Deus Misereatur

{This is simply the sermon outline. If you click on the title it will take you to the audio file so you can hear it while following along. There is more substance on the audio file than in these notes. Mike} > Prayer and Fasting < Isaiah 58.1-12   (New Testament reading: Matthew 9.14-17 ) Fasting is done for all kinds of reasons, even in 21 st Century America. I think that the reasons we fast expose what we cherish more than anything. Wrestlers, boxers MMA fighters fast to make the weigh-in for the big championship. Models fast to keep their high-dollar contracts, and to get the ooos and aaahs and breathless gasps of their eye-boggled audiences. Patients fast to get a report of good health from their doctors. The oddity is a religious fast. For example, when Muslims fast during Ramadan, Americans call them fanatics and radicals. Its oddness is so far spread that likely most American churches have given it up altogether. So I will need to start at square one: ...

"Almighty and Everlasting God, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift; we give thee thanks for all thy benefits, temporal and spiritual, bestowed upon us in the year past, and we beseech thee of thy goodness, grant us a favorable and joyful year, defend us from all dangers and adversities, and send upon us the fullness of thy blessing; through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever One God, world without end. Amen ."  From "The Book of Worship: Approved by the General Synod of the Evangelical Reformed Church," 1947, p. 120. Mike

{ Audio File can be heard here } --- [ Passage: Micah 6.1-8 ] New Year 2014: Micah 6.8 O Lord Jesus, you walked the way of the cross as the obedient Son of God, open our eyes and ears and hearts, and teach us by your Word and Spirit, that we may not rebel, but may walk in the obedience of disciples who have learned well from you. Amen. Of course New Years is a time of new potential, new resolves and new directions. It is also a time for healthy reflection. If we go blundering and smashing on through our days ahead of us without reflecting on the successes and catastrophes of the previous times, we are bound to repeat oft-committed bunglings. And if we plunge full-steam head-long into the new year without contemplating the past goodnesses of God in the previous months, we may find ourselves increasingly insensitive to His present kindnesses . Bring it Up (1-5). The opening scene has a back and forth-ness to it. God invites an increasingly compromised Judah (1.1) to air th...

The Message of Daniel The Bible Speaks Today series Dale Ralph Davis Inter-Varsity Press IVP Book Centre Norton Street Nottingham NG7 3HR UNITED KINGDOM http://www.ivpbooks.com ISBN: 978-1-84474-801-3; £9.99 / $18.00; 2013. Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur (12/24) Digging Daniel (5 stars out of 5) With a glut of printed, recorded and visualized material on prophecy, and all the hub-bub over failed end-times prognostications that has spilled into the media, another volume on a biblical prophetic book might receive a grimacing wince, or groaning incredulity. But Dale Ralph Davis’s new 176 page paperback, “The Message of Daniel” is a unique treatment of this Old Testament prophet that is devotional, homiletical, textual and thoughtful. This is part of “The Bible Speaks Today” series, and replaces the classic piece by Ronald Wallace. Davis takes the position that Daniel was written by whom it claims to be written, during the period...

{Here is the manuscript from the last sermon in the series. The audio file is here . Freely spread around as you see fit. Mike} --- Do You See what I See? Pt 4: Matthew 2.13-23 Do you ever find it interesting when someone tells a story the things they leave out? Most retellings of the so-called “Christmas Story” include the wise men – even though they really don’t arrive for almost 2 years after the birth. But most retellings end there. Yet this episode, which on a rare occasion or two is recited, ought to be included in the story. It’s the darker side – just like at communion, when Paul says, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed   took bread, etc.” (1 Corinthians 11.23). We don’t like rehearsing the darker, drearier side because it brings us down. But as Christians we, of all people, ought to be more daring, real, and courageous than our neighbors. Bringing out the dark side can be a blessing to peop...

Tripping along happily in my daily Bible reading, I stubbed my toe on a section of Exodus 16. The pain came through the repeated sentiment. To get the gist, I will have to quote most of the section, but I will mark up what I’m referring to: “…on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. ( . . . )." So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, ...

{This is the third in a series of four. The audio file can be found here . Spread the word. Mike} ---- Do You See what I See? Pt 3: Matthew 2.1-12 What do you do with Jesus? Some folks sequester him off to some holding cell and lock him up out of sight. Some sell him off because he’s profitable for business. Some try to remake him into their own image. Some don’t bother with him at all until Christmas and maybe Easter, and only if it’s convenient; and then quickly pack him away with the decorations to keep him safely under wraps. Part of the emphasis of this passage is to dare us to ask ourselves: What do I do with Jesus? It helps us to answer that question by showing us connections and then contrasts . Connections : There is a double connection, one from inside this Gospel account and one that draws from outside; and both connections end up parking at the same house. Inside: First we hear the wise men ask in 2.2 “ Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? ” – Jesu...