The Return of Christ — in Jesus’ Own Words…

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I remember a good man named Fred who came and spoke to me just a few months after I started in my first church. He said, “The previous pastor didn’t preach enough on the end times!”  I am sure Fred was disappointed in me as well, as I didn’t spend large amounts of pulpit time speaking on Christ’s return either.

The fact is that the return of Christ is an important doctrine. It’s something every Christian needs to understand. However, the kind of information that most people want to hear about the end is not what the Bible gives. And the amount of data many people want is not representative of the content of the Bible.

When Jesus speaks of the end, he speaks about how we should behave, not just as The Day approaches, but every day. As always, Jesus’ emphasis is on loving God by obeying him and sharing the good news with our neighbor, whom we are to love as well.

This sermon addresses the first verses of Matthew 24 where Jesus begins to speak of his return. As he does this, Jesus gives at least four action verbs that help us know what to do as we await his return.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Many Faces of London

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Today was a shopping day.

I can’t think of much more boring than shopping, except maybe watching paint dry — from a distance.

Esther, of course, is keenly aware of this, so she made it her purpose to entertain me. We did it, mostly, by making faces.

I can hear it now:

“So Esther, what did you do in London?”

“Made faces with my dad.”

A Nice Walking Tour through London

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Before we left the States, Laurel downloaded a walking tour from http://www.southbanklondon.com/walkthisway/TheGuides.html.

We felt like this was a safe walk, though I would not want to walk it in the evening. Turns out the walk was just under four miles in length and eating along the way at St. Martin on the Fields — in the crypt — was a bonus. It’s always nice having lunch while sitting at a table atop someone’s dead body. 😐

Along the way, Laurel dragged me through The National  Gallery where we saw works from Da Vinci and Rembrandt.  That probably added a half mile to our trip. It was nice seeing these images, but I’d have been just as happy seeing them in a book. As you may or may not know, I don’t understand a lot of what it is that makes art art.

London is an amazing place with neverending places of interest.