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The Victory! - Mark 16:1-20 by Pastor Lee Hemen April 10, 2011 AM Victory can come in many forms in our lives. Getting a good grade on a test, which we have studied endlessly for, making a promotion at work that we have worked hard for, or retiring in comfort and contentment. Parents see victories in their children all the time. Perhaps one of the greatest victories that were totally unexpected happened during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the USA hockey team beat Russia at Lake Placid, New York. It was called "The Miracle on Ice" for a reason because no one expected it to happen since Team USA had been badly beaten by the Russians earlier in the year. Today's verses in Mark show us a different kind of victory. It is one that does not give out gold medals, good grades, or future monetary compensation. It is the victory that gives anyone who believes in it the power over death and the newness of a whole new relationship with Almighty God. It was a victory that few expected...

Render Rightly - Mark 12:13-17 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 14, 2010 AM When I was younger we used to set small snares that would safely trap small animals like mice, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels. In fact, my brother Ed and I spent one whole summer trapping chipmunks, letting them go, and trying to tame them. While the taming never worked, they bit and clawed in a terror-stricken frenzy, the trapping went well. There are folks who spend their whole time trying to catch innocent people saying or doing things. They are called the press. Then there are the vultures known as the “Paparazzi.” It is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people. Then there are those who try to trap people with the words they use. These are called lawyers. In our lives we learn to render our words correctly from the time we are little and into adulthood. Like little politicians, children learn very ...

Authority! – Mark 11:27-33 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 31, 2010 AM From the time we are born, until the time we leave this earth, some of us will go kicking and screaming. The reason is we have a problem with authority. We think either we are in control or that we should be in control, when in fact neither is true. Perhaps this is why some of us need to be smacked right away on our bottoms when we are born! There are those who will spend their entire lives trying to be in authority. I have met college professors who thought that simply because they had earned a PhD they were to be respected and thought of as an authority. Sadly, these professors were usually the most detrimental in their teaching and garnered the least amount of respect. The question concerning authority, who has it and who does not have it, has been around since the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve decided they were in control. And here is the truth of the matter: We decide who or what is going to be the s...

Have Faith in God - Mark 11:22-26 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 24, 2010 AM We find that what many people believe about their spirituality is often influenced in unorthodox ways. Sadly, in the movie “Hereafter”, we find one such view concerning life, death, and the afterlife. It centers on three people touched by death: a reluctant physic who supposedly communicates with dead people, a woman who has a near death experience with a tsunami, and a London schoolboy who loses his twin brother in a freak accident. People often wonder what happens to them after they die it is one of life’s ultimate questions. People also long to communicate in some way with deceased loved ones. While mourning is different for each person, and thinking we can communicate with the dead can help some folks cope with loss, these misconceptions often allow folks to consider anything as valid. It has also created a lot of false teaching concerning faith. Christians have allowed the world to define faith f...

Of Figs and Phonies - Mark 11:11-21 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 17, 2010 AM George Barna does research for Christianity and faith practices in America. Recently he completed a study on the “Diversity of Faith in Various U.S. Cities.” It revealed nothing new, except there are some interesting discoveries. Of course, in the Portland, OR market, which includes Vancouver, WA, we discover that they had one of the lowest shares of self-identified Christians at 71% right behind San Francisco. In fact, 16% of this market identified itself as agnostic or atheist with 42% stating they had not attended any church service within the last six months! Notice that the figures do not add up to 100% and the reason is obvious: While many may consider themselves “spiritual” or even “Christian,” they are unwilling to specifically identify themselves. Are these folks hypocrites, phonies, or just plain ignorant of what faith means? Interestingly, during Jesus’ day he faced similar problems conce...

The King Comes! - Mark 11:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 3, 2010 AM Is it Passover time again? It seems as if we had just celebrated it! Last year, it was marked by the same dusty dirty pilgrims on the same dusty dirty road. Nothing much usually happens here in Nob. Being a suburb of Jerusalem people usually pass us by and leave us alone. Sure, some of the priests live here when they are in attendance in the temple, but nothing more than that. But then there was that year Yeshua of Nazareth came. How could I have forgotten! Let me tell you it was quite a spectacle. But he could not have done it without my old donkey Judith. She had given birth to a small little foal we named… but of course, I am getting ahead of myself! We were just standing around, gawking at the pilgrims, and telling stories about passed events and arguing about the taxes, when these men come up and begin to untie my new foal! I began to protest that they had no right to take my donkey, when I remembere...

Jesus’ Mission – Mark 10:32-34 September 12, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen “Hindsight is always better than foresight,” is an old expression that rings true every time because we can continually think of ways we should have done something better. We often want to know what the future brings, especially when it concerns what we may become, where we might live, or whom we might marry! As children, we may have wanted to become one of our favorite heroes like a fireman, policeman, soldier, pilot or sailor. But what if we knew what was going to happen to us in the future? What if we learned that what would occur was awful; would we still want to know? Some may think that it is good to know, however, it can be frightening to know what the future brings. This is why some folks think, “ignorance is bliss” in not knowing the future. Mark’s gospel presents to us an unvarnished view of Jesus and his disciples. It is wonderful in its simplicity, yet vibrant in relating the human conditio...

Rich Man, Poor Man – Mark 10:17-27 August 29, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen There are a lot of folks that think God smiles on them because they are financially well off, well educated, or have good looks. Nothing could be further from the truth. Absalom, King David’s son, had all three things in abundance and yet God did not favor the man because of his arrogant pride. In fact, Absalom’s prideful hang up got him hung up! There is a Universalist tendency that is creeping into mainstream evangelical circles that gives folks a false faith. In our day, people are being led to believe that if they live right and have spiritual feelings about Jesus, then they will be okay with God. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. We would do well to find the answer to age old question, “What makes a person truly rich?” The converse would be to find out “What makes a person truly poor?” The book by Irwin Shaw, Rich Man, Poor Man, is about a lower middleclass family and its three sibl...

The Permanence of Marriage - Mark 10:1-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 1, 2010 AM There is nothing permanent in life and folks would do well to remember this plain and simple truth. However there are relationships that are to last. Our relationship with Jesus lasts forever and our marriage relationship is one that is to last a lifetime. For many years when people claimed that the divorce rate in Christian circles was just the same as the world, it was accepted as a hard but true fact. But if we dig deeper into the facts, we find something quite different. For instance, when you take into consideration couples that were married and mentored within strong theologically conservative churches, the number of divorces compared to the world, drops dramatically. Folks who came to Christ after their marriage have a greater opportunity of developing a strong lifetime marital relationship. Counselors have found that if the husband leads in the relationship and determines that the coupl...