Emphasis Preaching Journal

Contents
“This Will Make A Great Shot!” by Frank Ramirez
“A Modern Lazarus” by John Sumwalt

This Will Make A Great Shot!
by Frank Ramirez
Psalm 24

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. (vv. 3-4)

Mary and Martha; remember them? They are the sisters who were hosting Jesus for dinner one evening, except that Martha did all the work, and Mary sat at Jesus' feet for the Bible study. And when Martha complains to Jesus about it, Jesus corrects her! "Martha, Martha, you worry about so many things, but just one thing is necessary ... and Mary chose it." Ouch!

On U.S. Route 40 just west of New Concord, Ohio, stands an S-shaped bridge spanning a creek on the old National Road. Standing uphill from that bridge a traveler can simultaneously observe five historic transportation links that helped to build a nation:

• The original trail blazed by Ebenezer Zane, also known as "Zane's Trace."

• The brick roadbed of the old "National Road" that followed.

• The train tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which nearly made that early highway obsolete.

... love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength...

In an interesting twist, the talk was well received by some patients, not so much because of the point, but because my opening comments helped alleviate fears in regard to their bizarre mental behavior. They hadn't realized that what they experienced was not far from the "norm" when it comes to surgery.

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"Trouble comes in threes," so many people say. Every time something goes wrong, those people expectantly look for numbers two and three to hit them, full force, taking a huge sigh of relief after number three. "Pessimists" we sometimes call them.

In our story, Naomi and Elimelech experience a famine in their homeland Judah. The couple goes to Moab, a neighboring country east of the Dead Sea, with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Elimelech dies in Moab. The two sons each marry Moabite women, Orpah and our heroine, Ruth, and then the two sons both die.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied. (vv.32-34)

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today, okay? (Let them respond.) Great!

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (v. 28)

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today, are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

In any daily newspaper there are always catalogues of horrific events perpetrated by human beings on other human beings, and it seems to be getting worse. There doesn't seem to be much respect for law and order, and even those who once would have been ashamed to be involved in any questionable activity, now seem to work under the premiss that if they don't get caught, it's all right.

Some of the horrors are inflicted on the body; rape, assault, grievous bodily harm, murder. But other horrors are perpetrated on the