(Part 1 in a series of posts on Habakkuk.)

As I mentioned last week, I would like to spend some time blogging with you through the book of Habakkuk. The posts will be adapted from a sermon series on Habakkuk that I will later put on the Sermons page. For example, last week’s series of posts (“Reading the Prophets 1, 2, and 3″) on the Old Testament prophetical books came right out of the introduction to this series. The whole series is called Habakkuk: The Journey from Doubt to Faith.

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Yesterday’s message was a little different for me. I preached a narrative or “story” sermon called Straight from the Donkey’s Mouth. It is a re-telling of the events of Palm Sunday from the viewpoint or perspective of the donkey. The sermon draws on material from all four gospel accounts describing Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but the text we read before the message came from the gospel of John.

John 12:12-15

12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,

15 “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.” (NIV)

I don’t usually preach narrative sermons, so this was a little outside of my comfort zone, but I trust God used it to touch the people there with a message from his Word.

The sermon came from a message that my own pastor gave on Palm Sunday when I was in about the third or the fourth grade. God used that message to impress on my young heart an understanding of discipleship to Jesus Christ in a whole new way. That was about thirty-five years ago, and I never forgot it. I hope you enjoy this message, too!

Note: To read the complete message, go to the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

I was never a big DC Talk fan, but as a youth pastor in the 1990’s I got to hear plenty of their music. One song the youth played all the time was “Luv is a Verb,” off of the Free at Last CD.

This song came back to haunt me last week as I prepared the message for Sunday morning from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. This is the famous passage in the Bible where Paul gives an extended description of love.

Although many of the descriptive words read as adjectives in our English Bibles, they are all verbs in the original Greek. The love Paul is talking about is not primarily something you feel but something you do. We may not always be able to control our feelings, but we can control our actions. Love is something that you choose to do or not to do. Luv is a verb.

DC Talk rap:
Back in the day there was a man
Who stepped out of Heaven and he walked the land
He delivered to the people an eternal choice
With a heart full of luv and the truth in His voice
Gave up His life so that we may live
How much more luv could the Son of God give?
Here is the example that we oughtta be matchin’
Cause luv is a word that requires some action.

Hey, tell me haven’t ya heard?
Luv, is a serious word
Hey, I think it’s time ya learned
I don’t care what they say
I don’t care care what ya heard
The word luv, luv is a verb

(Excerpt from “Luv is a Verb” by DC Talk)

Okay, the Narnia Christmas series of messages from Christmas 2005 is now up and ready for viewing. You will find the following three messages under the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

• The Lion is a Lamb – Revelation 5:1-14
• Always Winter, Never Christmas? – Galatians 3:10,21-23, 4:4-5
• The Cradle, the Cross and the Wardrobe – Matthew 1:21

Click here for more Narnia related posts.
Click here for more Christmas related posts.

I now have the beginnings of a Sermons page up on the blog. If you click on the Sermons tab at the top it will take you to the Sermons page where I have posted a grand total of one message. I will add new messages to this page weekly. I will also be adding previous messages that were presented before this blog was started.

On Monday mornings I will be posting a quick recap of Sunday’s messages under Sunday Morning SoundBytes. I eventually want to create a Sermons page (tabbed right next to the Resources page at the top of the blog) where you will be able to access full text manuscripts of the messages. Now I’ve just got to learn some more HTML!