Archives: Pastors' Corner

Yesterday I talked about God using Zacharias and Elizabeth for the birth of John the Baptist.  I emphasized the possibility of how their obedience to the Lord put them in the position of being used by God.  If you didn’t read yesterday’s post I encourage you to do that at the following link /?p=2190 .  But today I want to focus on verses 6 and 7 from Luke 1:  6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both […]

Ok, I’ll admit that I never saw the movie but for some reason the phrase stuck in my head as I was thinking about what to write this morning.  We are going to spend the week looking at the circumstances surrounding the birth of John the Baptist from chapter one of the gospel of Luke.  Let’s read the beginning section right now:  5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both […]

Today at Buffalo Valley we started a new series of messages titled “A-mail”.  The title is a play on words; though perhaps not a very good one.  We can send messages by “snail-mail” or even by “e-mail”.  My wife has coined the phrase “pee-mail”; a term used to describe what a dog does when you let it go outside.  Even if a dog doesn’t have to go to the bathroom, he wants to mark his territory.  That’s called “pee-mail”…by the way, I didn’t use the “pee-mail” reference on Sunday…didn’t think it was “Sunday morning message” material but I thought it […]

We’ve all heard the expression, “what do you give a person who has everything?”  Now in reality, none of us really has “everything”; but many of us do have most of the things we want that those who plan to give us gifts could give.  I don’t “have” an all expense paid trip to Hawaii; so I hardly have “everything” but I don’t have any friends or family who has the resources or the inclination to give me such a trip. But God is “someone” Who really does have everything.  So, if you want to give a gift to God […]

I apologize for being negligent in my blog this past week.  Today I wanted to share something that we talked about last night in our Thanksgiving Eve service since today is Thanksgiving. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.  Can God really expect us to “give thanks for everything”?  Can we really be expected to give thanks for cancer?  Can we be expected to give thanks for unemployment or death?  The answer to these questions is “yes” but I think there is a proper way to understand […]

A favorite type of question for teachers is the True/False question.  A statement is given and you have to decide if the question is True or False.  For the student, the good part about a question like this is that even if you have no idea, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.  But sometimes these type of questions are difficult because the test taker tends to “read into” the question a meaning or an idea that the teacher didn’t have.  Also, words like “always” or “never” can be clues to the answer or can bring confusion to […]

Have you ever had your child ask if he/she could have some pieces of candy and you answered, “You can have a few”?  Then you hear the hand go in the candy dish….and then you hear it again…and by the third time you realize that a “few” has actually turned into “many”.  This has happened to most of us…in fact, most of us have been on both ends of this scenario!  In the case of the candy, you really did mean “few” but the word “few” can also be a comparison type word.   Let’s read the words of Jesus again […]

Most of us have fairly “narrow” ways of living.  We tend to drive the same way to work each day.  We like to sit in the same spots at church or the movies.  We use the same toothpaste.  We drink the same sodas.  I’ve noticed when I’m shaving that I start putting the shaving cream on the left side of my face each morning and interestingly enough, I actually start with the razor on the right side each and every time.  It feels very strange if I try to change that routine.  I think that most of us are pretty […]

The narrow way in Jesus’ sermon on the mount has two different applications, earthly and eternal.  I’ve already talked a little bit about the earthly application so now I’ll focus on the eternal one.  If there is a God and if there is an eternity, then that has to be THE most important part of human existence.  I mean, even if you live to be 100 years old, that time span is a snap of the fingers compared to eternity.   In the Bible, there is an incredible emphasis placed on eternity, which is consistent with what you would expect.  And […]

Some people are the kind who enjoy taking the narrow path; the road less travelled.  They want, to borrow a phrase from Star Trek, to “boldly go where no man has gone before”.  They are up for the challenge and the difficulty of the narrow path.  Others prefer the comfort and familiarity of the wide path.  They are not as interested in the challenge.  Rather, they are comforted by the fact that many have gone down this path before them.  Neither of these approaches is “wrong”….except when we are talking about eternal life. In the context of eternal life the […]