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The Compassionate Life! – James 2:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 25, 2014 President Bill Clinton in response to AIDS activist Bob Rafsky at the Laura Belle nightclub in Manhattan, related, “I feel your pain.” It has become the quintessential “touchy-feely” comment of many and the laughing stock of others. There are those who think that humanity has the capability to develop compassion through shear will or a “shift in consciousness”. The Dalai Lama writes, “To be happy, we should devote ourselves to developing our own peace of mind; the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own peace of mind. Therefore, we must develop compassion for others in order to be truly happy.” There is one gigantic problem to this faulty thinking, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”! (Romans 3:23 NIV) and “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NIV) We cannot simply delude ourselves into thinking, “Everyday, in every w...

The Holy Life! -- James 1:22-27 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 18, 2014 Some believe that global warming is the biggest threat to the world today. In fact, many of the major news organizations came out on Monday saying that the Antarctic is losing its ice sheet and “there is nothing we can do about it!” Yet, according to the National Snow and Ice Data, Antarctic ice is growing at a rapid pace never seen before. Some thought, in the 1970’s, that the greatest risk we faced was global cooling! Some thought we would all starve to death by the 1990’s and yet there are more crops being grown than ever in the history of mankind. Every year brings dire warnings of MERS, SARS, AIDS, the Nile Virus or some other disease that is going to wipe us off the face of the earth. Yet, as I look at mankind and especially the life of Christians today, I believe that the greatest global threat we face is ungodliness seen as a normal part of the Christian faith. The holy life is no longer seen as hip or something o...

The Righteous Life! -- James 1:16-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 11, 2014 AM We live in a day and age where the theologically unaware think that being nice is the same as being good and that goodness is the same as being right with God -- nothing could be further from the truth! Just because someone can be nice once in a while does not mean they are good and just because some folks can muster up enough goodness to do a decent thing does not mean they know God. It shocks the politically correct crowd to learn that there will be a lot of good and nice folks spending eternity separated from God where the “worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:48) The truth is a lot of folks who think they are good enough or nice enough just aren’t blameless before God and “will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46) What is a righteous life? We know it was not being moral or pleasant because if it were Jesus did not have to die on the cross...

The Humble Life! -- James 1:9-15 By Pastor Lee Hemen May 4, 2014 AM I was just wondering about how we have sold our souls to the societal notion of Christianity. We no longer have a clue what it means to be humble before the Lord. At Age 32, Elizabeth Gilbert faced a life crisis of personal conscience – she did not want to be married anymore to her devoted husband or to have his children. Locking herself in the bathroom of her upscale home she began to pray over and over, “I don’t want to be married anymore. I don’t want to be married anymore. I don’t want to live in this big house. I don’t want to have this baby.” A voice, her own, answers her and tells her to go back to bed. Thus, begins her own self-focused “spiritual” journey. She goes through a dreadful divorce, moves in with an uncaring lover, and begins a self-ingratiating spiritual quest. Her final theological epiphany ends the way it began, from hearing her own voice speaking to her she concludes her highest religious dogm...