Pastor Prince

It's the time of year for Christmas TV shows and movies!  Lots of them talk about "the true meaning of Christmas."  But hardly any of them present the true meaning of Christmas!  One of the few ones that does is "A Charlie Brown Christmas," that premiered in 1965.  I watched it on our black and white TV.  Even then, I was impressed with the scene in which Linus steps on the stage and recites the Christmas story from Luke.   This doesn't mean other specials don't have good points about Christmas.  Who doesn't laugh at "Christmas Vacation"?  Who doesn't get a lump in their throat when they sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life"?  Still, they present a hollowed out Christmas, a Christmas without its essential meaning. This week, we begin our worship teaching unit "Christmas Presence: God with Us."  In this unit, we're going to learn the true true meaning of Christmas ...

Joseph's story, told in the latter chapters of Genesis, is a remarkable narrative of faith and perseverance.  He overcomes family dysfunction, injustice, and more to become second only to Pharaoh. But his story is more than a lesson in character.  It tells how God worked him to save Israel, and ultimately, the world. The key passage in his story is Genesis 45:5-8.  There, he tells his brothers not to beat themselves up about what they did to him.  God had worked through it all to accomplish a great deliverance.  Had they not sold him into slavery, he wouldn't have been in Egypt, and they would have starved to death.  This part of the story prompts a debate about whether God sends bad things in our lives or he creates good in the bad things in our lives through our faith.  I tend to believe the latter, drawing on Romans 8:28.  God works all things to the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. Be...

Genesis tells us that Joseph found himself in a "pit" a couple of times.  First, when his brothers threw him into one, and second, when Potiphar put him in the dungeon.  Both were literally "low" points of his life!  The first time he was there because of the anger and jealousy of his brothers.  The second time he was there because of the unjust accusations of Potiphar's wife. Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the first pit and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants, who, in turn, sold him to Potiphar in Egypt.  Joseph's escape from the second pit was much more involved! Genesis 39:1ff tells how Joseph rose to being in charge of the prison.  Genesis 40:1ff says that Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker were thrown into the same prison. One morning, when he went in to attend them, he found them downhearted. They told him that they had experienced dreams the previous night, and had no one to interpret them.  Joseph offered to help.  He liste...

Lemons are sour, and when we have a sour experience, we say we've been handed a bunch of lemons!  One of my favorite sayings is, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  Through God's power, we can take a bad experience and turn it into something good. A Bible character who epitomizes that saying is Joseph.  His story begins in Genesis 37.  In our worship unit, we're going to see how he dealt with lemons in injustice, opportunity, and mercy.  We start with seeing how he experienced lemons in his family life. "Dysfunctional family" is a redundant term!  Every family has a degree of dysfunction.  Joseph's family had more than a little. His father Jacob favored him above his brothers, and that created terrible problems in his family.  Things got so bad, his brothers conspired to kill him.  But they saw a way to get rid of him and make money off him by selling him to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders.  They told their father ...

Why did Jesus come to this world?  Oftentimes we Christ followers say it was to redeem us from sin and give us eternal life.  Jesus came to do that, but it was part of a broader purpose.  His broader purpose was to bring God's kingdom to the world.   Jesus spoke of this mission in his first recorded sermon in Luke.  Luke 4:14-21 says that in this sermon, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2.  This Old Testament passage was a prophecy of the end times.  After reading it, Jesus said, "Today, this prophecy has been fulfilled in your hearing."  This meant the end times had begun, and God was starting to establish his kingdom on earth through Jesus!  This kingdom would be good news for the poor, as it would free prisoners, heal the sick, and release the oppressed. This passage tells us that the alleviation of poverty should be part of our kingdom work in this world.  Sadly, churches today tend to fall into one of two categories: Those th...

One of the many extraordinary things about Jesus is the way in which he reached out to people on the margins of life.  Our new worship unit focuses on how he did that, and how he calls us to do the same! Luke 5:17-26 tells the story of the paralyzed man whose friends lowered him to Jesus.  His friends took him to Jesus on a mat in faith that he would heal him.  When they arrived, the house in which Jesus was teaching was so crowded, they couldn't get him to Jesus.  So they went up on the roof of the house and tore a hole in it.  Then they lowered the man to Jesus! When Jesus saw their faith, he decided to heal the man.  He told him that he had been forgiven of his sins, and could take up his mat and walk.  And he did! This is one of many incidents recorded in the New Testament in which Jesus healed people.  Why did he do it?  First, it was a sign.  Luke 7:18ff says that John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask,...

The book of Job is a deep dive into the problem of suffering.  It's one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament.  Wisdom books like Proverbs often teach that God blesses righteous people and judges wicked ones.  But Job challenges that assumption.  In Job, a righteous man suffers, and struggles with what God has allowed to happen to him. After Job has lost everything and been afflicted with terrible sores all over his body, three friends go to be with him.  When they see him from far off, they don't recognize him.  As they draw near, they begin to weep.  They tear their clothes and fling dust in the air, which were ancient demonstrations of grief.   Overwhelmed, they sit with Job seven days in silence! Here, Job's friends show how we can be with each other in difficult times.  They went to him, they empathized with him, and they stayed with him.  Though they didn't say anything, their presence indicated their love and c...