PastorBlastor

Safe with Jesus! -- Matthew 8:23-27 By Pastor Lee Hemen August 4, 2019 Safety is foremost in the minds of many. Electronic and digital surveillance, digital safe guards, credit card, cell phone and computer virtual private networks, firewalls and virus controls are all selling well. But there is also a push for financial security, healthcare, and retirement safety. Keeping people safe at work, school, and in public places has become foremost in the minds of many. As alarmed as folks seem to be about their family’s safety and their own safety they disregard their spiritual security. I have heard many sermons and talks that teach about Jesus calming the storms of life and they use this passage as a foundation to do so. There is nothing wrong with this but it is used so often that we may miss the spiritual meaning here that perhaps Matthew and others wanted us to discover. We find that three of the gospel writers included this incident because it had such an impact on the disciples’ lives...

The short cut! -- John 6:14-21 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 25, 2015 Why is it there is always a certain segment within society that is willing to take short cuts in life. Whether it is deliberately tearing through the underbrush instead of staying on the marked trail or trying to get by with the least amount of effort in order to get their job done, there are those who think the short cut is the best way. There are even those who think that by simply applying simple scriptural steps to their lives will insure them a short cut to God's blessing. Nothing could further from the truth. We discover here in John's Gospel that there were those who thought they could take the spiritual short cut of making Jesus their king. And even some of Jesus' own disciples were open to this proposition. Interestingly within the next few verses we discover Jesus taking a short cut of his own, but rather than trying to make life easier, he does so in order to teach his disciples whom they were to...