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Lord, Give Us Strength
Let me say, right from the start, that this is not my usual, light-hearted attempt at encouragement. This article is being written while in a place of struggle and, as of the writing, I don’t know the outcome. But I do know this: Satan is at war for souls, including our children’s souls. He has many tools and resources that he uses to ensnare our thoughts and hearts. As much as he attacks us, sometimes I wonder if he isn’t after our children even more. After all, if he can get them young and then make them feel unworthy enough, they are much easier to keep down. And they haven’t…
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6 Simple Things to Do When You Don’t Feel a “Part” of the Church
I love Central. If you have not figured that out from my posts here or on social media, you haven’t been paying attention. It really is a family, and it lifts my heart each time I am with any person or group from Central. But, no matter where you are, you may not feel connected. Someone (or a few someones) nearly anywhere will struggle to feel a part of things. If that’s you, this article is for you. Now, let me say from the outset: not everyone will feel as connected as everyone else all the time. Some of this is personality-driven. Some might have to do with where you…
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The Other Harry Truman
Those of us who have taken almost any class about the history of The United States surely recognize that one of our presidents was Harry S Truman. We may or may not know that he became president when Franklin Roosevelt died and that he upset the candidate for president that “conventional wisdom” thought would win the election of 1948, but we at least recognize his name. Recent events have caused me to remember another Harry Truman — Harry R. Truman. The news about Hurricane Ian brought him back into my mind. It had been forty-two years since I first heard about this Harry Truman. I’ll admit that I had to do a little digging…
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A Valuable Scripture When Teaching
I’m teaching a Wednesday night Bible class right now to some of my favorite students. I have 10th through 12th grade girls in a class on “The Roles of Women in the Home and the Church.” The class is designed to teach them leadership as God would have it. Whenever I am privileged to teach teen girls’ classes, I usually have a theme song and a prayer before we get into the actual study. The girls do a great job of leading in both of these areas. However, I changed things up a little bit this quarter. We still have our opening prayer, but this time I put a “theme” verse up…
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A Never-Ending (and Often Forgotten) Step in Evangelism
My mind has been on evangelism as never before lately. On Sunday mornings, I am teaching a Bible class on the subject and it has lit a fire in me that should have been there all along. But it has also caused so many in the class (which has about 30-35 in attendance) to be more confident. We have been blessed with guests at church from their efforts, and we are praying that doors will continue to open–and that we’ll walk through them! Recently, I was listening to a podcast (“God Magnified”) and the discussion was about 1 Peter 3. There is a well-known verse in that chapter that most…
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4 Words That Should Express the Attitude of Every Leader (And That’s All of Us)
I was recently asked to present some material for the Cedar Springs church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky on the book of Zechariah. It was difficult to condense fourteen chapters into one forty minute presentation, but I tried to at least hit the high points of the particular aspect of the assignment given to me. There was one point that was outside the scope of my assignment that I think is important enough to discuss here. The point is made in just four words, but those four words are, at least in my mind, very powerful. When Donna and I returned home, I resumed teaching a class I’ve been teaching on Wednesday…
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Washed Away
(Subtitle: God’s Grace Illustrated beautifully by my Lyssa Grace) Lyssabeth and I recently had a chance to enjoy relaxing at the beach for a couple of days. Something simple that she said while there struck a chord deep within me that I hope will touch you, too. While we did have a brief foray into “the sharks’ home” by way of paddle boarding, most of our time was spent on the sand. During one of the times that we went to the water’s edge, I noticed Lyssa scooping small handfuls of sand and tossing them forward where, inevitably a small wave would rush up and smooth it out again. She…
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Defining a “Successful” Gospel Meeting
For me, this is Gospel Meeting season. As this article is being released, I am finishing up a meeting in Vinton, Virginia, and then Central will host our Gospel Meeting in a couple of weeks. (With Hiram Kemp speaking…and you’re invited!) For many years now, I have heard members, preachers, and elders talk about Gospel Meetings. Should we still have them? How do we get more people to come? Are they worth it? This article won’t give a full answer to all of those questions, but maybe it will give some clarity of thought to them. From the outset, though, let me state my bias. I am still one who…
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Bear-ly Living
It is not unusual for communities to establish a sort of identity (and maybe raise a little revenue) by establishing some sort of unique celebration, event, etc. For example, my hometown is Metropolis, Illinois. Even though there are no tall buildings to “leap over with a single bound,” there is a “Superman Celebration.” I now live in Paducah, Kentucky where the National Quilt Museum is located. Each year, our population increases temporarily because of “Quilt Week.” I’m sure you can come up with many, many more examples of events and celebrations like these. I recently became aware of one such event/celebration that may, at least to me, be among the most unique ones in existence. If…
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Standing Alone
Jim and I went over into southern Illinois to do some visiting the other day. It was a road I hadn’t been on in a long time and I enjoyed the beautiful trees just beginning to change to their Autumn colors and the huge fields full of grain that was ready to be harvested. As we rode along I noticed one particular field of soybeans and standing in clear sight in the middle of that field was a lone stalk of corn that had somehow survived the summer in that field of another crop. It looked almost comical standing there two feet higher than the soybean crop. It looked out of…
