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A Christian Response to Transgenderism [Video]
A couple of weeks ago, I preached a sermon dealing with the difficult subject of transgenderism. The topic had been requested by several people of various ages, so I decided to tackle it. Today, for my “article,” I’m simply sharing the video of the sermon. You can watch it below, or click here to watch it on YouTube. If the “timer” is not working, the sermon begins at the 21:20 mark of the video.
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The Present of Presence
What could a big, tough football player and a cute little girl have in common? As you read on, you may find out. I don’t know if the name “Donna Kelce” means anything to you or not. It didn’t to me until I recently saw a video in which she was featured. From what I’ve understood since seeing the video, Donna Kelce made history in this year’s Super Bowl. According to what I’ve found out, she is the first woman to have two sons playing in the same Super Bowl. On top of that, the two sons played for different teams. One played for the winning Kansas City Chiefs and the…
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When The Going Gets Tough…
I’m sure most people read the title of this brief article and finished with “the tough get going.” That’s what we as Americans do, right? We “pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” We forge new frontiers and rely on our own strength. Thankfully, I’m not considering this through eyes exclusive to Americans. (Sidenote: I love being an American but that is not the focus of this post.) I want to end the titular quote with some other suggestions: When the going gets tough … pray. Ephesians 3:14-16 reads, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,…
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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…
