Category: Death
-
You will see me…
Though I certainly don’t wish you suffering or pain, both are realities we all face and endure at some point in our lives. If that day is today, if this is your season of suffering, may you find some comfort and direction in these words. More – may you find…
-
Darkness covered the land… (A Good Friday Sermon)
I wonder when the sun shined again. Did the sun return that day, after Jesus was taken down from his cross, or did the darkness remain, as afternoon passed into the night? Was it dark, when they laid Jesus in his tomb? Did the sun rise with the dawn on…
-
Preparing for Easter
If you don’t preach, you might be surprised to learn that writing sermons for Easter and Christmas Eve are very difficult. Why? Everybody already knows the stories. Even if you’ve never walked into a church before, Easter and Christmas are still likely to be stories you have some degree of…
-
Coddling Evil
Yesterday, in a brief conversation with a colleague, reflecting on the recent tragedy in our community, she asked, “Why do we coddle evil?”
-
What broke him?
Yesterday, Nikolas Cruz entered the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, FL – a school he was expelled from – murdering seventeen innocent victims and injuring at least fourteen others. The press is already reporting there were “red flags” – expulsion, social media posts, strange behaviors, etc. …
-
The Unquenchable Thirst of Grief
I recently led a memorial service for a 23-year-old man, whose family attends my church. 23-years-old is obviously too young to die, so his death was unexpected, a terrible shock, and particularly tragic. After years of addiction, successful recovery, and then a recent relapse, he died of a drug overdose. …
vancerains.com 