Pastor Prince

Jesus cared about people nobody else cared about.  Luke 15:1ff says that tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to hear him.  People on the margins of society were attracted to Jesus.  Maybe it was because they felt his love for them.  Maybe it was also that Jesus condemned their religious leaders while never condemning them!   Verse 2 says that the scribes and Pharisees started grumbling about the fact that Jesus hung around with such people, and even ate with them!  It was scandalous.  These people were to be condemned, not welcomed and loved! Jesus responded by telling three of his most unforgettable parables: The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son.  In the first of the three, he pictures a shepherd who leaves behind 99 sheep to hunt one that was lost.  One sheep out of a big flock doesn't seem like much.  But this one sheep was valuable to the shepherd.  When he finds the lost sheep, he puts it on his shoulders and takes it home.  He gather

Most American congregations have big bare spots.  These are gaps in certain age groups.  The biggest gap is among emerging adults.  Emerging adults are people aged 16-30. Over the years, I've seen this gap grow, and have become concerned about it.  Last year, I discovered the book Growing Young by Kara Powell and others.  This book presents the results of studies of churches that have successfully grown young by reaching this segment of the population.  This book presents the following insights. Our religious landscape is changing rapidly.  The Pew Foundation has found that the portion of our population that identifies itself as "Christian" declined from 78% to 71% between 2007 and 2014.  During the same time frame, the number of people who claimed to be atheist, agnostic, or nothing at all grew from 16% to 23%.   Other studies show when these gaps in our congregations begin to appear.  40-50% of people drop out of church after high school graduation.  

The dark clouds of Jesus' crucifixion and death were gathering.  On their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples stopped in Bethany at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  These were Jesus' close friends, and he may have longed for their love and encouragement on his way to suffering. While they were reclining a table, eating, Mary walked in and went to Jesus' feet.  She took a pint of expensive perfume, poured it over Jesus feet, and began to wipe his feet with her hair. This was one of the most profound acts of love performed for Jesus in his life. Judas was offended at this action.  He asked, "Why wasn't this perfume sold, and the money given to the poor?"  The gospel of John says that Judas didn't care about the poor.  His main concern was the disciples' moneybag, which he kept and sometimes took from. Jesus replied, "Leave her alone.  It was intended that she save this for the day of my burial.  You will always have the po

I hear it often from people who are going through terrible grief.  "The Bible says, 'God will never put more on you than you can stand.'"   Many times, what people are really saying is, "This is more than I can stand!  What is God doing?" I usually don't "correct" people at such times.  Instead, I try to assure them of God's presence with them in their suffering.  But the truth is, the Bible never says, "God will never put more on you than you can stand." The closest the Bible comes to that is 1 Corinthians 10:11-13.  In this passage, Paul was talking about temptation.  He said that God doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can resist.  "The Devil made me do it!" isn't true!  Paul says that when we're tempted, God always provides a means to escape.  While temptation and testing are similar, they aren't the same.  The Bible gives lots of examples of people who experienced more