Jeffrey C. Long

There was a time when many of you can remember that being a Christian was as ordinary as being an American.  The foundation for our institutions was a Judeo-Christian belief in one God.  People knew that the Bible was the story of Israel and Jesus.  And our understandings of morality were based on the 10 [...]

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The following sermon was preached on April 15th, 2007 at Filer Mennonite Church. Illustrations and quotes were taken from the book “Why Forgive” and from the article “The forgiveness factor,” Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. In a documentary on the Holocaust, a leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising talked about the bitterness that remains in [...]

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Romans 10:5-13 For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down); 7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that [...]

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Today is the second sunday of lent. Which is a time of rehearsal of the basics of our faith. Also a rehearsal of the foundational stories of our faith. Today we are looking at the story of God’s promise to Abram that he would multiply his descendents like the stars of the sky. One of [...]

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A few days ago, I took one of my children to the doctor’s office because of severe headaches. After the exam, the doctor prescribed some pain reliever that had to be filled by the pharmacy. We dropped off the prescription at Walgreens to be picked up later. Unfortunately, I forgot to pick it up and [...]

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I looked at my buying record and discovered that I buy about an average of 3 books per month. On my bookshelf are books on congregational growth, end times, bible commentaries, graphic novels, study bibles, hymnals, leadership, psychology. Controversial: The geocentric bible, two books on Mary the mother of Jesus from a catholic perspective. Books [...]

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John McFayden decided to let his three-year-old son record the message for their home answering machine. The rehearsals went smoothly: “Mommy and Daddy can’t come to the phone right now. If you’ll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” Then came the test. Dad [...]

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Many parts of this sermon were freely edited from the article “IN ESSENTIALS UNITY PRE-HISTORY AND HISTORY OF A RESTORATION MOVEMENT SLOGAN” by Hans Rollmann at http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/unitas/essrev.html. It is a very worthwhile article. A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted island in the Pacific for years. One day a boat came sailing into view, [...]

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Psalm 89:1 I will sing of the loving mercy of the LORD forever; To all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth For I have said, “Loving mercy will be built up forever; In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.” This psalm is written by a man named Ethan the Ezrahite. [...]

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Years ago when my family first started attending Menno Mennonite church, I enjoyed watching the little procession every sunday as one of the children in the church went forward to light the candle. They take their task so seriously. Soon my children were asked to do it as well. It is such an easy way [...]

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