Half the people who normally visit here will be taking a cyber-break this week for some reason (was it something I said?), so it may just be me and you here.

After all that, I went and did a Mother's Day message at the church I was guest-preaching at anyway. The main idea of it was (from Hebrews 2) that Christ needed to come in a real flesh and blood body, with a real human nature, that He needed to be made like his brothers in every way (save sin) in order to do the work of atonement and redemption for us. And that body came from His mother. God could have chosen to create Jesus' human body from the dust as He did with Adam, but instead sent him "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (as Paul says), in the post-fall version of a body that can become exhausted, can get sick, and can die. Thus, He sent Christ to us through a human woman, who gave birth to him, nursed Him, taught Him, raised Him, protected him, and loved Him as her son.

It's really more of an anti-gnosticism message than it is a Mother's Day message. But I've found that it's good in Baptist churches to really hammer home the anti-gnostic stuff, since we can sometimes veer in that direction if we're not careful. Matter is good. God is going to redeem it, not do away with it.

I'm preaching the sermon in my own church this weekend, in place of our vacationing pastor. I've never done back-to-back before (though I know a real preacher has to do it every week), and I just don't know what to preach yet. When you're fill-in preaching, by definition it ends up being a topical sermon, because you only get one shot at it. I'll just keep reading the Bible, and trust that God will show me what he wants them to hear this Sunday