Memory?
I saw it last year in Paris. And it’s pretty small. 30 inches × 21 inches. But there’s always a huge crowd around it. And everyone’s got their smart phones and cameras out. No one’s looking. Everyone’s taking pictures. Of the Mona Lisa. In the Louvre.
Maybe they want to remember it after they get home. (It always puzzles me why folks [including me] think their own pictures of famous places, pictures, and persons are better than ones you find on Google Images.
Gamble?
It’s a nice fantasy. You walk into a gas station, give up a dollar, buy one of those tickets, and you win a huge lottery! Now you can buy your own island in the tropics and your own NBA team! Nice!
(That fingers-crossed blue logo is that of U.K.’s National Lottery.)
Last December the Mega Millions payoff in the U.S. was $648 million, just $8 million short of the record set in a March 202 drawing.
The Mega Millions website gives you the odds of hitting the jackpot: 1 in
Jeffrey Arthurs: How I Preach
Jeffrey Arthurs: And this is How I Preach …
[Jeff is a good friend, and fellow-homiletician and fellow-member in the Evangelical Homiletics Society. It’s a pleasure to feature him on How I Preach.]
Jeffrey D. Arthurs
Professor of Preaching and Communication
Chair, Division of Practical Theology
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, S. Hamilton, Massachusetts
Current gig (preaching, teaching, etc.) and years at it:
Teaching
Identity!
The newest iteration of the iPhone, the 5S, has TouchID, Apple’s fingerprint scanning security system. Gone are the days of passwords to unlock your phones. Now all you need to do is put one of your fingers on the sensor and—voila!—your device is accessible to you and you alone.
At Barclays Bank in the U.K., they aren’t taking any chances either. If you call in, it won’t be enough to state your name and your bank account number, etc. Your voice will be analyzed
Marathon!
Janette Murray-Wakelin and Alan Murray. 64 and 68 years old, respectively. Amazing! They ran a marathon, every day, for an entire year. A marathon, EVERY day. 366 consecutive marathons without taking even a day off.
That’s almost 10,000 miles, running around the mainland of Australia and the island of Tasmania!
Every day of the past year, the couple rose at 4:00 am and set off. After 365 of these, they decided to celebrate … with another marathon to their home
Mark 14:53−72
Faithfulness in discipleship involves self-denial for the cause of Jesus, without concern for self-preservation.
But he denied [it] ….
But again he denied [it] ….
But he began to curse and swear ….
Mark 14:68, 70, 71
The “sandwich” structure (Peter in the outside stories, 14:53–54, 66–72; Jesus in the inside, 14:55–65) is a masterpiece of literary creation, especially in this pericope: Jesus and Peter are compared in two separate trials—Peter, too, was
Positive!
There is no doubt negative emotions do a number on a person. They tear one apart. Whether it be guilt, fear, anger, depression, or envy. They keep one from happiness and fulfillment. In a never-ending, snowballing cycle, such feelings only prey on a person’s joy, sucking it out of them. Like a dementor.
[For those of you unfortunates who have no idea who/what a dementor is, let me explain. They are a creation of J. K. Rowling, dark characters in her seven-part saga detailing
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.