Last week my grandmother had a birthday. I called her to talk awhile as I could not easily visit. She lives about 7 hours away from us by car. We had sent a floral arrangement to her along with a gift and as we talked, as always, she was gracious and thankful. Then she mentioned something to me that has been on my mind ever since. She said that her son (my uncle) and his wife had bought her a new Bible she had been wanting. She said it had her name on the front, printed in gold, “Just in case she forgot who she was.” She joked that she…

How many of the following statements confuse you? I began preaching full-time for a congregation in southern Illinois in 1978, but I was not a pastor. I moved to another location in Southeast Missouri in 1985. For eleven years, I served as the full-time preacher there, but I was not a pastor. I began preaching full-time for the Central church of Christ in Paducah in 2001, but I was not a pastor. On December 21, 2003, I started serving that congregation as one of the pastors. From December 21, 2003, until December 31, 2016, I was both a full-time preacher for the Central church and also one of the pastors.  On…

The book of Isaiah contains many memorable and powerful passages. From the imagery of sin being like scarlet, yet God making them white as snow (Isaiah 1:18) to the prophecy of the “suffering Servant” (chapter 53), the book is filled with treasures. One of those that is often quoted is found in Isaiah 55:8-9, where Isaiah declared, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. I can’t even count how many times I have heard that passage used to…

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” –Walt Disney Congregations sometimes struggle with planning for the future. While there are many reasons for that, a number of those reasons come down to one factor: fear. We are afraid we don’t have enough money. We are afraid we won’t grow. We are afraid that, even though this change has nothing to do with Scripture, people simply will not accept change. So, we sit back and keep doing what we are doing. Or we make some plans, but they are not challenging in the least. Of course, we must have a sense of realism, but may I remind us all today that…