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Easter and Passover

As I age, words take on newer meanings. The words stay the same, but the conditions and applications change. When I now think of Easter, I no doubt remember Passover. As a kid, I remember perhaps being in third or fourth grade, and my daily ritual was to go to school and then after school in Detroit, I would walk to Hebrew school. (In Miami Beach I would also walk to the synagogue, and it was across the street from my school. There were basketball courts in the park between the two schools, and I honestly can’t remember if I […]

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First Love

It is time for the church, the Bride, to come back to a revelation of first love.  I write this with affection and value to you, church of South Florida, the eklesia. I thank the Father for you, who has stood firm and stayed planted in a dry and weary land where at times it seems there is no water. You, church of South Florida, have endured. This is no small thing. Unity across borders, boundaries and denominations has strengthened you. The Father is so proud. Unity will always command His blessing.  However, beloved, in the midst of enduring, in […]

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Easter Hope

These are very trying times. But the ultimate problem is the threat of death. Despite all of life’s difficulties, Jesus has taken the sting out of death. After a bee stung a boy one day, his young brother was frightened as the insect continued hovering around him. But his father told him not to worry – there was only one stinger in that bee, and his older brother had already received it. Jesus is our older brother, and He has taken the sting of death upon Himself. As the Apostle Paul would say, “Oh death, where is thy sting?”   […]

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The End of All things Is Near

“The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray” (1 Peter 4:7). Peter wrote these words for the persecuted believers in the cities and rural areas who lived in the Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatian, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1:1-2), the area which is the modern-day Turkey. These gentile Christians broke from the immoral lifestyle and idolatry of their communities, and in response, they experienced the dishonor of being physically and verbally abused (4:1, 3-4). The situation of women and slaves was especially precarious since they were expected to follow the […]

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A Commercial, Click And Connection

A few Sundays ago, I met a woman named Rebecca at a local church in Fort Lauderdale. After I had finished preaching, she came up to me asking for prayer and proceeded to share a bit of her story with me. Rebecca had attended a local church for many years yet after experiencing some pain and disillusionment with what she had experienced on Sunday morning, began to slowly withdraw and eventually walked away from church and her faith. Fast forward six years; a few weeks back she saw a He Gets Us commercial on WSVN Channel 7 pointing to the […]

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O Lord, How Long…?

“O Lord, How Long Shall I Cry, and You Will Not Hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). This question, asked by Habakkuk, was born out of a “burden” that consumed him. He faced a moral dilemma: how could a holy God — who had called Israel the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10) — now allow the pagan Babylonians to besiege and ultimately destroy the city of Jerusalem and take away the Jews into captivity? If we are honest, most of us have felt like Habakkuk. We, too, have been burdened by the seeming inactivity of our God. We too have bombarded the […]

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What Nicodemus Can Teach Us This Easter

It’s sometimes easy to let certain holidays pass by without taking the time to deeply observe them every year. Easter is one of those holidays that, if we aren’t careful, can be more focused on the kids finding all the Easter eggs or finding the right outfits for the family to wear to church than making sure we take time to meditate on Jesus and His sacrifice. At the start of this year the Lord placed on my heart the word remember. I’ve found that as Lent progresses, and we approach Easter, the action of remembering is most crucial. Recently, […]

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What’s So “Good” About Good Friday?

As 21st century believers, it’s easy to look back on the day our Lord Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and call it “Good Friday.” Our Lord Jesus willingly suffered and died in our place so that we might have eternal life by trusting in Him as our redeeming Savior. But that day was anything but “good” for the friends, followers and disciples of Jesus who witnessed the horrific events that took place. At least . . . that’s how it looked at the time. Jesus was sentenced to die by crucifixion, the most […]

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Students Experience A Deeper Level of Learning as They Study And Depict Stories of Redemption

Barefoot, hooded and clad in black, dancers from Palm Beach Atlantic University glided across the stage to open the true story of Rabeka, a South Sudanese woman who made vibrantly embroidered bedsheets to sell in her village market. A tragic shadow fell over the rich colors of Rabeka’s work as background music faded and the dancers depicted what happened when soldiers ravaged the village. “The women gathered as much as they could carry in a sheet and ran for their lives,” explained a narrator. “Rabeka was running with her bedsheet and her children when a soldier stopped her, grabbed one […]

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To Forgive Is to Obey

This year I’ve chosen to read the New Testament chronologically. Initially, I didn’t enjoy the process, but as I’ve read the gospel accounts leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross, I’ve thought a lot about obedience and its connection to forgiveness. Jesus, in His humanity, has experienced the hurts and betrayals of humankind, and in His humanness, He prayed and asked God to let the cup of suffering pass. Knowing He was God made man, being fully aware of the agony he’d experience, He still chose to humble himself and yield to the will of God. He had a […]

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