It should be “MITE”…who’s in charge here?

Image courtesy of Free Bible Images.org… click on the photo to go to the website. Thank you.

The working title for Ash Wednesday’s sermon was “The widow’s might.”

My inward editor cringed.

How could this happen? Word strikes again, correcting a spelling to something more “normal.” I said nothing to anyone, because it was already published in several places, and broadcast. There was no way to bring back the embarrassment of the obvious mistake.

It should be “MITE”…who’s in charge here?

*Sigh*

The pastor began the sermon after reading the verse about the poor widow who only had two coins. All she had to give, she gave, and Jesus praised her, for she put in all she had.

“Most of you would think this sermon text is more suitable to Consecration Sunday,” he thundered.

“No,” he said gently. “This is not about how much you should give, or what you should give.”

Huh?

The sermon turned out to be about commitment and love. The bulletin described the title as “Widow’s Row” and he began to tell us about the pews full of widows who were dedicated to their service to the community. Bound together by their common bond, they spent their days in the church, together. Meals for the grieving, quilt guilds, raising funds, holding clothing drives and on and on.

The temple didn’t care how much she gave. No one noticed her gift except our Lord.

The widow’s love for God, to further the purpose of the community, and her commitment was the point the Lord wanted to make. The same point that He himself would prove in his love for us, by taking up the cross.

Yes, our widow was Mighty!

Appropriately titled after all.

What Are People Around the World Searching For in the Bible?

John 1:12 (from Inspirational Bible Verses.com – click on the picture for the link to their website)

For today’s post, my eye caught this entry from BibleGateway.com…It seemed to me that Christians would be very similar in their “bible culture,” for want of a better term.

John 1, one of my favorites (A copy of John 1:1-18 is at the bottom of this post), isn’t in our list in the USA. It is in China, Brazil, Russia, and Japan. Nigeria has mostly Psalms.

Take a look at these… I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

 

John 1 (NIV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomeit.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God andis in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Jesus is Love

Since this first Wednesday blog entry falls the week of Valentine’s Day, I didn’t want to just put up Paul’s discussion of Love from 1 Corinthians. It is often quoted, giving many people an inferiority complex since, as humans, our farthest reaching of care does not always meet the ultimate call of God’s grace. As Christians, we have various skills, and we can’t be everything to everyone. Paul makes that truth very clear in the previous chapter, 1 Corinthians 12, when he discusses the various gifts given to the church and how it all comes together for the common good.

So, for this week, Since we know that Jesus is Love (1 John 3:16), I encourage you to read the Love passage substituting “Jesus” for the word “Love,” discovering for yourself the power within those words. Both passages end this entry for your use.

1 John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.