The History Of Rock & Roll In 100 Riffs

If you speak the language of rock guitar, you'll love this video from the Chicago Music Exchange.  Two million hits and counting:I'm amazed -- and a little embarrassed -- that I know so few of the riffs after #70.

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Upgrade, Week Four — The Access Upgrade

God is so good.He takes series that I'm not sure about and does much more than I expect.That's been the case with Upgrade.Face it:  Hebrews is a difficult book.So the messages have been complex and challenging both to deliver and to digest.And yet people have...

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The Purpose Of A Sermon Manuscript

As a lot of you know, I write a sermon manuscript virtually every week.I am able to work several weeks ahead, so while I write one almost every week, it's not the one I'll deliver that coming Sunday.  That one, of course, has been written several weeks...

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Ann Patchett And The Art Of Sermonizing

If you've been following this blog at all, you know that I'm an enormous fan of the fiction of Ann Patchett.  State Of Wonder and Bel Canto are two of the most beautiful and most engaging novels I've read in years.In The Getaway Car, a little e-reader memoir...

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five Responses To Preaching

We preachers value the responses that people have to our preaching.After all, most of us didn't go into this so that our words could vanish into thin air, never to be heard, much less considered, again.  Yet even the best preachers (so I'm told) get all kinds of...

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Mom Publishes Story

My mother, Betty X. Davis, just published a story called "The Last Bicycle" in the July/August edition of Spider Magazine, a highly regarded periodical for children.Set in the French town of Uzaire in the waning days of World War II, "The Last Bicycle"...

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Top Five Tuesday — Top Five 4th Of July Memories

In preparation for tomorrow's annual observance of Independence Day, I thought that I'd take a retrospective look at what the Fourth of July celebrations have been like through the years.1.  When I was 5 and watching a fireworks show at a local golf...

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Sermon, Interrupted

About every twelve months or so, we have a medical emergency during one of the worship gatherings at Good Shepherd.Over the years, we have had mild strokes, cardiac distresses, diabetic episodes, and fainting spells.It happened again yesterday at 11:30, as a dear...

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Upgrade, Week 2 — The Angel Upgrade

My confession about angels is that I'm not much interested in them.So the preacher to the Hebrews threw me for a loop when by talking so much about them.Until I finally got what he was saying.  Then I realized his brilliance.And I can't wait to share it with...

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