Mary Magdalene and Peter Video!

So, Chris and I did our Lent sermon for Easter morning. It fit perfect. I don’t think I did as well this time. I was SO nervous. Maybe even more than last time. But, I insisted on a video if I was going to do it again, just for you , my loyal readers! It’s more audio than video because we just have the iSight in Chris’ mac. But, you can see a little bit and hear all of it.  Enjoy!

 

Mary of Magdala

I am really nervous tonight. Tomorrow night, Chris and I are tag-team preaching for the first time. That is enough to make me nervous, but we are also acting. I am Mary Magdalene and he is Peter. We are doing this for our community services leading up to Easter. Each week a different pastor is a different person from the Gospel of John. The problem is that I don’t act. I never have and I think it may be the first thing in a long time that I have truly felt fear about doing. I can’t even seem to practice with Chris. My mouth is just like sewn shut. I think that I will be able to do it, but not until I’m in front of everyone and don’t have any choice. Of course that worries me because what if I’m wrong and I still can’t do it??? I think I can, I think I can…

 

Oh, What to Preach?

I’m going very slowly in my sermon prep this week. I’m planning on preaching on Luke 17:5-10, but I may use verses 1-4 as well.

1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. 7 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'” Luke 17:1-10 (NIV)

Verses 5 and 6 talk about faith and verses 7-10 talk about our duty to God. Verses 1-4 talk about sin. I think they really all go together, but I’m not exactly sure how. I think that we need faith in order to perform our duty to God without expectations of glory for ourselves. I also think that we need faith in order to continue to forgive those who sin against us and in order not to be the one “through whom (things that cause people to sin) come”.

So, I guess that is what I’m planning on elaborating on. I found it interesting that the Mulberry tree is known for it’s very deep root system. In other words, it’s not the easiest tree to uproot (it’sprobably the hardest). It’s great how Jesus always used the most extreme examples to illustrate His point. He didn’t pick just any tree with roots, but a tree with one of the deepest root systems. To me, that shows He’s God. Of course, people of Jesus’ time probably knew about the Mulberry tree’s roots, but Jesus, being God knew even more. And of course, He still knows more today.

 

Dry Times

I’ve been feeling rather dry and out of it spiritually the last couple of weeks. I got that cold and wasn’t feeling up to par physically and it just seemed to run over into my spiritual life. I haven’t been doing the normal amount of reading and praying for a couple of weeks and that always makes me feel like this. Also, Chris got a new computer. Our first Apple. We’ve both been especially obsessed with our computers this past week. We have been playing games online in competition with each other.

I told Chris about how I was feeling, just today at lunch. He suggested that I go walk in the woods somewhere. It was a great suggestion; I only had to find some woods that I could walk in. I managed to find some. There weren’t any “No Trespassing” signs, so I went for it. It’s so hard to find a good quiet place out in nature nowadays. Everyone is afraid of everyone else and afraid someone will sue them. I was careful to leave everything the same; I just took some time to stroll with God through His magnificent creation. I saw a deer blind at one point and while I don’t think it’s deer hunting season yet (I don’t really keep up with such things), I was glad I was wearing a very brightly striped t-shirt. I got away from the deer blind, too. I really didn’t want to be shot, but it was pretty quiet.

 

This is me “preachin’ it”!