s all say John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, John 3:16.” The fact that we pretty much all know it is neat because in this Salvation Army hall today, we have people of many different ages from different parts of the country who were brought up in many different traditions: The Salvation Army –of course- Baptist, Roman Catholic, Apostolic – there are even people here who were raised in the Atheist religion and yet we all know John 3:16 by heart. I think that is neat and it points to its importance. Martin Luther said of John 3:16 that the verse flows like milk and honey and its words are “able to make the sad happy, [and] the dead alive if only the heart believes them firmly” [1]  whoever believes in Jesus will not per...

Gerry Fostaty tells this story in a book entitled,  As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier : In a class of very young army cadets, the adult instructor is handing out dummy grenades for children to examine. Apparently, one can tell dummy grenades from real grenades because the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the military green colour of live combat weaponry. The children are encouraged to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, and examine how they work. Apparently and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue grenades is at least one live green grenade. The children are passing this live green grenade along with the toy grenades down the line of cadets. They are taking the pin out and placing it back in; they are holding the safety lock and they are disassembling and reassembling the green grenade along with the coloured grenades when one little boy pulls the pin and putting the grenade in the wrong place, or holding it the wrong wa...

Murray once served in the navy aboard the HMCS Haida. When the order went out for all hands to be on deck, everyone went to work. No one was sleeping, no one was eating, no one was on a break. As you had a specific responsibility as a member of the crew, when all hands were required on deck, you quickly went to perform your task. What happens if people in this situation do not all do their duty fulfilling their roles? The ship may sink and they may all go down. In the church it is the same. All hands are needed on deck. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, one person cannot forgo their responsibilities because they would rather not have them and another cannot sleep through the call to service. People can't envy, disregard, or fight with each other or the church will sink as quickly and as surely as a torpedoed ship. All hands on Deck! You, as a member of the HMCS Church, have been given certain abilities and talents. You are now being called to use them for the good of the crew...

Saturday was the men’s breakfast. It was a great breakfast. It was one of the best turn outs yet. There was bacon. It was a great time. I am reminded of another of the men's breakfasts in the downtown here. At one point someone asked me very politely who the woman was who had come to the men’s breakfast.  ‘Oh. That in’t a woman’, I said. Our friend was a little embarrassed – there wasn’t really any need to be - but you know what it is like when you think things are one way but they turn out to be another way. Our scripture today is a little bit like that. Luke 4:14-30: This is really an interesting text. At least for me it is. It is one of those where you have read it maybe less than one million times but you have read it enough that you think you know what it says and then one day you slow down and read what it actually says and are somewhat surprised. I was looking at this passage in preparation for a sermon a couple of years ago when we just came back from Cuba, which w...