Church Life
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Making An Impact
It’s interesting to see what people will write about you when you don’t know they’re writing it. For example, a few months ago, I finally decided to get online and see what this “Legacy” that my family keeps mentioning is all about. While I was blown away by the number of fantastically written articles and podcasts that I saw (not that I’m biased), what struck me as the most interesting was what my family had written about me in the “About” section. For those of you who have only heard about me from this short snippet, most of what was said is true. I will point out two flaws in…
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3 Words We Need to Remove from Bible Study (and 3 We Need to Always Keep)
Ask any Christian, and they will inevitably speak of how important it is to read, study, and talk about the Scriptures. Bible study and Bible discussions are vital to the growth of a Christian. However, too often, we allow three words to stand in the place of a true study of the Bible, or (more often) a true discussion about the Bible. They are three words that we need to remove from our Bible discussions, because they do not help one bit. What are those words? “I feel like.” How often do we hear (or say) that our feelings are what matter when it comes to matters of morality and…
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Once We Have Encountered Jehovah, Will We Stay?
The book of Ruth takes place in the time of the judges, a period after the Canaan conquest but before the time of Israelite kings. It was a time of war, violence, idolatry, and spiritual confusion. Everybody did as they saw fit (Judges 21:25). It is in this dark and desperate time that Ruth emerges as a person of loyalty, godliness, and character. She literally “found God;” a God she did not know before. Many people don’t realize that Ruth was raised in Moab. This means she was a descendant of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Though she was related to the Jews, she was not one of them. Her clan worshiped…
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My Favorite Pen
It was the time for gift giving this past December. Our children, their spouses, our grandchildren, Donna, and I were all assembled for the yearly ritual. As you might expect, the grandchildren were especially excited. That just seems to come with the territory when young children are involved. However, this time there was something different about the excitement. To be sure, one of our granddaughters was excited about the gifts she might (and did) receive. She was also excited, though, about the fact that she had found gifts to give to the other family members. We found out later that she did a lot of her “shopping” around the house in which she and…
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Transitions
Cousins’ Camp 2017 has come and gone for another year. We have worshiped together, played games, done crafts, done sidewalk chalk, jumped at Vertical Jump Park, had our picture taken wearing our Cousin’s Camp T-shirts, eaten food (and lots of it), won prizes, put new flowers on the graves of their great-grandparents, fussed a little, cried a little, laughed a lot, had our talent show, sung together, prayed together, and had devotionals presented by Grampy and the three boys. This was our fifth year for this gathering and it seemed like everyone had a good time. Three years ago we began assigning a theme for each year. The first theme was “Discovery” and…
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Free Resources for Pew Packers (or Family Devotionals)
Nearly every Sunday evening, I get the privilege of sitting down front with some of our elementary and preschool children at 9th Avenue and leading Pew Packers. While you just never know what might happen during those 10 minutes, it is a joy to watch these students sing and learn Bible facts. Pew Packers is considered by some to be outdated, but that is only if we treat it as such! Instead, I see it as 10 invaluable minutes each week with these precious children. As such, we are always looking for ways to improve Pew Packers and to make it a helpful time for our students. Today, I am…
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Hurting People are No Different than Fallen Trees
Boom! Whoosh! Clap! Crunch! Crash! These sounds were heard Saturday evening in Cookeville, Tennessee, where I live. Thousands of trees came down all over the county. Many of those trees landed on the tops of houses. I woke up Sunday morning got out early and surveyed the damage. Many roads were still impassable. It looked like bombs had gone off and there was debris everywhere. If you looked right or left you could see the devastation. Power lines and trees were the biggest casualties. It will take our city a while to recover. It was a “hundred-year-old tree pulled up by the roots once in a lifetime” kind of storm.…
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A Small Drawer, but With Huge Implications
Not too long ago, I was asked to speak at the memorial service for a fine Christian lady. During the service, something caught my attention. At one point during the service, I was seated in a location where I had a very clear view of a very small drawer. Because of the location of the chair in which I was seated, I was able to, in effect, look over the shoulder of the body of the lady and see the edge of the bottom half of the lid of the casket. As I did that, I saw something I’ve seen a few times before. For some reason, though, this time it caught my…
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[Quote] G. Campbell Morgan on Backsliding
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Sun and More and Stars Galore!
One of my favorite Bible songs to sing with my children when they were younger was the Days of Creation song. Many of you may recognize today’s title from the verse about Day 4: “Day 4, day, 4: Sun and moon and stars galore!” At my school, we are gearing up for a very special day involving those elements of God’s universe. Quoting from the website GreatAmericanEclipse.com: On August 21, 2017, millions of people across the United States will see nature’s most wondrous spectacle — a total eclipse of the Sun. It is a scene of unimaginable beauty; the Moon completely blocks the Sun, daytime becomes a deep twilight, and…
