The Blue Church

The entry originally prepared for today was a short piece on baptism. But I feel a little like Jude must have felt when he wrote (verse 3) that his little epistle had to be changed due to current events:

It sometimes seems that our greatest fear is newness, and we cling like moss to the rocks of our past. Of course it is not newness itself that we fear, for new cars and new jobs and second chances refresh us all.

On one of my first trips to Moldova, as I searched for my departure gate at Charles de Gaulle, I made eye contact with an elderly man. He was pulling a wheeled carry-on, and over one shoulder was a small, but heavy, backpack.

Just after we had moved to Pennsylvania, as I was making my first purchase at a local business, the owner asked my occupation. When I told him I was a pastor at The Blue Church, he (a lifelong resident of the area) replied, “That’s a pretty popular church, isn’t it?”

The very first thing I remember learning in Sunday School was the little rhyme, complete with folding-finger and hand movements,
Here’s the church, And here’s the steeple;
Turn it inside out, And there are the people!

Paul’s problem children in Corinth probably caused him more sleepless nights than all of the other churches combined. We have no record of any other first century church with more conflict and divisions, as even a casual reading of the Corinthians correspondence will show.

One day my dad took me to a nearby freight station, and we picked up a large carton. At the time, I had no idea what it was. When we got home, he took out the parts of a beautiful red bicycle, which he assembled and presented to me on my fifth birthday.

Have you noticed all of the people screaming at each other? I know there always have been hotheads, but it seems like anywhere you turn, whether near or far, you see red faces and hear raised voices. Why?

In order to finance the beginnings of Temple University, Pastor Russel Conwell gave one speech over six thousand times. He was a great story teller, and the speech survives online and in many print versions.

We’ve seen that our God is worthy of worship because nothing can stop Him, and because He is able to turn even the worst of things into good for His people.