Once there was a very evil city, on the shores of a great ocean. This city was full of wickedness and every manner of filth. They lived in great debauchery, and ignored the prophets who were sent to warn them. Whenever the prophets became impossible to ignore, they would persecute and kill them. In this …
Bank Robbers and Street Preachers
A certain man had embarked on a career of bank robbing. He had done this for many years, and he was beginning to grow weary of it. One day, after a successful heist, he was walking down the street, with his briefcase full of cash. He was wondering what he was missing in life, when …
Lining Up the Soup Cans
Once there were two homes, and there were the same number of children in each household-I think it was around four or five. But beyond this, the similarities in the households disappeared. One of them was clean and tidy, and the other was just a few steps short of a disaster. Now what was the …
The Son of Jesse and His Marketing Agent
When David was preparing to meet the Philistine giant Goliath, we are fortunate that he did not have his marketing agent with him. And David said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” And his agent said, “David, I really do not think that this language is …
Ah, Look at All the Lonely People
Once there was a very submissive wife, at least in her own mind. She wholeheartedly embraced whatever her husband asked of her, so long as she thought it was the right thing to do. She had very strong views on submission, and she pushed her husband regularly to make the right decisions, so that she …
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time there was a Christian people who had drifted from the right worship of God. They had, through laziness and unbelief, neglected to worship God the Father through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. In short, they ceased offering worship that was distinctively Trinitarian. As a result, this people …
The Real Reasons They Left
It was the early evening of the day in which Gideon had told his army that all who were faint of heart could return to their homes. A group of soldiers were gathered around their campfire, and they were explaining to one another why they had all decided to return to their homes in just …
Resentment By the Book
In his own mind, and according to his own rationalizations, Judas was the hero of the story — at least until the cold reality came crashing in on him. Once there was a hypocritical man who made a great show of his loyalty and faithfulness to his friends at a company where they all worked. …
Already in Rome
There was a certain minister who decided one day, while studying the Scriptures, that an appropriate posture while confessing sin was the posture of kneeling. He raised this as a possibility during a congregational meeting, and suggested that the church look into obtaining kneeling benches. To his surprise, the opposition to this suggestion was immediate …
Ah, To Have Been Submissive
A wise man once defined a classic as a book that no one wants to read, but everyone wants to have read. In the same way, submission is something that everyone wants to have done, but no one wants to do. As the old blues song puts it, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but …