The Prodigal Son – Servants or Sons?

Yesterday Northwest celebrated our 52nd anniversary with a Homecoming Sunday. It was a really uplifting day with those leading the worship being ministers who grew up at Northwest as children and later went on into ministry. Our theme focused on Luke 15 and the prodigal son. As Donny Dillon preached to us from that passage [...]

Gospel of John – Introduction

Author:
What is John 1:1 missing? John doesn’t identify himself in the opening of the Gospel. I guess you could say that he figured it wasn’t about him anyway. We do know that he wanted his reader to know that this Gospel was and is credible. He identifies himself as someone whose testimony is valid as [...]

Spiritual Snacks Will Never Fill You Up

I love snacks. I could snack all day. Chips, donuts, cokes, string cheese…I could probably make a list longer than all the types of shrimp Forrest and Bubba came up with. They are my weakness. What I have found over my years of snacking is that they never leave you full. Snacks are like throwing [...]

Parable of the Sea

Dan Kimball mentioned this video this past week on his blog Vintage Faith. It is called the Parable of the Sea and I think it is an excellent and eye opening video about church and what we can unwittingly turn church into. Lately, the word “institution” has been big in online circles in reference to [...]

Gospel of Mark – God’s Vineyard (Mark 4:1-34)

In Mark 3 we found Jesus being accused of all sorts of things and the source of his authority had been challenged. In Mark 4 we find one of the only blocks of Jesus teachings in the entire Gospel, which is probably a response to those attacks. All of the teachings have some connection with [...]

A Servant or A Son? The Story of the Prodigal (Luke 15)

In order to understand this parable you have to understand who is present when Jesus tells the story.
“Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable…”
Luke 15:1-3
Jesus [...]

Repaying $7,904,964,000 on a single income home is not an easy thing to do (Matthew 18:21-35)

Many of Jesus’ parables were totally outlandish because that was exactly the point he was trying to make. Who has a log in their eye, sows their precious seeds all over a path, and who leaves 99 sheep alone to go on a search for the missing one? The Jews already knew that God could [...]

Parable of the Sower – Mark4

For the text of Mark 4, click here.Mark 4:3 – “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed…”When Jesus explains the parable he says – “The farmer sows the word (Mark 4:14).”
I never noticed this before. I always assumed the farmer only sowed seed. He doesn’t sow the seed alone – he also sows [...]