Pathways Church | Messages

Ask people to describe life and most will depict it in the same way, as a path or road. The reason is simple: life is like a journey. It’s a voyage from one experience to the next – from one tribulation to triumph and back again. Jesus knew where the journey would end: today, crowds shouting Hosanna! By Friday morning, crowds yelling “crucify.”

Tonight we are revisiting a series from almost one year ago, "Lonely Planet". In light of COVID-19 and many around the world on "lockdown", its appropriate that we talk about loneliness and how we can find hope in the midst of it.

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty… Where your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and you have to peel your lips off of your teeth and all you can think about is water?

What is it that makes you loose your patience the fastest? For some, it is when you are at a drive through line at a bank, and the person in front of you is negotiating a second mortgage on his home, from the front seat of his car!! MOVE IT!!

In the Gospel of Luke 17, the writer records Jesus walking on the outskirts of a town. Some lepers were a distance away. Leprosy today is known as Hanson’s disease. It’s a horribly disfiguring illness in which nerve endings die, causing severe damage to the extremities. It should be no surprise, that Jesus healed the lepers, but it is their reactions, that we must focus on!

I know I’m not supposed to worry. I try not to worry, but sometimes it’s hard. Worry is bad for our health. In fact, our word worry derives from the Old High German wurgen, literally “to strangle, constrict, choke.” That sounds like worry feels, doesn’t it? Worry absolutely strangles the life out of me.

In just a matter of a few days, our outlook on the world has changed. Interestingly, the very topic we entered into 2020 talking about, is the very thing we need to put into our lives this week, in the midst of chaos and confusion.

Beyond the heart’s capacity to reason, 6,046 were killed every day in the Great War — a war that lasted 1,566 days. If we gave each fallen soldier thirty seconds of silence, we would be sitting still for nine unbroken years. Right in the middle of humankind’s greatest parody of hell on earth to date, a song broke into the darkness of World War I. The war had not ended, but light had dawned for a night. This moment in time, has become known as the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Imagine, you're at a wedding, starring at the Bride and Groom whom have just concluded their ceremony. Now freeze frame that moment. Everything seems so perfect. This man and this woman have just exchanged vows and rings and kisses. It is for keeps. Right?