Sermons

[VIDEO Intro]  Each year during the time I was a student at Harding University Graduate School of Religion, a thick coat of white paint was applied to what we called “The Mansion.”  This was the main administration building which housed the faculty and staff offices and a small chapel.  It was literally an old southern mansion that had been renovated for use by the school.  Every year in the spring workers would apply a fresh coat of white paint to the wooden exterior of the mansion.  This left the building looking clean and sparkling.  Then one morning we woke up and the mansion was on fire.  Flames licked at the top of the structure while fire engines poured gallon after gallon of water on it.  Eventually they doused the flames, but not before every office, file cabinet, computer, and precious book had been literally smoked and then immersed in water.  It took hours for us to carry out furniture and books and supplies to see what could be recovered.  After a few days we learned what had caused the fire.  There was some old wiring in the attic which had sparked the fire.  Deep in the mansion, hidden from view, in an area where few ever went, this fragile and aging wire had trigged the fire.  What was on the outside appeared had appeared to be beautiful and stately.  What was on the inside however, was tremendously dangerous.  Something similar happens when it comes to spirituality.  We’ve been studying this phenomenon on Sunday mornings in our series called “Masquerade.”Read More »Masquerade: Inside Out