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The Crumbs Are for the Dogs – Mark 7:24-30 March 28, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen The late Leona Helmsley was a billionaire New York City hotel operator and real estate investor. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname “Queen of Mean.” When she died, she instructed that $8 billion of her real estate go to the care of dogs. This is from the woman who said, “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Interestingly, surveys show that over 45 million households own a dog. Some are service dogs. Others are used for security or hunting. More than a few have been inherited by parents of college age children who left them behind. But most are kept for companionship or friendship. According to the American Pet Products Association, they estimated that $47.7 billion will be spent on our pets in the U.S. in 2010! Sadly, in some families, more time and money is spent on pets than on people! What would you d...

What Makes A Person Clean or Unclean? - Mark 7:1-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 21, 2010 AM It is amazing to me that there are those who do not believe in God and those who do believe in God that presume to speak for God. Non-believers can have a false sense of security and self-righteousness by thinking they can just dismiss that God exists, therefore, justifying a kind of self-made morality. Then, there are those who say they believe there is some sort of a god, yet by doing their own thing, they live in kind of a spiritual fantasyland of their own making. For both groups feelings have become their personal spiritual guide. We find no such theology in the Bible. While the Greeks and Romans, of Jesus’ day, could be found spiritually in one of these two aforementioned groups, there were also the Pharisees who followed their own self-inflicted form of spirituality. They justified their pious imprisonment by saying their righteousness came from following the letter of the law. Jesus, in to...

Walking on Water - Mark 6:45-56 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 7, 2009 AM Over the years, I have heard Christians lament over the fact that they have never experienced the same kinds of miracles that they read about in the Bible. However, I suspect the problem is not one of miracles actually occurring but rather one of people's spiritual blindness to their happening. Plus, we forget why Jesus did many of the miraculous things he did at the time. Jesus was trying to garner the attention of his Hebrew brethren that God's kingdom had come and that he was indeed the promised Messiah they longed for. Jesus never did miracles for the sake of performing a miracle and in fact, he bluntly warned that only "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." (Matthew 12:39) Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection was that "sign." Here in Mark's Gospel we find Jesus...

Feeding the People - Mark 6:30-44 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 31, 2010 AM There is an old joke that asks, “How many southern Baptist does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer is, “Nine. Seven to form a committee on ‘finding the right price for light bulbs’, one to change it, and one to bring a casserole for the potluck afterwards.” Then of course, Southern Baptists are the only Christians who want to be buried with their favorite casserole dish – just in case. Do you know what the right of passage is for a Southern Baptist church member? To be able to name all the past potluck dishes served since New Years. Of course, you know you are a Southern Baptist when you watch the Food Channel and wonder how many of the exotic foods would taste in a casserole. We often take food for granted. It is reasonable that we do because we live in a country where food is readily available and cheap. During Jesus’ day, there was not a great variety of foods. Even those who could afford something di...

Losing Your Head for God - Mark 6:14-29 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 24, 2010 AM It is humorous that when some folks try and share their faith today, they end up endorsing what amounts to neo-paganistic superstition. From walking spiritual mazes to Christian chanting has become the latest in fashionable religious practice in some circles. Quasi forms of spirituality have always been used by those who feel guilt over their lack of sincere faith since the Garden of Eden. Take for instance one recent public service announcement where one starlet grandly announces that she believes in many differing forms of spirituality. What she is tacitly confessing is her lack of any kind of concrete faith. One wonders why. It could be a shallow attempt to excuse a life of ungodliness. Often, those who are caught up in a lack of faith desire to make excuses by trying to convince others that their own brand of spiritual superstition is just as valid as Biblical Christianity. Here in Mark’s gospel we find...

Men With A Mission - Mark 6:7-13 January 17, 2010 AM By Pastor Lee Hemen More than ever before God is calling men to minister in his name. Sadly, fewer men are responding to the call of God in their lives. Fewer men are man enough to sacrifice their time, talent, and treasure for the cause of Christ. The church has created a whole cadre of chaps that are weak-willed and willing to allow others to go in their stead. However, this has not always been the case. In fact, we discover that Jesus used men almost exclusively to do ministry while he walked this earth. Why would Jesus do that? Did he think that men could do a better job? Honestly, I do not believe so, but I do believe Jesus did have specific reasons why he empowered and sent out his men with a mission. From fishermen to tax collectors and even common laborers Jesus makes his chosen men into the apostles his church would need to spread the good news. They become men with a mission. We find that Jesus did several things before...

You Cannot Always Go Home - Mark 6:1-6 January 10, 2010 AM Pastor Lee Hemen Isn’t it funny how we often have fond memories of experiences that could have been quite awful, especially when it comes to our growing up years? I know I do. Here is what I mean: We could have had a very difficult time of growing up, say like being raised poor or facing some severe trials, but in retrospect we believe they were the best times of our lives! However, it can be a real shock when we try and “go home,” so-to-speak. We often find that going home can mean coming face-to-face with how people and places actually were and not how we fondly remember them to be. There have been numerous movies, plays, and books written, telling the tale of someone going home only to face the reality of their emotional, psychological, and spiritual past. One would think that the Son of God would be exempt from such self-examination, scrutiny, or emotional or personal confrontation that can come from going back home. Howeve...

The Wonder-working Power - Mark 5:21-43 Pastor Lee Hemen January 3, 2010 According to a recent AP story, a Colorado woman says a Christmas miracle brought her and her newborn son back from the brink of death after her heart stopped beating during childbirth and the baby was delivered showing no signs of life. “I got a second chance in life,” Tracy Hermanstorfer said. She was being prepped for childbirth at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. Her 37-year-old husband was by her side when she began to feel sleepy and lay back in her bed. Tracy's husband Mike was clutching his pregnant wife's hand when her life slipped away on Christmas Eve, and then he cradled his newborn son's limp body seconds after a medical team delivered the baby by Cesarean section. Minutes later, he saw his son come to life in his arms under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had inexplicably come back to life. The couple both credits it to the wonder-working power of God...

The Traveling Carpenter By Pastor Lee Hemen December 27, 2009 AM A weary traveler comes into view, sets his one piece of odd-looking luggage and a carpenter's long metal tool box down, and sits heavily down on a long row of chairs of a nondescript airport waiting area. He sighs big, checks his pockets, finds something to eat in them, and opens up a granola bar and begins to eat it. Looking around he discovers that he isn’t alone and addresses the audience. (He is busily checking all of his pockets for his airplane tickets.) I know I put those airline tickets somewhere in my pockets, but which one? Gosh, Mama is gonna be mad at me if I lost them and then there will be the hassle of going to the ticket counter and getting them reissued… (Finds the tickets folded up in his hat band.) Oh… silly me… there they are! I am getting more absent minded everyday! Now, where did I put that airport map… Oh well… I will look on the wall or ask someone for directions. Airports! They are all the sa...