Pastor Prince

What meaning can we find in our suffering?  Especially in suffering related to our current pandemic.  We wonder what God is up to in our world and our lives! In Romans 5:1ff, Paul gives us help.  If he hadn't suffered much, we could minimize his words.  But he suffered far more than any of us ever will!  He says that through our faith in God, we stand in God's grace.  That's a great place to stand.  We have peace with him though Christ, and his grace surrounds us and is in us. He says we can boast in our sufferings.  Not about what we do.  But in what God does in us through them.   Suffering produces perseverance.  Perseverance is the ability to keep going despite the obstacles.  Like the marathon runner. Perseverance produces character.  The word he used for "character" refers to something proven.  Perseverance through suffering proves us, grows us, makes us stronger. Character produces h...

Is there anything worse than feeling hopeless?  That things are bad and are going to be worse? That was the way many Israelites felt in Isaiah's time.  The army of the fierce Assyrian Empire was on their doorstep, ready to conquer them at any time.  Their leaders were weak and inept. Isaiah 11:1ff records that in that hopeless time, the Lord gave a message to the prophet.  The message was that a new branch would grow out of trunk of King David's tree.  God would endow that king with his Spirit, giving him the power to rule wisely and justly.  In this king's time, God would transform humanity, changing people from the inside out.  They would change because they would experience God in their hearts! Luke 1:26ff records that in an equally hopeless time, the angel Gabriel went to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary.  He told her that she would bear a son through God's Spirit. This son would sit on David's throne and ru...

I hope you've been watching Ken Burns' documentary on country music.  Especially compelling to me was a segment on how difficult life was, even in the early decades of the 20th century.  One of the tributary streams of country music was church and gospel music.  For many people, their only hope the life to come.  Plus, contact with death was much more intimate.   One of the early country hits was "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" by the Carter Family.  (Yes, I know we know it as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but "Can" was the original!)  The song is a lament about the passing of a person's mother, the dearest person in her life.  The grief of the song is deep, but the hope is high.  The chorus says: Can the circle be unbroken, By and by, Lord, by and by. There's a better home a-waitin' In the sky, Lord, in the sky! The people in Bible times had even tougher challenges.  In addition to the harshness of life, they also ...