Scripture is a never-ending reservoir of truth, power, and beauty. Here's why I say that today. I have been reading the bible regularly for 39 years now. That includes the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. And of those four Gospels, I...
#TBT — San Antonio, June 16, 1979
Continuing a nostalgia theme for this week's post, here is an article from a San Antonio newspaper (The Light? The Express? The Light-Express?) on June 16, 1979: Oh the Jack Kramer racket. The adidas clothes. The slice backhand return of serve. Those days are...
Half Of 56 Is 28
I realized something with a jolt the other day: I have been a pastor for over half of my life. I graduated from seminary and started work at Mt. Carmel & Midway United Methodist Churches in Monroe, NC, in 1990 at the age of 28. I am now 56, so you do the math....
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Times What Felt Like PUNISHMENT Was Actually PREPARATION
I wish that my foresight was as accurate as my hindsight. I bet you're the same way. We have seasons in life that, as we head in to them, feel like seasons of punishment. They involve duty, training, re-education, and orders from on high. Then once that particular...
A King’s Ransom Launch: The “All The King’s Men” Sermon Rewind
It's not just the verses that are inspired. It's the whole process -- compilation, composition, design -- that bear the marks of divine authority behind the Scriptural gift. Nowhere is that more true than with Mark's treatment of all the failures of Jesus'...
“A King’s Ransom” Launch — “All The King’s Men”
Our journey to Easter will go through the Gospel of Mark and just how it is he presents the betrayal, suffering, abandonment, and triumph of King Jesus. Here's the sermon bumper video will says it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux7GSZWAxko&feature=youtu.be...
What A Collection Of Young Adults Says About … Sex
Our One Sixty Seven series has been one in which the sermons were merely appetizers for the small group conversations to follow. And such was the case last night, when I gathered with a Young Adult LifeGroup I am privileged to lead in order to discuss the sermon-based...
When You Can’t Articulate …
Several years ago I came across a startling statistic: Vocabulary of a three year old in a professional home: 1,116 words Vocabulary of an adult in an under-resourced home: 974 words As mind-bending as that statistic is, its implications are even more troubling. When...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Songs I Listen To While Working
It was Snow White who taught us to whistle while you work, wasn't it? Yet I'm not much of one for whistling. On the other hand, some music while I'm working -- in particular while I am either writing a sermon or writing notes to first time guests -- often provides...
One Sixty-Seven, Week Four — The “You Give Love A Bad Name” Sermon Rewind
Yesterday's message, which concluded the One Sixty Seven series, also .... got its title from a Bon Jovi song; began with a shout out to Star Wars as the names of celebrities caught up in the Reckoning that followed the #MeToo movement scrolled on the screens,...