03/18/2019
I don't know about you but I tend to find pennies to be annoying. I was looking at one the other day, which is something I don't typically take time to do. I looked at the front side, In God we Trust, and I thought to myself, I need to give this coin another chance. It actually may have a good purpose for my life.
How often do we walk by a penny on the pavement and perhaps not pick it up because its value is minimal? How often do we receive pennies in change and think that they are not worth keeping so we just drop them in some donation jar? So we typically pass by pennies. What if we gave the penny a second chance?
What if we were to instead pick up the penny and give it a second chance as we pause to be reminded...in God we trust. What if we did this with each penny we encounter daily and understand that second chance reminder to us is that no matter what we are worrying about, read that message...In God we Trust. No matter what we are afraid of...the words are there to remind us...In God we Trust...In God I trust...
I am working to give the penny a second chance. It may not have great monetary value but it holds a message which I have the opportunity to hear multiple times each day if I just give the penny a second chance.
Rev. Patti Napier
Archived Posts
The Perfect Church
There is an old joke about the perfect church. We talked just a little about the perfect pastor, but turnabout is fair play. It goes like this:
The Clothes You Wear
Sunday I talked about Joshua the High Priest having his filthy clothing replaced by a cleaned and beautiful garments. I also used the illustration of a boy becomes a dragon—who ‘wears’ dragon scales—and is stripped of those scales in order to be restored to a boy. In fact, I could have done the whole sermon around all the clothing imagery in scripture.
What just missed the cut for Sunday’s Sermon
Naaman’s servants may actually become one of the hidden gems of the sermon. They say, essentially: “If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it.”
One of the Longest Benedictions I Ran Out of Time to Share
Maybe you know the story of how Joseph and Mary accidentally left Jesus at the gas station on their way home from Jerusalem. Well, not the gas station bathroom in Jesus’ case. Joe and Mary are far down the road before they realize Jesus isn’t with them...
So many quips and quotes...
So little time to preach
I wonder what Mary and Martha’s phones might look like:
* Martha = the open browser with 27 tabs
* Mary = the single window that matters
* Psalm 46 = God saying, “Close the tabs.”
Quotable Outtakes That Didn’t Make the Sermon This Week
“When you try to control everything, you don’t just exhaust yourself—you quietly replace trust in God with trust in you.” & more
There is a challenge when it comes to preaching the Word of God.
Preachers are called to open up and interpret the word—inspired and written down thousands of years ago—and make it relevant to a very different world. On top of that there’s a degree of persuasion that goes along with the process.