Church Life
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I Didn’t Know What I Had Until…
In reading Psalm 51 recently, I was reminded of David’s remorse for what he had done. He had disobeyed God by committing sin with Bathsheba and trying to cover it up by having her husband, Uriah, killed. He then proceeded to take Bathsheba as his wife. Second Samuel 11 ends with these words, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27). We all remember how God sent Nathan to David to tell him that he was the man with whom God was displeased. The account tells us of all the things that God had given David (2 Sam. 12:7-8). The chapter continues with all the…
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Cut To the Heart
I was recently preparing a sermon and took a little time to reflect on a well-known phrase from the New Testament. The sermon was not primarily about the phrase, but it served as an important piece of the lesson. However, what I was reflecting on was not something connected with the sermon, so I decided to save these thoughts for an article. The phrase is from Acts 2, where, when Peter spoke to those at Pentecost about Jesus and convinced them that they were guilty of crucifying the Messiah, the text says they were “cut to the heart.” That imagery is powerful, to say the least. But here is what…
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Could I Be The Problem?
I just tried a little experiment. I wanted to see if I could trick my spellchecker. What I typed was “The Untied States of America.” Immediately, a suggested correction showed up. The suggestion was for me to change what I had typed to “The United States of America.” Some might argue that our nation is becoming increasingly “untied” and that I am thinking of some political or social point that needs to be made. While I am reasonably sure that some points along those lines could be made and could have some validity, that was not the purpose of my “experiment.” I was thinking about the importance and desirability of unity. I have…
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Makin’ Music
This past weekend, I got to go to one of my happy places – Freed-Hardeman University – for one of my happy events – Makin’ Music. I love the show: the energy of the social clubs, the amazing musical talent displayed, and the friendships revisited. I also love the school where it occurs: the values it upholds, the Christian mentors it employs, and the lifelong lessons it teaches. As wonderful as the Saturday night show was, the music I was most excited to make was not a pop ballad or rewritten lyrics to an old rock favorite. My favorite songs had quite a different focus. One did occur on Saturday…
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Pharaoh’s “Descendants”?
As I type these words, I’m well into another year of a practice I started a number of years ago. Part of my morning routine is to begin each day listening to the Bible. I have an app on my phone that allows me to do that. The app that I use has a variety of plans, but I have always chosen one that will take me through the Bible in a calendar year. Most of the time I choose one that presents the text in chronological order. That is what I am doing again this year. It has been a few weeks since I listened to the material in the book of Exodus that…
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Do We Really Know One Another?
I read a post the other day about a teacher who had a unique way of getting to know her students. Every Friday afternoon she asked them to write down the four people they wanted to sit with the next week, and then to write down the name of the person in their class who had been the best example that week. She spent time over the weekend, not changing her seating chart, but seeing what children in her class were left out and ignored. The lists sometimes indicated who was being bullied and who might be doing the bullying. It told her where the cliques were and who didn’t fit in…
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Say Something
I love the heart of those who want their congregations to help their communities. There can be no doubt that Jesus “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38) and that we are to be as much like Him as we can be. While we can’t miraculously heal or feed people, with God’s help we can help a lot of people. Christians should want the hungry to be fed, those who are without clothes to be clothed, and the hurting to be comforted. In fact, we will be judged, at least in part, by our efforts–or lack thereof–in these types of areas (Matthew 25:31-46). That said, there is often something that seems…
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A Simple Solution to a Complex Problem
It has been about two months since I sat in a chapel session during the annual lectureship at Freed-Hardeman University and listened to a presentation. This particular presentation is, by no means, the first or only “chapel talk” I’ve heard. It was not even the only one I heard that week. It may be the first one, however, that I’ve thought about for as long as I have or as deeply as I have this one. Since I heard the presentation, I’ve also read some of the “background information” about what I heard. Both the presentation and the information I’ve learned since then has caused me to do a lot of thinking, reflecting, and…
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Two Funerals, One Family
Let me begin by letting you know this is not an article about a tragic accident. It is, however, an article about the family of God. Last Saturday, we had the somewhat unusual experience of having two memorial services in our congregation’s auditorium. Both of the individuals being remembered and honored had passed away sometime before but both families had chosen to wait on a service. You may be thinking: “Wait. Both families? I thought you said there was only one family.” I did, so keep reading for the explanation. The first memorial service was for an older man who spent over 60 years preaching the gospel. His faithful widow…
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About Those Variants
As I type these words, we are still dealing with something that most of us had never heard about a couple of years or so ago. When we did start hearing about it, most of us probably thought that it would be ancient history by now. As I recall, we were concerned at first with something called the Coronavirus. Over time, that concern was focused on something called COVID-19. I won’t pretend to be intelligent enough to explain how all of that is related. I’ll leave that to others who have a lot more information and understanding. What I do know is that it seems like we’ve been shooting at a moving target for a…
