Skip to main content

The Lesson of The Glow Stick

This fourth of July our family went to Winter Garden to visit with Jennifer's family. Every year they have a spectacular fireworks show along the shores of Lake Apopka. You have to get there early to get a place on the lawn and so we did. We spread out our blanket and the kids were having a ball playing in the grass.

Then one of the vendors came by selling his assortment of junk...I mean, festive memorabilia. He had a colorful selection of glow sticks that you could make into loops for wearing or throwing, or whatever your desire might be. Noah and his cousin Cole had to have one, so off Jennifer went to run down this guy. She came back with two stiff and non-glowing plastic sticks. What a rip-off!! I had to ask, "Why aren't they glowing?" Apparently everyone knew but me as to why they were not glowing. "You have to break them first!", Jennifer said. So she took the small stick and bent it until I could hear something in it break.

Then, apparently, the two chemicals inside mixed together causing a chemical reaction and thus- glowing! It's pretty neat. Tonight we will be talking about the New Covenant that we have in Jesus. Jeremiah says that in order for us to take part in this promise God must give us a new heart and a new spirit. The old heart, he says, is hard, but the new heart, will be a heart of flesh - a heart that feels. How do we get this new heart? The Spirit takes the old heart and breaks it. He breaks the stone hard shell of sin that keeps us separate from knowing God and renders in us a heart that is open, feeling, listening, obeying, and glowing...glowing for the glory of Jesus Christ.

In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Mitch

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Generation of Mark 13:30

At the beginning of Mark chapter thirteen Jesus is leaving the temple area and one of his disciples points out the grandure of the temple buildings. Jesus' remark to that disciple concerns the fact that these buildings will one day be torn down. The disciples question Him further as to the times of these events, and so begins an extended teaching from Jesus on the end times.As Jesus' remarks are drawing to a close, He makes this comment in Mark 13:30: "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." (NASB) So the reader is left to wonder the meaning of this statement. Either our understanding of generation is wrong, or we are understanding what Jesus meant by "these things" wrong. I think there are at least two solutions. The word for generation (genea: Greek) could mean, as some side column reference Bibles note, "the human race". This is possible, since the events have not all happened and the human race...
15 comments
Read more

Is That A Bible I See Before Me?

The Weakness of Islamic Evangelism Lately I have been struck by the testimony of those who have suffered at the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. One issue that comes to the front of my mind is Islamic evangelism. Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll spoke to ABC News of her captors holding her at gunpoint and forcing her to read the Koran, which she did. After several days they asked why she had not yet converted to their beliefs. Explaining that she needed more time she continued to read. Again the question came to her about conversion. Finally and saddest of all, she told them that she would convert because she feared for her life. But this leaves us with a strange view of the Koran and the way that Islam chooses to do their evangelism. If the Koran were powerful in and of itself, those who seek to convert Christians to Islamic beliefs would not need to use guns in the process. That is, you should automatically appeal to your most powerful source. The fact that they use guns s...
2 comments
Read more

A Hero Who Will Never Die Again

Tuesday began like every other day of the week and it turned out to be extremely productive. In fact I was almost to the point of being proud of myself for all that I had gotten accomplished in a single day. As I was packing up my things for the day to head home I decided to check the news headlines at CNN.com. About halfway down the page I saw the title “Bandit star Reed dead at 71.” To most people this would have hardly even given cause for a second glance, but to me it was something so much more. Jerry Reed was the co-star of my favorite movie of all time, “Smokey and The Bandit.” I do not argue that the movie is great movie, by all rights it is not. It is filled with foul language and makes a mockery of police officers, neither of which I approve of. But the movie holds a special place in my heart. When I was five years old my parents took me to see this movie while we were on vacation in Knoxville, TN. It was my first movie in an actual cinema. The images on the screen were captiv...
Post a Comment
Read more