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Bartimaeus – Mark 10:46-52 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 26, 2010 AM I watched a news story the other night that related how a man had noticed that his eyesight was being adversely affected. He had returned from a trip overseas and began to notice that he began to have headaches and his vision was getting worse. What the ophthalmologist discovered was kind of weird and scary. The man had a worm in his cornea. Evidently, he had been infected with this parasite while on vacation. Only 15 cases of this have ever been recorded. The doctor was able to kill it by using a laser. However, the man’s eyesight may never return to normal. How awful would that be, finding out your eyeball was infected with a parasite? Ugh! I guess that out of all the senses I have, my sight would be one of the most important to me. In today’s passage of Mark, we find a man whose whole life was one of darkness. In Jesus’ day, if a person was born blind, people thought that either you had sinned or perhap...

The Disciples’ Mistake - Mark 10:35-45 September 19, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen School had just ended and Tyler was eager to leave the campus for several reasons: One, because school was so boring to him and, two, his mother was picking him up in their clunky old van. He didn't want anyone to see him with his mother or get into that rotten old van. Of course being the great mother she was, she parked the “hunk-of-junk” right smack dab in front of the school where it could easily be seen by pretty much everyone. So, having been already embarrassed that he had to be seen getting picked up by his mother in their trashy old van, he reaches for the sliding door, and the slider just keeps right on sliding and does not stop. It falls off its rail and clunks right onto the parking lot. His mortification did not end there though, Tyler then had to trudge to the wood shop and ask for a screwdriver to fix it! One of life’s wonderfully embarrassing moments. Have you ever had one o...

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...

Leave Everything Behind! - Mark 10:28-31 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 5, 2010 AM In March of 2002 Petty Officer Neil Roberts, a U.S. Navy SEAL fell out of a stricken helicopter during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. According to a Pentagon report, Roberts survived the fall, and then held off Al Qaida and Taliban fighters for over 30 minutes, firing a belt-fed machine-gun. The terrorists finally overran Roberts’ position and killed him at close range, after his gun jammed. Believing that Roberts might still be alive, U.S. Special Forces mounted two rescue attempts. Six other Americans—including two airmen—died in the fighting that followed. The battle finally ended with the recovery of Roberts’ body, the evacuation of other casualties, and Air Force gunships raking the area with cannon fire. The effort to rescue Petty Officer Roberts typifies the military credo of “leave no man behind.” In Christianity, there is a credo that has all but been forgotten in our day and age....