In the Way with Charles St-Onge

The Saints of God in Christ have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. They don't wash them in the blood of others. Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’" (Luke 16:27-28). Here's a question: why five? Could it be that that number is the key to what Jesus is teaching in this parable?  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"[Jesus said] The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Luke 16:8 Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Is God in the punishment business, or the celebration business? Is he down in the dungeon, or celebrating in the salon? That is the question today’s text poses to us. Do we serve a God who revels in anger, or one who wants to rejoice with us? Text: Luke 15:1-10.  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"What king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace." (Luke 14:31-32) Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him." Luke 14:8, ESV Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’" (Luke 13:26-27) Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Luke 12:20 (ESV): "But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’" Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Luke 11:9–10 (ESV) And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Jesus tells the lawyer to "go and do likewise" to his neighbor. Martha serves her neighbor, but Jesus says her sister Mary has chosen "the better part." When are we supposed to be doing, and not doing? Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. " (Leviticus 18:3-4).  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

[Jesus said to them] "Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him." (Luke 10:5) Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

God gives the world what it wants, but God gives his children what they need in Jesus Christ. Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." John 8:59.  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:25-26) Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

In a world awash in hopelessness, can we find hope in Jesus' ascension to the right hand of the Father? Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Woody Allen said that 90% of life is showing up. The mission of the Church is like that too. Often, the hardest but most necessary part is simply showing up.  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." Acts 20:28, ESV. Watch on YouTube .  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

[Paul] asked [the high priest] for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:2, ESV). What does it mean to be "in the way" of Jesus? Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

"Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Reflection on the first stanza of "Go to Dark Gethsemane" for Passion Sunday Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

In Isaiah 5, the Lord asks what more he can do for his vineyard than he has already done? In Luke 20 he gives the answer: send his beloved Son.  Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

When we read the parables of Jesus looking for ourselves, we often find out we're the bad guys. The good guy in the story is God, who we discover is merciful and gracious and wants to gather the world together in his arms - the arms his Son stretched out on the cross. Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org . 

Can a leopard change its spots? Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Jesus challenges our assumption that "the apple new falls far from the tree" and suggests that change, for God, is never impossible. Support the show Visit us at intheway.org or stjohnspembroke.org .