Pastor Prince

What is a hypocrite and how do you avoid being one? In Matthew 6:5ff, Jesus called his followers to not be like the hypocrites who put their piety on public display.   The word "hypocrite" comes from the theater.  In Jesus' time, when actors performed in plays, they wore masks.  "Hypocrite" means "to speak behind a mask."   What a great image for putting on show of being something you're not! Some say Christ followers are especially prone to hypocrisy because their standard is so high: Jesus Christ! There's some truth to that.  But a hypocrite isn't a person who aims high and falls short.  A hypocrite is one who aims high, falls short, but says he hit the target! How do we avoid hypocrisy?  First, by refusing to put on an outward show of our spirituality.  Second, by being honest about our failings with our fellow Christ followers and others. Throw away your mask and be real!   The Lord and others will b...

I heard a teacher say once that we should only ask God for something once.  We should ask him once and trust him for the result.   But Jesus said something different.  It's something you can see in Greek, but not in English.  Greek has a verbal tense that implies continual action.  Matthew 7:7 is in that tense.  Jesus said, " Keep on asking and you shall receive, keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking and the door will be opened." So Jesus encouraged persistent prayer.   But about what?  We don't have to go to the Greek to find that.  In Matthew 7:12, he said, "So in everything, do to others what you want for them to do for you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."   Our asking, seeking, and knocking isn't about material goodies for ourselves.  It's about the power of the Holy Spirit to do others what we would want them to do for us.   Our persistent prayer should be that God wi...

Years ago, a friend told me about an interaction he had with someone who didn't go to church.  The non-churchgoer said, "I'm looking for something that will be the stack pole of my life!" We non-farmers may not understand what he meant.  A stack pole is the center of a haystack.  It's what you stack all the hay on!   So this non-churchgoer was looking for something to build his life on.  Something that would hold up over time. In Matthew 7:24-29, Jesus used different images to talk about the same idea.  Instead of talking about a stack pole, he talked about wise and foolish builders.   The wise builder built his house on rock.  A terrible storm came.   The rain came down, the waters rose, and the wind blew.  But the house stood because it was built on rock. The foolish builder built his house on sand.  When the storm came, it came crashing down! Many teachers say the rock is Jesus.  That's partially...

We all worry.  Though it's a pointless expenditure of emotional energy!   In the 2015 movie "Bridge of Spies," James B. Donovan (played by Tom Hanks) takes on the legal defense of the Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel (played by Mark Rylance).  In the following scene, Donovan is in court talking about Abel's bleak prospects.   "Would it help?" is the laconic question that expresses the pointlessness of worry.  That's because the obvious answer is, "No!" In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus make the same point.  "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"  No one can!  But Jesus goes farther.  He says that when we worry, we act like pagans.  We act like people who worship gods who are uninterested in them.  Our God loves us, knows our needs before we ask him, and is willing to help. So next time you're tying yourself in knots about worry, remember Jesus, and ask yourself, "Is this helping?"   ...

We're material beings by nature.  That's a constant of human history.  Seems we can never get enough stuff.  No matter how much we make, we think if we made just a little bit more, we would be happy! But in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus comes along and tells us not to accumulate wealth on earth, where we can lose it.  Instead, we should bank wealth in heaven, where we can't lose it. Makes sense, given that eternity is so long and life here on earth is so short.  But life here on earth is now and visible, and life in eternity is in the future and invisible! When we follow Christ, we enter God's eternal kingdom, and start living by its values.  The values of the kingdom are the opposite of those of the here and now.  The here and now evaluates people by how many material things they accumulate.  The kingdom evaluates them by how much they give away!  The list goes on! How do we accumulate heavenly treasure?  Jesus doesn't say...

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 ...

If you've ever been to court, you know that it can be an awesome experience.  The judge wears a black robe and sits above everyone else.  You feel the weight of his or her authority and the law.  Even if you're just an observer, you're impressed! The scriptures speak of a court experience we have ahead of us: the last judgment.  That's when we stand before God and give account for how we've lived! The last judgment is so awesome and personal that the scriptures use various pictures to describe it.  In Matthew 25, Jesus said it's like virgins keeping their oil ready for the bridegroom's return, like a master who settled accounts with his servants, and like a shepherd who separates his sheep from his goats at night. The apostle Paul said it was like an appearance before a high government official (2 Corinthians 5).  He also says it will be like fire applied to a house (1 Corinthians 3). The last picture in the scriptures is the great white throne...