Pastor Prince

"And who is my neighbor?"  That's the question an expert in the law asked Jesus in response to Jesus telling him that the way to inherit eternal life was to love God with all he was and to love his neighbor as himself. (Luke 10:25ff).  He was a lawyer looking for a loophole!   Jesus responded to this question by telling one of his greatest parables.  A man did something stupid.  He traveled down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and got ambushed by robbers.  They stripped and beat him, leaving him by the road half dead.   It was a road, so people passed by.  The first to pass by was a priest.  He was at the apex of the Jewish religious hierarchy.  He knew all God's laws and was supposed to be an example of following it.  Yet he passed by on the other side.  Went out of his way to avoid the man! Why?  Maybe he thought he was dead, and touching him would leave him ceremonially unclean, making him unable to do his priestly work in the temple.  Maybe

Today, churches like ours are known for what they're against, instead of what we're for.   That's not all bad, because we need to give a prophetic witness to our culture about sin.  But we're supposed to be Christ's physical presence in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit.  That means we should reflect Jesus' character.  When I think of Jesus, I think of him as one who was for people, who loved them as they were. Sadly, the kind of people who were attracted to Jesus are repulsed by us.  That suggests we're not reflecting Jesus the way we ought.  We need to explore what he would want us to be known for. A great way to start that would be to see what Jesus emphasized.  Luke 10:25-28 says that one day, an expert in the law stood to test Jesus.  He asked him, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  A critically important question.  When Jesus asked him what he thought, he quoted two scripture passages: Deuteronomy 6:5 and Lev

In one sense, it was good the church in Corinth was so messed up in its celebration of the Lord's Supper.  It made the apostle Paul address the true meaning of the observance in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.  He began by saying that their worship services were doing more harm than good.  Sometimes, worship services can be like that!  They're so messed up, they take us away from Christ! It seems early Christ followers celebrated the Supper during a larger meal.  That explains Paul's criticism that by the time the Corinthians completed the supper, some went home full and drunk, while others went home hungry!   This situation prompted Paul to remind them about what the Lord's Supper was supposed to be about.  Most scholars believe 1 Corinthians was written before the gospels, so this is the earliest account of the Lord's Supper we have.  On the night before he was crucified, Jesus shared a Passover meal with his followers.  But this was to be more than a Pas

One of my favorite movies is "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and one of my favorite scenes in the movie is the river baptism.  A white-robed crowd marches by Everett, Pete, and Delmar as they're feasting on a dinner of roasted gopher.  They're singing "Down to the River to Pray," and the song and the movement draw the boys down to the river.  Delmar wades through the river and is baptized by the preacher.  He declares that his sins have been washed away, and proclaims, "Come on in boys!  The water's fine!" One of the best explorations of the meaning of baptism is in Romans 6:1-10.  There, Paul is engaged in a debate with people who believe that people are saved by their faith and their works.  The apostle uses the image of baptism to demonstrate this point. Paul's opponents say that if people aren't saved by their works, they have no motivation for not sinning.  They can sin as much as they want and keep receiving God's gr