A friend and I have been reading the book of Ephesians together.For over a year.We go down a lot of rabbit trails during our time together, but when we zero in on Ephesians, the rewards are rich indeed.Spending that much time on that short a book, however, also raises...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five People I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up
Don't most of us go through a phase of wanting to be someone else when we grow up?Or at least just like someone else when we grow up.Sometimes they are called role models and other times they are inspirations.Whatever you call them, here are five different men who, at...
Thirty Years Ago Today . . .
A couple of 22-year-old kids got married on a 100 degree day in a steaming gothic cathedral located in the center of a college campus in New Jersey.We didn't know anything about anything.Sometimes, we still don't.But every once in awhile, we do. Maybe...
Head Scratchers Launch — “The Violent Bear It Away”
Jesus said what?Well, he said all kinds of things. Many of them comforting, like “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” and “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”But other times, what Jesus said was . . . well . . ....
My Red Dirt Road
Every time my wife travels to and works for a few days in Dallas, the city where I grew up, I think of this song by Brooks & Dunn:I didn't grow up on red dirt road.But I have enough memories and nostalgia to realize that it has life on both ends.
Baptism Celebration — Photo Recap
If you were there, you know how the Baptism Celebration pulsated with joy and euphoria.If you weren't there . . . well, we're going to do it again.And here's what it looked like:First of all, we had about 200 people show up, some (55) to be baptized, others to...
Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Aerosmith Songs
More than any other major rock band, Aerosmith owes its success to hip hop music.Huh?After a stellar run in the late 70s, Aerosmith limped into the 1980s boozed up, drugged out, and on rock & roll life support. Then in 1986, Run-DMC did a remake of Walk This...
The Second Wash — A Sermon On Entire Sanctification, 21st Century Style
The entire Wash Me! series was about holiness.Yet if we'd called it Sermons On How To Be Holy . . . well, let's put it this way: there have been no need for extra seating and extra parking.So the series built and built and built until its conclusion yesterday. ...
Wash Me! Finale — The Second Wash
We've played this video every week during the Wash Me! series:It has a) given me time to roll my little table to the middle of the platform! and b) served as a weekly reminder that we are looking together at God's power to wash us thoroughly, to cleanse us completely...
Some Thin Lines
I've been noticing some awfully thin lines recently.Like there are thin lines between:Spiritual passion and mental instability.Doctrinal purity and judgmental hypocrisy.Social justice ministry and works without faith. National / Regional pride and idolatry.Attention...