Robert M. Hendry Memorial Methodist Church, 3625 Alton Wentworth Road, Greenville, FL (2026)

New Year's Eve Candlelight and Communion Service - 5:00 p.m. Easter Sunrise Service - 7:00 a.m. Mother's Day Service - 5:00 p.m. Father's Day Service - 5:00 p.m. Hendry Family Reunion - 1st Sunday in May at 11:00 a.m. Communion Services - Last Sunday in March and June; 1st Sunday in October and on New Year's Eve

04/11/2026

SNIPPETS OF OUR FAITH # 163
Easter, Some Additional Thoughts
Apr 12, 2026

Today is Easter Sunday for approximately 300,000,000 people of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Faith. To put that number in perspective, approximately 12% of the 2.4 billion Christians on earth, 300.000.000 people are Eastern Orthodox. Yes, they are Christian! They worship the same God and the same Christ as do we in the Western Churches. Their timelines are a little different as may be their interpretations of the sequencing of events in the history of Christianity but, nevertheless, they constitute the largest group of Christians in the Eastern hemisphere.

But here in the West, this year, the Easter Season lasts until May 24th, at which time Pentecost occurs.

Also, according to the church calendar – the Lenten season does not officially end until the Saturday before Easter. However, it has always seemed that the season takes on a whole different tone or feeling beginning on Palm Sunday.

As a matter of perspective, The Lenten season is a time of preparation for the monumental events of Easter with the last seven days prior to Easter containing commemorations of some of the most dramatic, most poignant, and most important events of Jesus’ ministry.

On Palm Sunday, we celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

On Maundy Thursday, we celebrate:
• His institution of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion or the Eucharist, as it is sometimes referred
• His heart-felt moments of doubt and examination in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the beginnings of His trials before the authorities.

Note: Gethsemane isn’t actually the name of a garden. The word Gethsemane derives from the Hebrew phrase g*t she-man-im, which means oil press. On the Mount of Olives, there would have been an area below ground where the olives were pressed.

On Good Friday, we remember his incredible suffering on the cross,
• His placement in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea,
and – for the first time in his life
• His total separation from God the Father.

On Saturday, we recall:
• His subjug*tion to death and his continued separation
from God the Father.

And then, on the very next day……………
• Easter Sunday, the history of mankind changed forever !!
We Protestants, as children of the Reformation, know that we have the ‘right’…and indeed the ‘oblig*tion’…. to go to the Bible – and to search the Scriptures ourselves to make our own determination of what we – as individual Christians – believe with regard to the significance of the entire Easter Story.

We know that the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is told in all 4 gospels.

You may be surprised “how few” of the stories we know well are actually repeated in all 4 gospels.

For example, how many of the gospels tell the story of Jesus’ birth? (4, .. 3 .. 2 .. just 1 ?)
Ans. – 2 - Matthew and Luke.

Or, of the 37 miracles performed by Jesus, ... how many are told in all 4 gospels ?
Ans. – 1 – the feeding of the 5,000. John.

Or, of the 39 parables of Jesus, ... how many are told in all 4 gospels ?
Ans. - 0 – because there are no parables in the gospel of John.

Now, for the purposes of this Snippet, two of the gospels, (Mark and John), use the same phrase to tell this story, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And though that phrase may be very familiar to us, it’s still one we should spend some time thinking about ... for it places the ultimate focus ... precisely where it ought to be.

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

Both Luke and John add another element into the theme of “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” and they do so by substituting this phrase, ……. “the king.”

With the substitution, Luke’s version, Luke 19:38, reads like this,
“Blessed is the king - who comes in the name of the Lord.”

By adding the phrase, the king, - and in view of the way events actually transpired, Luke’s account seems to be a fulfillment of a prophecy from ~ 500 years before the time of Jesus.

According to one source- the introduction to the book of Zechariah in The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Zechariah’s prophecies date from 520 to 518 BC - and highlight such themes as “the zeal for a rebuilt temple, - a purified community - and the coming of the messianic age.”

And in the 9th chapter of Zechariah we read, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Lo, your king comes to you; - - - triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, - - - on a c**t, the foal of an ass.” We recall from reading in Mark, that events unfolded in exactly that way.

As Jesus and the disciples came near Jerusalem – at Bethany – Jesus said to two of his disciples, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a c**t tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?” say, ‘The Lord has need of it and (he) will send it back here immediately.”

The disciples, of course, did exactly as Jesus had commanded ….
and all the subsequent events transpired ……just as Jesus said they would.

They found the c**t, - they were challenged by folks standing nearby, and when they responded with, “The Lord has need of it,- ” they were allowed to take the c**t. And so, the stage was now set for …… “the triumphal entry.”

Our scripture for the evening: Mark 11: 8-10 “And many spread their garments on the road and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before, and those who followed behind cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Amen!

Easter continues until May 24th.

I want to remind you that these Snippets generally are not my original work and are usually a combination of commentary from the thinking and writing of others.

Morris Steen

04/05/2026

SNIPPETS OF OUR FAITH # 162
THE HOLY LAND
Apr 5, 2026

Six years ago, Judy and I, along with Don and Michel Curtis, and George and Charlotte Collins had returned from an extraordinary journey to Israel and the Holy Land. It was a ten day trip from FEB 25, 2020 - MAR 5, 2020, although we were in Israel only eight days. Remarkably, we arrived in Tel-Aviv, Israel, on Feb 26, Ash Wednesday, coached over to Jerusalem and attended an Ash Wednesday Service in the Olive Tree Hotel where we were staying that evening. That was the beginning of our Holy Land pilgrimage.

The next morning, THURSDAY, February 27, reveille was a 6:00 a.m., breakfast at 6:30, and by 7:15 we were aboard the Mercedes coach and commenced a full day of touring which begin with the Holocaust Museum. Judy and I spent most of our time in the children’s side that documents where there is a continuous reading of the names of two and a half million Jewish children who were killed in the Holocaust. It takes several years for all the names to be read even once, reading them 24 hours every day. When I was 12 years old, my family and I lived with my dad, who was stationed in Augsburg, Germany as part of the occupation forces. One of our school field trips included a trip to Dachau, one of the death camps located between Augsburg and Munich. It was a field trip I will never forget!

Another excursion that day included Ein Karem, the birthplace of John the Baptist, where Mary, mother of Jesus, visited her cousin, Elizabeth, who was the mother of John the Baptist. It was basically a cave as many people lived either in caves or stone house built at the entrance of caves. There were no wooden homes to speak of as there was a scarcity of trees, except for olive trees, in this part of the desert.

Later in the day, we visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which was Jesus’ birthplace. It was built by Helena in 327 AD, mother of Emperor Constantine, who was a Christian, over the top of the cave where Jesus was born. Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to and declare Christianity as the official religion in the Roman Empire.

That evening, we had dinner with a Palestinian family in their home, which included the mother and father and their two daughters; ages 6 and 4. It was a most memorable and delightful occasion as they were gracious hosts.

The following day, Friday, February 28th, we explored ancient Jerusalem starting at the teaching steps where Jesus taught. I was struck by the architecture and engineering required to build the ancient wall into the bedrock that is still standing. This was built by King David 3000 years ago, followed by his son, King Solomon, who also built the Temple, long since destroyed.

From almost any point in the city we could see the Dome of the Rock, a standout feature on the Jerusalem landscape. The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock is situated in the center of the Temple Mount, the site of Solomon's Temple and the Second Jewish Temple. It is also believed to be the site where Abraham attempted to sacrifice his son. There is so much significance to this site that it the site is a Holy place for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Our tour group had our photo taken with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

Our next stop was the Western Wall or Wailing Wall where both Judy and I prayed on our respective sides, one side for women, and one side for men, and left a prayer between the cracks in the stone wall. It was a poignant experience for both of us.

Next, we coach over to the Mount of Olives where Jesus taught and prophesied to his disciples on the night of his betrayal en’ route to the Garden of Gethsemane. Recall, the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended to heaven.

Mount Zion: House of High Priest, Caiaphas, where Jesus was questioned before his trial. Jesus placed in cistern and held for trial overnight; a wicked looking and brutal hole deep in the rocks.

5. Upper Room: Jesus’ Last Supper; The idea of being in that very room was hard to conceptualize and comprehend-and still is.

SATURDAY, February 29, 2020 Toured
1. Pool of Bethesda: where Jesus performed the Sabbath miracle and told a man to get up and walk.

2. Church of St. Ann: Home of Mary’s (mother of Jesus’) mother, whose name was Ann. We sang two songs. Preceding our group was a group from Japan (Christians) who blew us away with their rendition of Hallelujah.

3. Herod Antonio’s Fortress: where Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate and was convicted. Referred to as the Chapel of Condemnation.

4. Via Dolorosa (The Way of the Cross): The path Jesus walked on his way to the cross. The various stops are known as the Stations of the Cross:
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus takes up the cross
3. Jesus falls under the cross the first time
4. Jesus meets his mother
5. Simon, the Cyrene, is forced to carry the cross
6. Veronica wipes the sweat from Jesus’ face
7. Jesus falls for the second time
8. Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls for the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb. The living Jesus risen from the tomb.

5. The Rock of Calvary, also known as Golgotha: where crucifixion occurred.

6. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jesus’ tomb (99% probability) and where he was crucified (Golgotha). Church established by Helena in 326 AD, a Christian and mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Six different Christian sects worship at this church (Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic) but at different times of the day. Control of this church is in the hands of the Muslims, who open it at 4:00 a.m. and close it at 7:00 p.m. While in the church, we saw a man wandering around who had a decidedly Jesus look; a grey nondescript robe, beard, totally barefoot, etc. Our tour guide referred to him as having a “Jerusalem” complex and said that this particular person was an American. I saw at least three people dressed like this on the trip.

7. The Garden Tomb: an alternate tomb location (1% probability)

SUNDAY, March 1, 2020 Departed Olive Tree Hotel / Jerusalem
1. Masada: Herod’s Mountain Top Fortress; 1500’ above the desert floor, captured by the Jews in 70 AD; it was the Jews last stand while under siege by Romans 70-73 AD. Approximately 967 Jews died via su***de rather than be captured by Romans. There may have been several who survived, but not many. A most impressive site! I never thought I would have the opportunity to visit Masada, with my wife!

2. Jericho, in the heart of Canaan: The world’s oldest city, allegedly is more 10,000 years old. It was captured by Joshua approximately 1400 BC. I am taken aback by walking the actual roads and pathways that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, and Jesus probably walked 2000 to 4000 years ago.

3. The Valley of the Shadow of Death: Yes, there is an actual place, the actual valley David wrote about in the 23rd Psalm. I was here; and in other Valleys of the Shadow of Death, at other times and locations. They all have a unique quality about them!

4. Temptation Wilderness: Where Jesus was tempted by Satan for 40 days and nights, A very stark and lonely area, not seemingly hospitable or survivable. The terrain is very difficult to negotiate and navig*te through.

5. Qumran: Location of Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 by local shepherd boy. Scrolls date back to 2nd Temple Period, 2nd Century BC to 1st Century AD as accounted for by the historian Josephus. The scrolls were exact duplicates of the original biblical scrolls. They were copied by the Essenes, a hermit like Jewish religious sect that lived in the Dead Sea area from 200 BC to 68 AD who thought the original scrolls were in danger of being destroyed. The Essenes themselves were eventually massacred. All in all, there were 973 scrolls that were recovered from 1947-1956 in eleven caves. Looking across the landscape, there must be hundreds of thousands of caves, most probably have not been explored.

6. Dead Sea: Watched as people refused to sink.

7. Arrive Tiberias:

8. Caesar Hotel:

MONDAY, March 2, 2020 Toured
1. Sea of Galilee: A nice morning boat ride across the sea.

2. Golan Heights: If anyone had ever told me I would have toured the Golan Heights, with my wife, I would have said they were nuts! Signs warning of Mine Fields were on each side of the road!

3. Capernaum: where Jesus served as Rabbi for three years before condemning i.e. Jesus cursed it and two other cities for their disobedience; Chorazin (Korazin), and Bethsaida, and he never recovered (Matthew 11:20–24). They are dead cities that only serve to be observed by tourists today

4. Mount of Beatitudes / Sermon on the Mount:

5. Church of the Fish and Tabgha; also called Church of the Multiplication; where Jesus fed 5000:

6. Magdala: Home of Mary Magdalene, friend of Jesus; we visited a 1st century synagogue

7. Jordan River: Headwaters walk; not the mighty Jordan I expected

8. Jordan River: Baptism; Judy got sprinkled again, in a symbolic gesture, in the river; once was enough for me in the Shady Grove Methodist Church

TUESDAY, Mar 3, 2020 Toured
1. Cana: Wedding site where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine

2. Philippi: On Mt. Herman, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church.” Occurred NE of Israel, on the Golan Heights near the ancient city of Dan

3. Church of the Annunciation: Where Mary was told by the angel that she was going to give birth to Jesus

4. Caesarea: On the Mediterranean Sea, famous for its major aqueducts built by Herod, the Great 2000+ years ago; very impressive engineering and architecture

WEDNESDAY, Mar 4, 2020 Toured
1. Nazareth: Where Jesus grew up

2. Samaria: Where the story of the Good Samaritan took place. Samaritans, generally were looked down upon by people of higher social orders including Jews

3. Valley of Armageddon: Where the last battle will be fought in the Jezreel Valley

3. Tel Megiddo: Roman Fortress, looks out over the Valley of Armageddon; a very strategic position; impressive view of the Valley

4. Departed Tel Aviv, at 11:10 p.m.: For U. S.; a miserable 12 hour trip to Newark, NJ. The flight took a northwesterly direction from Israel over the Mediterranean, Turkey, the Black Sea and Ukraine to get favorable winds to head eventually head west.

THURSDAY, March 5, 2020 Arrived Tallahassee

This trip taught me that what I thought I knew, I did not know; it taught me that much of what I did know was faulty; and what I did not know, I learned! It was a milestone of knowledge; the discovery of my faulty knowledge, the discovery of my lack of knowledge, and the discovery of knowledge yet to be learned. Morris Steen

03/29/2026

SNIPPETS OF OUR FAITH # 161
Palm Sunday - Holy Week Revisited
The Final Act
Mar 29, 2026

Matt 21:1-11 When they had come near to Jerusalem, and when they had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples ahead. “Go into the village which is facing you,” he said, “and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a c**t with her. Loose them, and bring them to me. And, if anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The Master needs them.’ Immediately he will send them on.”

This was done that there might be fulfilled that which was spoken through the prophet, when he said, “Say to the daughter of Sion, Look you, your king comes to you, gentle, and riding upon an ass, and a c**t, the foal of a beast who bears the yoke.” So the disciples went, and they carried out Jesus’ orders, and they brought the ass and the c**t, and put their cloaks upon them; and he took his seat on them.

The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and strewed them on the road; and the crowds who went in front and followed behind kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. Hosanna in the highest!” As he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. “Who is this?” they asked; and the crowds said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, who comes from Nazareth in Galilee.”

I am struck by the accuracy of the words of Zacariah who prophesied Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem five hundred years prior to the actual event as surely as Isiaah prophesied Jesus’ birth seven hundred years or so ahead of that blessed event. This is more than just casual conversation around the scuttlebutt!

To let you know in advance, I am leaning heavily on William Barclay tonight. He was a Scottish born Greek Biblical Scholar and maybe the foremost New Testament scholar in modern times (1907-1978). I don’t know of anyone who has written more on the New Testament than Barclay. With this passage we embark on the last act in the drama of the life of Jesus; and here indeed is a dramatic moment.

It was Passover time, and Jerusalem and the entire countryside was crowded with pilgrims. Thirty years later a Roman governor took a census of the lambs slain in Jerusalem for the Passover and found that the number was not far off a quarter of a million.

It was the Passover regulation that there must be a party of a minimum of ten for each lamb which means that at that Passover more than two and a half million people had crowded into Jerusalem. The law was that every adult male Jew who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem must come to the Passover; but not only the Jews of Palestine, but Jews from every corner of the world made their way to the greatest of their national festivals.

Jesus could not have chosen a more dramatic moment; it was into a city surging with people keyed up with religious expectations that he came. Nor was this a sudden decision of Jesus, taken on the moment. It was something which he had prepared in advance. The whole tone of the story shows that he was carrying out plans which he had made ahead of time. He sent his disciples into “the village” to collect the ass and her foal.

Jesus had already arranged for the ass and her foal to be waiting for him, for he had many friends in Bethany; and the phrase, “The Master needs them,” was a password by which their owner would know that the hour which Jesus had arranged had come.

Note: Bethpage and Bethany, while not exactly the same place, are very close to one another, maybe like Shady Grove and Lake Bird.

So Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The fact that the ass had never been ridden made it especially suitable for sacred purposes.
The crowd received Jesus like a king. They spread their cloaks in front of him.

They greeted him as they would greet a pilgrim, for the greeting: “Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord” was the greeting which was addressed to pilgrims as they came to the Feast. They shouted “Hosanna!”

That was Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Oh, how things would change in just a matter of days.

Four days later, Maundy Thursday, the Last Supper in the upper room, Jesus celebrates his final Passover meal and washes his disciples’ feet. Later that evening he is betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, arrested, and tossed in the citron of the High Priest Caiaphas where he spends the night awaiting trial next day.
Good Friday, Jesus is sentenced to death by Pontius Pilot. The route Jesus took from Pilot’s Judgement Hall to Golgotha is called Via Dolorosa, or The Stations of the Cross, and there are fourteen of them. The stained glass windows in our church represent some of those fourteen Stations of the Cross. When we were replacing the windows in our church, the artist, Truett George, suggested that we do several Stations of the Cross:

At the First Station: Jesus is condemned to death

At the Second Station: Jesus takes up the cross

At the Third Station: Jesus falls under the cross for the first time

At the Fourth Station: Jesus meets his mother

At the Fifth Station: A passer-byer named Simon, from Cyrene, is forced to carry the cross in Jesus’ place

At the Sixth Station: Veronica wipes the sweat from Jesus’ face

At the Seventh Station: Jesus falls for the second time

At the Eighth Station: Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem

At the Ninth Station: Jesus falls for the third time

At the Tenth Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments

At the Eleventh Station: Jesus is nailed to the cross

At the Twelfth Station: Jesus dies on the cross

At the Thirteenth Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross

At the Fourteenth Station: Jesus is laid in the tomb.

At this particular Passover Festival, Jesus was the Passover Lamb.

Having personally walked the fourteen Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem and having been in Jesus’ tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was buried, I can say that it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. While kneeling in that tomb, I wondered what my Great, Great, Grandfather Robert M. Hendry would have thought about his grandson being in the very same tomb where Jesus was buried. I wonder.

Our scripture for the evening: JN 19: 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Amen.

Attribution: The narrative in these Snippets are not my original work but are a composite of the following sources:
1. Charles Swindoll, Insight for Living Ministries: As a side note, I requested and received approval from the Charles Swindoll organization to use the copyrighted Overview Charts for the Snippets of Our Faith presentations
2. “teach Sunday School” Bible Reference Sheets
3. David Pearce: Summaries of each book of the Bible
4. John McArthur
5. Britannica Encyclopedia
6. David Jeremiah
7. William Barclay
8. B. J. Holton
9. Mathew Henry

Morris Steen

03/28/2026

ROBERT M. HENDRY MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH
3625 Alton Wentworth Road
Greenville, FL 32331
(Shady Grove, FL)

Dear Family and Friends:

We are fast approaching our annual Hendry Family Reunion, the 159th, at 11:00 a.m. on May 3, 2026! This year the Eli McPhail family is hosting the reunion. “Mack”, as he was called, was born in Shady Grove, FL Nov 1,1858, the eleventh child of Robert M. and Martha Ann Carlton Hendry. He married Sarah Ann Lucretia Poppell on September 8, 1876. Lucretia was born March 16, 1856 and died May 15, 1911. She is buried in the Pisgah Cemetery among members of her parental family. Mack died July 9, 1939, and is buried in the Hendry Family Cemetery in Shady Grove. Together, Mack and Lucretia had nine children:
1. Dozier Eschol
2. Lola (Leola)
3. Madonna
4. Alton Connell Cuthbert
5. Ethel Amelia
6. Mamry Elias
7. Adison Eugene
8. Glazier Eli
9. Manon Lucretia
Macks wife, Lucretia, was a daughter of Boyd Dias Poppell whose descendant’s played a prominent role in the development of Taylor County. Mack and his wife brought up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Mack engaged in farming and stock raising, serving on the Board of Taylor County Commissioners and participated in the work of his church. Two of his sons, Dozier and Glazier, became licensed preachers and his two daughters, Ethyl and Manon, were always leaders in church activities.

Our reunion was first established in 1867 in celebration of Robert M.’s ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church South and has traditionally been held at the Methodist Church he founded in 1872 here in Shady Grove. Two other sons founded the Methodist Churches at both, Lake Bird and Boyd. We are so fortunate as a family to have been able to continue our reunions through the years as many families with similar reunions have been unable to do so for various reasons.

Our keynote speaker this year will be the Reverand James (JT) Taylor, former pastor of the First Methodist Church in Perry. Special music will be provided by the McHargue Singers.

This is my last year as the overall Hendry Reunion Coordinator. Effective May 3, 2026, at our reunion, Marsie Hendry Cribbs, an accomplished young woman and daughter of Aaron and Seamelia Hendry, will assume the role of Reunion Coordinator. She and I have worked together on this reunion and I do not know of anyone more capable of taking the reins and moving the reunion forward in the years ahead. She lives here in Taylor County, is eager and “high tech” savvy. All of you will love working with Marsie!

I want to thank everyone who has assisted me through the years and, as most of you know, planning for next year’s reunion commences as soon as the current reunion is over. It has been great fun and I have enjoyed the experience immensely!

May God continue to bless our family!

Morris Steen

03/01/2026

SNIPPETS OF OUR FAITH # 160
“The Devil Made Me Do It”
Mar 1, 2026

In spite of the Flip Wilson show lasting less than four years, it gave untold millions of people what they thought was a “real excuse” for their personal misconduct. Of course it was the Devil that “made them do it”! The failure to take responsibility for their personal misconduct has lingered in our society for fifty years after Flip Wilson went off the air. The fact of the matter is, the Devil never made us do anything!

If truth was known, it didn’t take a comedian to help us shift the blame to someone or some thing long before Flip’s time. Flip Wilson is just a euphemism in the latest of a long line of scape goats, plus we can get a good laugh which helps ease the brutal, hard core truth, that we, ourselves, and no one else is to blame for our misconduct.

And, oh, by the way, misconduct is not a mistake! Mistakes by definition are inadvertent acts. You commit them unintentionally. Mistakes equal unintentional acts. Misconduct, on the other hand, is a deliberate act against the Will of God and Man’s Law.

But we want to call our indiscretions “mistakes” as it is easier to mentally swallow, digest, is less painful and particularly less damaging to the mental psyche we have of ourselves, i.e. “we are not really that bad.” It depends upon what we did! We may be really bad, or even worse than really bad.

By the way, if you believe I am referencing others from some elevated moralistic position looking out over the landscape picking out the sinners, you are wrong. I am actually acknowledging myself as someone who has made mistakes and committed deliberate acts of misconduct, and believe me, I know the difference. And so does everyone who commits misconduct, and that is to what I am speaking of today.

Now, I am not going to stand here today and accuse everyone of committing misconduct as that is not for me to decide. Nor am I suggesting we shout it from a roof top, drawing attention to ourselves, but I am suggesting we NOT CALL OUR MISCONDUCT , “MISTAKES”.

And what about the subject of judging? We often hear the scripture from Mat 7:1 “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
But rarely do we hear the corollary scripture from John 7:24: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment".

Yes, Jesus called upon us to judge! Yes, He did! Hear Jesus’ words in Mat 7: 15 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men g*ther grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Jesus did not take kindly to “false prophets”, nor to the scribes and pharisees who deliberately distorted God’s word to serve their own interests.

We are called to examine the fruit! Jesus calls us to examine the fruit!

Another subject, but along the same line, if you ask people, “How many of you believe there is an actual, physical Devil that exist in the world today?”, there is incredible number who would raise their hands expressing belief.

Not even God is physical (God is a spirit). We find this in John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

However some believe the Devil is physical! Of course the Devil is “real”, it’s just not physical.

The Devil is a spirit, it may even be the Anti-Christ. We know it exists and is constantly tempting us with falsehoods and enticing us toward evil doing. We were born to be tempted! It happened in the Garden and resulted in the Fall of Man, and in man’s ultimate destruction by the Flood. Our Lord and Savior encountered it in the wilderness; He resisted and triumphed.

But there’s Good News AND there is Bad News.

The Good News is that God offers redemption! The Catholic Church has a process whereby a person can confess their sins in private with their priest and receive forgiveness. It is called, Confessional. In most Protestant denominations, we believe you can go directly to God to receive relief.

Also in Christianity, this burden may be lifted through the sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Lords Supper, where we confess our sins, seek forgiveness and redemption, and if we are sincere, we believe it will be granted.

But the Bad News is, you don’t confess your sins, you don’t seek redemption, you just take your chances with what lies at the end, whatever that may be. The “conspiracy theorists and influencers” have fostered rumors that, well………., there may be hell to pay!

Our scripture for the evening: Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Amen, and amen.

Morris Steen

Address

3625 Alton Wentworth Road
Greenville, FL
32331

Opening Hours

5pm - 6pm

Website

http://www.hendrymemorial.org/

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