Matthew 18:15-20: Courage to Love
Let me just look at you for a minute. Let me just enjoy seeing you all gathered here inside these familiar walls, on these familiar pews,...
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chudgins4
- Mar 7, 2020
- 5 min
Matthew 5:38-48: How To Pray for an Enemy
Today’s Gospel lesson is full of some of the hardest teachings in the Bible: Turn the other cheek Give more than what is sued for Go the...
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chudgins4
- Feb 26, 2020
- 4 min
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21: The Hidden Meaning of Lent
An old saying goes, “If you give someone a fish they eat for a day. If you teach someone to fish they eat for a lifetime.” There is a lot...
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chudgins4
- Feb 22, 2020
- 7 min
Matthew 17:1-9 Rise, and do not be afraid
Moses met the living God in the burning bush and in the devouring fire on top of Mount Sinai, and both times, it changed him. The first...
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chudgins4
- Feb 9, 2020
- 6 min
Matthew 5:13-16: Being Salt and Light
I want to start by giving you some literary and geographical context for the Sermon on the Mount, which is contained in chapters 5, 6,...
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chudgins4
- Feb 1, 2020
- 5 min
Matthew 5:1-12: Blessed Are You
Take a moment to think about your blessings, to count your blessings, as the saying goes. You might even jot them down in the margins of...
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chudgins4
- Jan 11, 2020
- 4 min
Matthew 3:1-17: The Come-to-Jesus Meeting
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath that is to come?” John showed up in the wilderness preaching hellfire and...
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chudgins4
- Jan 4, 2020
- 7 min
John 1:1-18: Word of the Year
Each year the Oxford English Dictionary issues its “word of the year,” the word or phrase that best encapsulates the mood or concerns of...
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chudgins4
- Dec 27, 2019
- 5 min
Luke 2:1-20: Great Joy for All People
What brings you joy at Christmas? Being with family? Enjoying the delight of children as they anticipate visits with Santa and their...
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chudgins4
- Dec 27, 2019
- 6 min
Matthew 2:13-18: And How Are the Children?
Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than...
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chudgins4
- Dec 21, 2019
- 4 min
Matthew 1:18-25: Love that Liberates
By rights, Mary should have been executed. If a man takes a woman for his wife and discovers that she is not a virgin “she shall be...
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chudgins4
- Dec 19, 2019
- 3 min
Mark 6:30-34: Oh rest beside the weary road
It was called “The Blizzard of 1996.” It was the worst nor’easter snowstorm to hit the East Coast in decades. It hit Virginia, West...
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chudgins4
- Dec 19, 2019
- 5 min
Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 15:4-13: Wrestling and Resting in Peace
Are you a “wrestler” or a “rester”? Are you the sort of person who is constantly wrestling with God, struggling to work out your faith...
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chudgins4
- Nov 30, 2019
- 5 min
Matthew 24:36-44: A Ready Heart
I never had much use for the Rapture. I think it’s bad exegesis, bad theology, and bad Christology. So all those years ago when the Left...
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chudgins4
- Nov 23, 2019
- 5 min
Luke 23:33-43: A Rugged Cross, A Ragged King
When Jesus left Nazareth, where his parents lived, he “made his home in Capernaum by the sea” (Matt 4:13). When Chris and I stepped off...
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chudgins4
- Nov 23, 2019
- 7 min
Philippians 4:4-9: The Peace of a Thankful Heart
Those of you who worship regularly at Butner Presbyterian Church know that I occasionally ask the congregation to participate in the...
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chudgins4
- Nov 9, 2019
- 6 min
Luke 20:27-38: Life After Life . . . Death Before Death
I want you to forget about life after life, put it right out of your mind and do not give it another thought. Don’t get me wrong: I...
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chudgins4
- Oct 19, 2019
- 5 min
Luke 18:1-8: Bothersome Widows and Limping Men
Back in the summer of 2013, like so many thousands of men, women, youth, and children who were fed up with certain actions being taken by...
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chudgins4
- Oct 12, 2019
- 7 min
Luke 17:11-19: Faith in Strange Places
If you can imagine a map of Israel, you might close your eyes and see the small Sea of Galilee in the North feeding into the Jordan river...
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chudgins4
- Oct 6, 2019
- 6 min
2 Timothy 1:1-14: Of Grandmothers and Mustard Seeds
“Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.” Can you recall a time when you were so discouraged that you...
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