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What I Saw on Super Bowl Sunday Night
Each year, I find myself wondering how to act and what to say leading up to–and on–Super Bowl Sunday. Every congregation I have ever worked for has, thankfully and rightly, not moved or canceled services just for a ball game. But I also brace myself for lower attendance numbers and for the inevitable stream of social media posts by members of the church who are watching the game instead of being at worship, despite reminders to assemble (Hebrews 10:25) and follow the leadership of elders (Hebrews 13:7). Yes, that part is disheartening. Very disheartening. But there is another angle and, this year, I really tried to see some other things.…
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A Short But (at Least to Me) Soul-Searching Post
Let me begin this by stating that what will follow is not an original idea with me. I honestly cannot remember where I got the idea. What I know is that, once I heard or read it, it has not left my mind. Maybe it will have the same impact on you. The suggestion was made to substitute my name for the words “love” and “it” in a portion of 1 Corinthians 13. Specifically, the portion of that chapter are verses four through the first part of verse eight. Most of us recognize this section as one which describes “love” or “charity.” The exercise that was suggested made it personal. It challenged me…
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Blessings on My Birthday
On my sixteenth birthday, it snowed 5 inches. I was all set to take my driver’s test and get my license. I was prepared because in those days you had to take a full semester of driver’s education – half of it was learning the rules of the road and half of it was driving around town with an instructor. To say I was disappointed that my father wouldn’t let me take the test that day is an understatement. It was nearly a week before I was able to take the test and get my license. As far as I can remember, it has not snowed on my birthday again…
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Does My Life Produce Praise?
When I read through the letters written by Paul, there is one feature that just leaps off the page. It happens enough that, if I’m not careful, I just run over it and fail to realize what is really going on. It is when Paul–seemingly mid-thought–stops to praise God or to extol the name of Jesus. He will be writing about the plan of God or about the ways of God and then, without any literary warning, will just leap into a few sentences praising the Lord. You know it is just a “reaction” to what he has been writing because, if you take out those verses, the text would…
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Beyond the Threshold of Failure
A few weeks ago, something took place that was historic, dramatic, boring, and consequential – all at the same time. It took fifteen roll call votes to elect a Speaker of The United States House of Representatives. Typically, as you know, this is a mere formality. For about one hundred years, it has only taken one vote to elect the leader of the party that is in the majority of the House of Representatives to that position. It did not go quite that smoothly this time. Representative Kevin McCarthy has been the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the last congressional election resulted in that party having a slim…
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Abortion’s Anti-Gospel Premise
As this is being released, the 50th anniversary of the decision being handed down in the case of Roe v. Wade was this past Sunday. Thankfully, in 2022, there was a huge breakthrough with the decision to reverse Roe, but that huge Supreme Court decision put the issue back in the hands of the states, so the work continues. As setbacks in such places as Kansas and even my state of Kentucky show, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done. It has been said a number of times, but we need to continue to make it plain: the work is not done until abortion is not…
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Why Wait Until Then?
I recently posted some information about a college football coach who passed away unexpectedly. After his passing, there were a lot of stories about him. As stated in my earlier post, Mike Leach was a unique individual. That made for a lot of interesting stories. All of that prompted me to think about the fact that each of us is unique. No two people are exactly alike – even “identical” twins. That means that there are stories to be told and memories to be shared about each of us. It also means that there are stories we can tell and memories we can share with our families and friends. Most of those stories and memories typically…
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A Conversation Starter
I’m part of a Ladies’ Bible Class which has met every Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 for about thirteen years (we do take a few weeks off around the holidays). We have studied deeply the books of law and the historical books of the Old Testament. We are now on a schedule that takes us through the Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophetic books. We began our next section of Proverbs yesterday – Proverbs 25-29. As we got into chapter 25, near the end of that chapter, verses 23 and 24 really started a great discussion. They read: “The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks. It is…
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The Church is Not the Lion’s Club
Congregations of the Lord’s people should do good things within their local communities. That needs to be said from the outset. Service works, kindness to neighbors, and being a good citizen are wonderful hallmarks of a faithful congregation. That said, there are some Christians who so emphasize that aspect of the Christian life, that they forget that there is to be an eternal purpose to it. Jesus “went about doing good.” That is a clear statement and reminds us that we need to do the same. We are to let others “see [our] good works.” That cannot occur if we are not actually involved in good works! However, the focus…
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The Sweater-Wearers
About a month ago, a college football coach died unexpectedly. He had been with his team on Saturday to practice for an upcoming bowl game, had gone to a holiday party that evening, had a massive heart attack early Sunday, and was dead by Tuesday. He was only sixty-one years old. Mike Leach was unique in a lot of ways. He had a law degree, but never practiced law. He became a successful coach at the college level despite having never played football on that level. During an interview about football, he didn’t always stick to the subject. Instead, he might launch into a discussion about pirates, military strategy, his opinion about…
