We follow Christ for the miracles he brings and not for Christ himself. Dissatisfaction keeps us from hearing God more clearly. God is speaking to us.
Can you hear what I hear? John preached a Gospel of repentance and the forgiveness of sin. Can you hear John calling on us to practice confession and forgive one another? There was a tennis star named Boris Becker who was at the very top of the tennis world -- yet he almost committed suicide. He said, "I won the championship twice. I had all the material possessions I needed. Yet I was unhappy. Many are so empty that they cannot hear the Gospel that calls them to confession and repentance and forgiveness.
The prophet calls on us to confess what we are feeling. Confess that sometime God seems far away. After we confess, we must repent and express regrets for our behavior. When we repent, God will forgive us and enter our lives and give us a new purpose for living.
Repent and seek forgiveness. John was the voice of one calling in the wilderness. People in the wilderness do not only have dissatisfaction, they are experiencing discord. Discord is when there is no harmony; discord is where there is no understanding. Discord is where people do not listen to one another but focus on themselves.
Discord is a sign of confusion because so many other things are demanding and claiming our time. Somebody said there are wilderness Christians. They enjoy feeling sorry for themselves. They are in discord because their bodies are in the church but their minds and hearts are somewhere else. They take their burdens to the altar and put them down asking God to take their burdens away. Wilderness Christians complain about everyone and everything, yet they contribute little or nothing to the mission of Christ.
Wilderness Christians always see the negative side of things. Sometimes we are led to the wilderness by depression; by things we have lost, by sadness and disappointments in life. Other times, God leads us into the wilderness to teach us a lesson and give us strength. Even Jesus was led to the wilderness for a time to preparation. A tour bus was journeying through Israel with a group of Americans when they saw a unique sight.
An Israeli shepherd was carrying a lamb in his arms. The bus stopped to talk with the shepherd and to give tourists a chance to take pictures. A little boy asked the shepherd, "Why are you carrying that little lamb in your arms? This little lamb keeps wandering from the shepherd and I am his only defense against enemies. He would not listen to me. One day he fell and broke his leg. His broken leg saved his life and now he is learning a lesson. When we wander away from His side, we walk away from our only defense.
He finds us in our sin, takes us through brokenness and carries us until we are able to walk with Him once again. John himself decided to go to the wilderness to preach, according to the text. The people went to hear him. John went to the wilderness to show the people what life in the wilderness was like. When they found him, he baptized those who wanted to be baptized. Then he said to them: I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
John led the people to the wilderness to prepare them for the coming Messiah. The wilderness is a place of challenge, but it is also a place of preparation. It is easy to miss the voice of God calling us when we are in the wilderness. There was a missionary who served in China before the days of Communism.
She woke up one morning and decided to meet other missionaries to leave China. But as she started her journey, she felt she had no apparent hope of reaching safety. Let us prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. Yes, we may be in the wilderness, but we will not remain there forever. Our Lord is calling us through the Word and through the prophets. I hear an invitation to come, all who are tired and burdened. I hear the blessed assurance that we are never alone. I hear the comfort of the Shepherd.
I hear love that cannot be measured. May God give the ears to hear what I hear. When the manager is gone -- be it on vacation or just away from her desk -- some employees act like a teenager whose parents are out of town. They sneak out early or come in late. They chitchat with co-workers more frequently, usually about nonwork-related things. Some employees act like children whose parents are out of town when the manager is not around.
Such employees can be said to give eye service. They are eye servants. Eye servants are those who work only when their supervisors are watching them. As soon as the supervisor turns around, that worker begins to slack off. Those employees who act like children whose parents are out of town also pay lip service to their bosses.
Lip service is when we are all talk but no action, when we say one thing and do another.
Highways and Byways in Sussex/Chapter 34
Lip service is pretending to believe a certain principle of value but never practicing it. In Mark 13, Jesus was talking about a time when the He, the Messiah would come again. Today we enter the season of Advent, the season when we begin the preparation for the coming of Christ. In the First Advent, Jesus came as a baby on Christmas Day, and that is what many people will focus on. In the Second Advent, Jesus will come as the Messiah.
One question that the disciples were curious about was this: When will this happen?
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When will the Messiah return? When will you come again? Jesus told them many strange things will take place. He told them there will come false prophets; there will be natural disasters; there will be persecutions; there will be wars and rumors of war before people see the Son of Man come in the clouds with great glory and power. Then Jesus said to them: You do not know when that time will come. Matthew said there were two kinds of servants: One who is faithful and just and the other who is a wicked servant.
This is how Matthew described two kinds of servants: The wicked servant was an eye servant. He pretended to work and be in ministry when he saw people looking at him. But when no one was looking, it was a different matter altogether. The wicked servant paid lip service. He sang the hymns, but did not believe them.
He read the scripture but they meant nothing. He prayed but with empty words because his heart was not in it. We can see there are two kinds of Christians. There are those who are eye servants and pay lip service, and then there are those who give heart service. Jesus is coming back for the Second Advent. But until that time, we will celebrate the First Advent at Christmas while waiting for the Second Advent. Frank Abigale was a pretender. He pretended to be things he was not.
Many people, especially children, love to dress up and play army or police. They go to the imitation store and buy the uniform and put them on. But they have never been through the training, never experienced the discipline and so they just pretend to be soldier or police.
They dress up and act like Christians but their hearts are far from God. Jesus told us to be on guard and be alert. In other words, remain an active Christian not one who has fallen asleep. We know when Christians fall asleep they become indifferent, uninterested, and unconcerned about the world and the things of God. Jesus could come any time. There is a man who has devoted his entire ministry to the belief that Jesus is not coming again http: Jesus promised he would come again and we learn in the last few weeks that all the promises of God are Yes and Amen.
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Jesus is coming again. But like the wicked servant who thought Jesus was delayed so he began to abuse his fellow servants, there are some who think Jesus is not coming right away so they can do things and get away with them. We must be engaged in our faith. We must be as active duty Christians at all times. The Christian life is not being an eye servant and it is not paying lip service.
It is heart service. Heart service is sincere service. I agree that sincerity is an open heart that few people show. I also agree that "Sincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we profess, to perform what we promise. One of their goals is to help men keep their promises as Christian men. We make promises every day.
When we get married, we made promises through the vows we took. When we became Christians, we promised to love, serve and obey Jesus at all times. When we baptize our children or become baptized ourselves as adults, we make promises to raise our children as Christians or to remain faithful as disciples of Christ.
When we join the United Methodist Church, we make a promise to be loyal to the church by our prayers, our gifts, our presence and our service. Unfortunately, because they think Jesus is not coming, many Christians become eye servants and they offer lip service to Jesus. But the real Christians will offer heart service. They are the ones who offer sincere service from the heart.
This is because they truly believe Jesus is coming again as he promised. May we all be active duty Christians, staying alert and awake as we live the Gospel and may God bless us all. The movie is mainly about the investigation of the death of a Marine private at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, and the trial that followed.
Two other marines were charged with the murder of their fellow marine and were court-martialed. Another main character in the movie was the base commander, Colonel Nathan Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson. Towards the end of the trial, Lieutenant Kaffee called Colonel Jessup to the stand as a witness.
In the end, Colonel Jessup was found guilty and arrested. This line is important because it makes us wonder if we are confronted with our sinful words and deeds, are we able and ready to recognize them, to claim them, to admit them and to take responsibility for them? This is what happened in the case of David. After all the sins he committed against Uriah and against God, was he able to handle the truth? God decided to confront David by letting him see his sin in the form of a parable. God sent Nathan, the Prophet who came to David with a story.
In this story, there were two men living in a certain town. One was rich and had a very large number of sheep and cattle. The other was poor. He was so poor that he had nothing except one little ewe lamb. This baby lamb was special to him and it was his family. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. Nathan continued with his story and told David how one day the rich man received a visitor. The rich man decided to entertain his visitor.
Instead of getting a sheep or cow from his huge number of animals he owned, he went and took the one lamb the poor man had, killed it and prepared it for his guest. When David heard this story, he became outraged, and furious. He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity. David was King of Israel and he was declaring judgment on the man who would abuse his power that way. He was pronouncing justice on the person who took advantage of the poor because he was rich. He had issued a decree: The man who did this must die. It was such a serious crime that it deserves capital punishment.
Not only must the man die, he must repay the poor man for his lamb four times over. David was reflecting the Jewish concept of repentance and forgiveness. According to the Jewish tradition, if a man committed a very serious sin, he can only be forgiven if he perform certain acts of atonement such as: This was the law and David was enforcing the full extent of the law. The law generally did not call for the death of the perpetrator but David went as far as declaring death for this person.
God anointed him, protected him from Saul, made him king over both Judah and Israel in a United Kingdom, and gave him everything Saul had and then some. You killed him wi th the sword of the Ammonite. He was charged with murder and adultery. The verdict from the Judge of Heaven was guilty.
The punishment was death, destruction, and disgrace for David and his family. David knew he was guilty. He knew he had done all those things he was accused of. He was the man without regards for anybody else. His wealth and power made him arrogant. He did what he wanted to.
He was rich and he was powerful. But God saw everything and exposed the truth. Now that he knew the truth about himself, what was he going to do about it? Could he handle the truth? Not everybody in the Bible handled the truth the same way. When Adam was confronted about eating the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3, Adam blamed his wife, Eve, and she blamed the snake. Both of them refused to acknowledge and take responsibility for their sins. Let him do what is good in his eyes.
When David was confronted with the truth of his sinful behavior, David handled the truth well. He took full responsibility for his actions. Not only did he stop there, he wrote an entire prayer asking for forgiveness. Psalm 51 is that prayer. David had handled the truth like a mature person of faith.
He has given us an example we can all follow whenever we fall short of the glory of God and God has shown our sins to us. In , when George W. Tim had almost daily access to President George Bush for seven years and helped with managing information from the White House to the public. Then it all ended abruptly on February 29, A well-known journalist had revealed the surprising fact that Tim plagiarized 27 of the 39 articles he published.
By mid-afternoon the next day, Tim's career in the White House was over. Tim admitted his guilt and said the incident began "a personal crisis unequaled in my life, bringing great humiliation on my wife and children, my family, and my closest friends, including the President of the United States.
After a long talk, a healing process was launched for Tim, which included repentance, reflection, and spiritual growth. It was one hundred percent pride. But offering and receiving forgiveness is a different kind of strength. That's the kind of strength I want to develop now. For David, it was murder and adultery. For others, it might be a different sin. But no matter what sin we have committed that led to the death and destruction of others, God knows and will call our attention to the truth of our actions.
When God confronts us with the truth, will we be able to handle it? We can act like Adam and Eve who blamed others, or we can be like David who took responsibility for his sins. Despite the painful outcome of his sins, God was there to comfort him and help him along the way. I admit my shortcomings. Have mercy on me, save me and restore me.
Many years ago in England, a man named Laurence had a metal detector and would go around trying to find buried treasure. He looked for months and months but found nothing of real value. On one beautiful November day, Laurence found something much better. He found twenty-two thousand pieces 22, of Roman coins from the 4 th century.
This was the biggest collection of coins ever found in Britain. Laurence quickly informed the authorities and the scientists were called to dig up the coins and remove them. While scientists and their crew worked on removing the coins, Laurence couldn't bring himself to leave the site. This man was willing to risk his life to guard and protect this treasure, this earthly treasure. Today Paul is calling on Christians to guard and protect a greater treasurer, a divine treasure.
That treasure is our faith in the Gospel. In chapter one of his second letter to Timothy, his spiritual son, Paul told him he saw his faith in action, he knew it was sincere. The way we pass our faith down to our children is not by inheritance, like we would pass on material things or money. In some religions, children are born into the faith by virtue of their parents.
God has no grandchildren and God has no great grandchildren. Our children are not saved by virtue of our faith in God. We must nurture them so that they will accept Jesus as their own personal Lord and Savior. Paul was saying to Timothy, like he is saying to us today, Protect and Gospel. The Gospel is a treasure; guard it. Think about the history of our faith. For more than 2, years, Christian has been in existence. There have been efforts to destroy it through persecution and wipe it from the earth. But because those faithful believers before us protected the faith and guarded the treasure of the Gospel, the Christian faith is still alive.
Christianity is the largest religion in the world today. There are three major ways we can guard the treasures of the Gospel, according to Paul.
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First, we must fan our faith. Our faith is like that. We need to fan the flames of faith. To fan the flames means keep our faith alive and to deepen our knowledge about it. During the days of Timothy, some people accused Christianity of being a foolish faith because their God died on the cross. Today we have similar challenges. In this book, the author addressed some problems and objections people have with Christianity.
One of those problems is about suffering. How can a good God not send rain so this child and mother could have food and water? What these people failed to realize is that we humans have the power to end the suffering of one another. This is why in James Then there is the question of suffering itself. Why is there suffering in the world? The book of Job teaches us that most suffering comes as temptations from Satan to destroy our faith. God uses that temptation as a test of our faith. Other times suffering comes as a result of our own sins.
When we disobey God, the result is usually suffering. A Christian professor gave the example of a bear caught in a trap. A hunter comes by and wants to free the bear from the trap. The best way to help the bear is to shoot him full of drugs to calm him and open the trap door. We must guard the Gospel and help people understand God is not the cause of suffering. God allows suffering to prove to Satan we who follow Christ will not give up our faith because we go through hard times; those who follow Christ will not suffer alone; the Good News is true and pure.
The universe was made for our good. As we fan the flame of faith, we will deepen our understanding of God and understand that God wants only the very best for us. These misinterpretations and misunderstandings of God can cause people to reject Christianity. Just as Paul told Timothy, so he tells us today to fan into flame the gift of faith, which God has given us. Keep it burning by studying the Word of God. We must fan the flame of our faith. The second way to guard and protect our faith is that, we must flaunt our faith.
We must not be embarrassed by our faith. A group of people went out to eat. There was a boy whose mom only had one eye. She was an embarrassment to him. She cooked for students and teachers to support the family. One day during elementary school, his mom went to say hello to him and he was so embarrassed that he ignored her, gave her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, "EEEE, your mom only has one eye! He also wanted his mom to just disappear. He wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her, so he studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study.
Then he got married, bought a house of his own and even had kids of his own. He was happy with his life, his kids and the comforts. Then one day, his mother went to visit him. When she stood by the door, his children laughed at her, and he invited her in but was embarrassed to introduce his children to their grandmother. After a brief moment , his mother quietly got up and left, and she disappeared out of sight. One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to his house. After the reunion, he went to the old shack where they used to live just out of curiosity.
The neighbors said that his mother had died. He did not shed a single tear. They handed him a letter that she had wanted him to have. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. So I gave you one of mine. I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. The boy was ashamed of himself. How did he not know? Why was he embarrassed for his wonderful loving mother who gave him one eye so he would have two eyes? My friends, think about the suffering Christ endured on the cross.
The pain, the agony and the anguish were all because of us. Christ gave his life that we may have eternity. His body was broken when he fell while carrying the cross. His body was broken when they placed the crown on his head. His body was also broken when they pierced him in his side. He gave his life for us to have salvation. This mystery has been entrusted to us to share. We must not keep it a secret. The third way to protect the Gospel is by being faithful to the Gospel. In verse 11 and 12 Paul wrote: The best we can do is be faithful to God.
There was an interview with the great Evangelist Billy Graham. Graham if he expected great rewards in heaven for the millions of lives he had impacted through his worldwide ministry. Billy Graham said that he was not sure of the extent of his own rewards, God is the final Judge, but he was certain that others would have greater rewards than he.
For nearly 80 years, the sweet lady has been faithful to her Lord. She has been constantly praying, and reading the Bible daily. At the close of the interview, Billy Graham said these last words: We are called to be faithful. The year was World War I had been raging for four years. Even before the Allied nations and Germany decided to end the war, all sides had agreed to end all hostilities on November 11, This was a time of great sadness and great hope.
It was time of sadness because so many had died defending freedom and democracy. Some stood through for the red, white and blue. And some had to fall.
Highways and Byways in Sussex/Chapter 34 - Wikisource, the free online library
Everyone gives something in times of crises. Those who work in the factories, those who take care of the home, those who pray for the soldiers and welcome them home, all gave some. But there are those who lost their limbs, other body parts, their minds and even their lives. These are the ones who gave all. Their service was a sacrifice on the altar of love for God and country.
We salute all Veterans on this day. Veterans Day reminds us that we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where selfishness and greed for power can lead to anger, violence and war. Jesus did warn us in Matthew 24 that there would come a time when we will hear the noise of battles close by and the news of battles far away. He told us that countries will fight each other, and nations will rise up against nations.
We have seen in the history of the world the rise of many kingdoms and powers, each trying to dominate the world. We remember from the Bible how the Babylonians and the Assyrians conquered nations and killed so many people. We remember the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans and their domination of the world. We know in recent history, Communism, which does not believe in God, wanted to take over the world, and may still be trying to do so.
Recent history tells us how Hitler killed six million Jews and had plans to take over the world. We do not live in a perfect world. Saint Augustine, who was a bishop in North Africa during the 5th century, knew that our world was not perfect. For this reason, he became one of the first to talk about how sometimes war can be justified. Some of these principles state: A just war can only be fought after all options are considered first. A just war can only be fought to correct a wrong such as self-defense.
The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. The weapons used in war must not be used against civilians. Civilians are never the targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. But we have seen lately how the weapons of war have been used against civilians in Las Vegas where over 50 people were gunned down and recently at a church in Tennessee where over 25 people were shot to death. We know in the book of Revelation A more serious war is the spiritual war we Christians have to fight every day. What made a man want to shoot people from a hotel window or enter a place of worship and kill worshippers?
It has to be some darkness, a deep sadness that overtook their souls. If you look at all the cases where people shot and killed others, underneath it all are emotional and spiritual problems. People call it mental illness. The Bible calls it being possessed by a strange and evil spirit. We battle against anger, and rage, and bitterness, and disappointment. Is that what we want to turn ourselves into?
Think about all the accidents that might happen, with guns going off. Think about how many children might get hurt trying to reach a gun that is nearby while their dad or mom is busy listening to the message or singing to the glory of God. Our first answer is always prayer. We will continue to pray to keep us awake and alert. And if by chance some mad person enters the church to kill us, God will prepare us to face it; and if we die doing what we love, which is serving God, so be it. Five were wise and brought extra oil, which represents faith, while five were foolish and did not take extra faith.
So when the bridegroom was delayed, they fell asleep. When the bridegroom finally came, they woke up but the five foolish ones ran out of oil. This parable represents Christian believers and we are encouraged to be alert, alive and prepared at all times. We must have enough faith for times when things might look like Jesus is nowhere around.
In First Thessalonians 5, Paul was talking about the return of Jesus and what that day will be like. He said it would be like a thief in the night. It will be totally unexpected. It will come as suddenly as pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape. We look forward to the day when Christ will come again. Paul compared Christians to soldiers. Breastplate and helmets are what the soldiers in the Roman army used to wear.
As we celebrate Veterans Day and remember all those military heroes who fought to defend this land and fought for freedom and democracy, I want to tell you, as Christians, you are also Veterans in the Lord. We are soldiers of Christ. Paul used this same language in Ephesians when he told them that our battle is against principalities and powers, of wickedness in high places. Our fight is against those vices that lead to war. Pride, selfishness, greed for power, and hatred for others have led to war.
Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and all the generals, regular soldiers and other national and local war heroes fought against those who would seek to harm us, so we celebrate them on Veterans Day. But there is another kind of war; there is the spiritual warfare that we must engage in each and every day. Our enemy is Satan who is trying to steal our joy, kill our happiness, and destroy our relationship with Christ. Satan wants to bring division within families, strife between friends, and confusion in the minds of our children.
We must remember we are soldiers of Christ. As we celebrate Veterans Day, we also celebrate Jesus Christ, the greatest Veteran of all who fought a cosmic battle against Satan and defeated him. Our battle is every day. In Ephesians 6 as he did in this reading, Paul wants us to put on the whole armor of Christ in readiness for battle. Truth as a belt around the waist, righteousness as our breastplate, shoes of readiness to proclaim the Gospel, faith as a shield, and sword of the Spirit of God.
But the hymn has become a part of the church tradition with words that remind us that we are soldiers of Christ: In a recent newspaper article, a journalist wrote about war and Veterans Day. But I'm overwhelmed with admiration for those people who answer their country's call when duty requires it. It's about brutality and savagery and a sort of inhumanity. But its other side brings about striking nobility in those who serve for a just cause. They are the ones who exemplify duty and sacrifice for the welfare and safety of others.
Duty and honor and responsibility are still noble ideals to which young people rise in the service of their country. I salute those who have served and I honor those who still answer their country's call of duty. This journalist is right. While we wait for the second coming of Christ, we must be alert. As long as there are dictators and tyrants, as long as there are evil people, as long as women and children are threatened and freedom is placed at risk, there will be a need to stop the bloodshed.
The men and women in the military do it. The firefighters and other heroes do it and we thank them. Many of these brave men and women come home with post-traumatic stress disorders and other forms of mental illness. We must not forget them because they have come home. They will always remain our heroes.
JR Martinez is a veteran of the Iraq war. One afternoon, while on patrol, their humvee hit a land mine. After 32 operations he is not the same, but he has a positive attitude. Today he is a motivational speaker and helps to raise money for other veterans. May we continue to honor them for all they continue to do. May we continue to be faithful soldiers for Christ as we fight our own battles each day. There are thousands of organizations around the world.
These thousands of organizations have millions of members. But there is one major difference between all these thousands of organizations and the church. In all of these organizations, when one member dies, their membership in that organization ends. But there is one organization that is different and that is the church. As members of the Church, the Community of Faith, the Fellowship of Believers, the Body of Christ, we belong to the only organization in the world where our membership does not end when we die. When we become rooted and grounded in Christ, our membership with the church continues even after we die.
This is because the membership of the church extends into heaven. When we think about the church, it is both human and divine; it is both on earth and in heaven. Today, on all saints Sunday, we celebrate the church on earth with its connections in heaven. In the first century, as the church grew and expanded, the early leaders decided they needed a way to help those who were converting to the faith and coming to be baptized. Before the new converts were baptized, they had to go through a time of instruction so that they would learn a little more of the faith they were joining and becoming a part of.
The church leaders also wanted a way to maintain and preserve the essential doctrine of the Christian faith. November 1 st was set aside to remember all the saints of the church who were killed for their faith. In Acts chapter 7, we see the first martyr of the church was Stephen. A martyr is someone who is killed because of their faith; they are also known as witnesses to the power of God. It is those believers we come to celebrate.
On this day we also celebrate the lives of all those believers who lived their faith among us in our local churches; they passed away into glory and are now with the Lord Jesus Christ. They are also saints because they were sanctified by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and served him until they died. They are our friends, our parents, our sisters and brothers, our children, our relatives and all who belonged to the church. We believe those who have died in the Lord are with the Lord in heaven.
The church on earth and in heaven is the communion of saints. We do not live our faith alone and in isolation. We are connected to one another and to those who went before us. The letter to the Hebrews was written to a community of Christians going through a time of challenges and opposition. Since the letter is to the Hebrews, many scholars believe the letter was written to Jews who had converted to Christianity and accepted Jesus as the Messiah.
It seems these Jewish Christians were under pressure to abandon their faith in Jesus and return to their old ways. Anybody who decides to follow Jesus will come under pressure to abandon his or her faith. Today the church is under pressure to change to Bible to accommodate the world. We must put the Word within us and let it change us. Unfortunately, there were people trying to change these Jewish Christians and so the letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage them to be strong.
The writer reminded them that Jesus was indeed the perfect High Priest who was greater than Moses. This was a letter of encouragement for them to stay on the path of their faith. As a way of encouraging them, the writer gave them a list of faithful believers that included Abraham, Noah, Moses and the prophets.
These heroes of faith, as we know them, were steadfast in their faith and never gave up. Some even died for their faith. It is uplifting to know we have a great cloud of witnesses with us as we strive to live our faith each day. Simply said; we need each other! Where there is no union there can be no communion. There is strength in numbers and to know we are not alone is inspiring. In Hebrews 12, the writer compared the Christian faith to a race. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. This is what the great cloud of witnesses is like. While we are on earth, there are no spectators to this race of faith.
We are all in the race together. But when we die, we join the organization in heaven and cheer those still on earth in the race. They are believers in heaven watching us and cheering us on the race of faith.
They are John Wesley and Charles Wesley cheering us on. The cloud of witnesses includes all those who died from this congregation Carol Zimmerman and Heath Ferrie, Lorna Mack and Evelyn Haller, just to name a few, who are cheering us on so that we will finish the race and not give up. Listen and when we do something to the glory of God, you will hear the applause of the communion of saints. When we stumble and fall in the race, the communion of saints will never boo us but they will tell us not to give up but to keep on running. We know Jesus is at the end of the race to meet us, greet us, and welcome us home.
One of the popular things today is the idea of having a life coach. A life coach is someone you employ to motivate you in your personal and professional development. This person helps you clarify your goals and decide what you want to encourage. On a regular basis, your life coach will call you to share advice with you, offer you guidance, help you plan, and hold you accountable for your actions.
Life coaches help people with confidence, self-esteem, relationships, career change, balancing life, self-care, living your purpose, anger and many other issues. The communion of saints is like this life coach, encouraging, inspiring, motivating and challenging us to be our best. It is like we all become a life coach for one another, building each other up, not trying to tear one another down. Many years ago, two doctors from the University of Oklahoma were having dinner. The people in the Town called Bangor seem to have a lot of heart problems and many have died from a heart disease.
But in the Town called Roseto, the people are very healthy. I wonder what is going on? They decided to undertake research of the two towns to find out why one town was so sickly and had many heart problems whole the other one was so healthy. This set in motion a major research project. The research showed that Roseto was made of about 3, people. Every home in the town had three generations living in it and the sense of community was very tight. They cared for each other, supported one another, and always encouraged one another.
Teams of medical researchers spent time in Roseto, trying to determine why the rate of heart attack was so much lower than nearby Bangor. People in Roseto shared a typical American diet. Was it healthy habits? People in Roseto smoked as much as people in neighboring towns and exercised as little as people in neighboring towns, and met the national average for obesity and high blood pressure.
Was it the physical environment? No, there was no significant difference between Roseto and neighboring towns such as Bangor. In the end health officials tracked the secret to good health in Roseto for its close sense of community and its very strong bonds of family and friendship. The head of the research team wrote in his report: We have an effect on one another. We are blessed to belong to an organization that is eternal. That organization is the church, which has no beginning and it has no end.
Jesus Christ brought the church from heaven and established it on earth. Before he brought it to earth, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, all belonged to it. Later, Stephen, the apostles, and all Christian believers who lived and died in the faith, joined them. We are blessed to be a part of that organization. Today we remember that as we live the Christian life and run the race of faith, we are not alone. We have a great cloud of witnesses cheering us, encouraging us, inspiring us. That great cloud of witnesses is also known as the communion of saints.
Just as their membership in the church never ended so we know one day, if we keep the faith, we will join that group in heaven. But today we celebrate them as we remember and recall their lives among us. Let us live union so that we will have communion. May the Spirit keep this unity unbroken until we meet again. A story is told of a family that woke up when they heard their smoke detector in the middle of the night; their house was on fire. The father ran into the upstairs bedroom of his children and carried his month-old baby in his arms while dragging his 4-year-old son by the hand.
By now the flames and smoke trapped the little boy in his second story bedroom. Smoke moved around him; there was darkness in the room. I can see you! This is very much the point Paul made in Colossians 1. Before they met Christ, the people in the Colossian Church were in darkness when they met Christ. They were opposed to God.
They had their own guidelines for living and they lived for themselves. Before they met Christ, they had their own religion and their own way of life. They were like this boy caught up in a burning house, filled with darkness and smoke, with fire coming closer. They are in danger in a burning house. God rescued them from the Kingdom of Darkness just like God rescued us. Paul was in prison when he heard about what was taking place among the Colossians. One problem was that the Colossian Church was placing philosophy over the Gospel.
The problem was that philosophy is a man-made attempt to make sense of the world. In this way he had, from boyhood, become familiar with what amateurs of art call 'Salvator Rosa-looking scenes'; he loved to depict the sea chafing and foaming, and fit 'to swallow navigation up'—ships in peril, and pinnaces sinking—banditti plundering, or reposing in caverns—and all such situations as are familiar to pirates on water, and outlaws on land He was employed by Lord Melbourne to paint a ceiling at his seat of Brocket Hall, Herts; and taking advantage of permission to angle in the fish-pond, he rose from a carousal at midnight, and seeking a net, and calling on an assistant painter for help, dragged the preserve, and left the whole fish gasping on the bank in rows.
Nor was this the worst; when reproved mildly, and with smiles, by Lady Melbourne, he had the audacity to declare, that her beauty had so bewitched him that he knew not what he was about. To plunder the fish-pond and be impertinent to the lady was not the way to obtain patronage. The impudent painter collected his pencils together, and returned to London to enjoy his inelegant pleasures and ignoble company. Horsfield states that "a custom far more honoured by the breach than the observance heretofore existed in the manor of Eastbourne; in compliance with which, after any lady, or respectable farmer or tradesman's wife, was delivered of a child, certain quantities of food and of beer were placed in a room adjacent to the sacred edifice; when, after the second lesson was concluded, the whole agricultural portion of the worshippers marched out of church, and devoured what was prepared for them.
This was called Sops and Ale. John Taylor the water Poet, whom we saw, at Goring, the prey of fleas and the Law, made another journey into the county between August 9th and September 3rd, , and as was usual with him wrote about it in doggerel verse. At Eastbourne he found a brew called Eastbourne Rug: Possibly it was in order to contest the supremacy of Rug which one may ask for in Eastbourne to-day in vain that Newhaven Tipper sprang into being. The Martello towers, which Pitt built during the Napoleonic scare at the beginning of last century, begin at Eastbourne, where the cliffs cease, and continue along the coast into Kent.
They were erected probably quite as much to assist in allaying public fear by a tangible and visible symbol of defence as from any idea that they would be a real service in the event of invasion. Many of them have now disappeared. Eastbourne's glory is Beachy Head, the last of the Downs, which stop dead at the town and never reappear in Sussex again. The range takes a sudden turn to the south at Folkington, whence it rolls straight for the sea, Beachy Head being the ultimate eminence.
The name Beachy has, by the way, nothing to do with the beach: Richard Jefferies, in his fine essay, "The Breeze on Beachy Head," has a rapturous word to say of this air poor Jefferies, destined to do so much for the health of others and so little for his own! The air in the valleys immediately beneath them is pure and pleasant; but the least climb, even a hundred feet, puts you on a plane with the atmosphere itself, uninterrupted by so much as the tree-tops. It is air without admixture.
If it comes from the south, the waves refine it; if inland, the wheat and flowers and grass distil it. The great headland and the whole rib of the promontory is wind-swept and washed with air; the billows of the atmosphere roll over it.
Underneath the chalk itself is pure, and the turf thus washed by wind and rain, sun-dried and dew-scented, is a couch prepared with thyme to rest on. Discover some excuse to be up there always, to search for stray mushrooms—they will be stray, for the crop is gathered extremely early in the morning—or to make a list of flowers and grasses; to do anything, and, if not, go always without any pretext.
Lands of gold have been found, and lands of spices and precious merchandise: Seated near the edge of the cliff one realises, as it is possible nowhere else to realise, except perhaps at Dover, the truth of Edgar's description of the headland in King Lear. It seems difficult to think of Shakespeare exploring these or any Downs, and yet the scene must have been in his own experience; nothing but actual sight could have given him the line about the crows and choughs:.
Come on, sir; here's the place: The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, Show scarce so gross as beetles: Methinks he seems no bigger than his head: The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy Almost too small for sight: Choughs are rare at Beachy Head, but jackdaws and gulls are in great and noisy profusion; and this reminds me that it was on Beachy Head in September, , that the inspiration of one of the most beautiful bird-poems in our language came to its author—the ode "To a Seamew" of Mr.
I quote five of its haunting stanzas:. The old lighthouse on Beachy Head, the Belle Tout, which first flung its beams abroad in , has just been superseded by the new lighthouse built on the shore under the cliff. Near the new lighthouse is Parson Darby's Hole—a cavern in the cliff said to have been hewed out by the Rev. Jonathan Darby of East Dean as a refuge from the tongue of Mrs. Another account credits the parson with the wish to provide a sanctuary for shipwrecked sailors, whom he guided thither on stormy nights by torches.
In a recent Sussex story by Mr. Horace Hutchinson , called A Friend of Nelson , we find the cave in the hands of a powerful smuggler, mysterious and accomplished as Lavengro, some years after Darby's death.