Prayer as the practice of ongoing communion with God; prayer is not an emergency appeal to God but a receptive connection with God. Such prayer involves intentional focus; we need to “do things that draw us closer to God” (one of the Methodist General Rules).
The real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah according to the Scriptures – Ezekiel 16:49 “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”
You have a glorious future! But what if the present is not so great? Our ultimate destiny can shed new light on today and can inspire us in our earthly journey.
How do we get to heaven? Can people who are not Christians go to heaven? The Bible gives a clear – and perhaps surprising – picture.
Will we see our loved ones in heaven? From the prophets to Jesus to the book of Revelation, the Biblical Word puts forth the vision of “the feast of heaven,” which tells us a great deal about the destiny that we have through Christ, and how we are to live with one another now.
Many people today, if they think of hell at all, take it lightly; or they think of hell in simplistic terms. The real Biblical picture pushes us to think more deeply—to take hell seriously and to see the real hope that we have through the grace of Jesus Christ.
What is heaven like? The Bible gives us marvelous imagery, which points to the real nature and glory of heaven, with implications for our lives now.
Is heaven only future? Or can something of heaven take hold in our world now? Human beings seem far from heaven in many respects! But the Bible proclaims that as we trust in Christ we can begin to experience today something of heaven on earth.
Do people enter heaven at the moment of death? Or is there some kind of “resurrection at the last day” at the end of time? There is much confusion on this subject, but it all makes sense when we get the Biblical vision of eternity—a vision that can help us to comprehend events in life today.
The Bible rejects the two most common ideas that people have today about death—that death is simply annihilation, or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, that we have an “immortal soul” which by nature will never die. The Bible proclaims resurrection, which takes seriously both our mortality and God’s power to give life.
Human beings have speculated for ages about an afterlife, but is there anything to it? In the Bible, speculation is rejected. Biblical writers took a very skeptical view toward notions of life beyond death. Only a clear revelation and action of God could give reason to believe that there is something beyond the grave. In this new summer sermon series, Dr. Palmer will investigate the Biblical ideas of the afterlife and other religions’ perceptions of it.
Animals only talk in Disney movies, right? So what do we do with a Bible story in which a donkey speaks? Some of the most unusual Biblical stories carry a very important message for life today.
Is Easter the simple declaration that you get to go to heaven when you die? In fact, Easter is the dramatic conclusion of a great spiritual battle which unfolds on the cross, as Christ confronts all the powers of sin, evil, and death. There would be no Easter if it were not for what Christ accomplished on the cross! We need to connect with the whole story.
The cross is a bloody affair, and then Christians “drink Jesus’ blood” and “eat his body” in Communion. Yikes! What is this all about? The symbolism of the cross and Communion speaks profoundly about how Jesus brings us into new life.
Jesus received a mixed reception as the messiah. What was expected, and what did the world actually get?
In this Ash Wednesday sermon, Dr. Palmer discusses Jesus’ final words on the cross and what they mean for us today.
Humanity is clearly off kilter—we are out of sync with the goodness of God! How can our lives be set aright? We find the complete answer in the cross.
Does the cross make any sense? How can the crucifixion of a man 2,000 years ago save us? Many people today are not quite sure what to make of the cross. But in fact, the cross connects with us in a powerful way. It is, as Paul said, “the wisdom of God and the power of God.”
The way into a positive future may appear blocked, as firmly as the way was blocked for the people of Israel as they hoped to go to the Promised Land. But God can open the way.
God’s healing power can restore us, and that power can be at work in unexpected ways!