Did you ever do something as a kid just because your parents told you to do it? I remember when I was little, maybe 5 or 6, playing Tee Ball with one of the local teams in Lawrenceburg. Two words: not fun. It’s hard to remember anything I liked about my Tee Ball days besides the ice cream trips after each game. It was always hot, there were always bugs, and most of all, I had the athletic ability of the bleachers that my parents were sitting on. Why was I there, then? Because my parents wanted me to be, that’s all. In Genesis 28, Jacob had just fled from…

What do you do when you are tired of it all? Let’s face it: we all get tired. We get discouraged. We feel spent and as if we have tried all we can try, but nothing is good enough. This gray season of cold doesn’t help, but this feeling may hit us at any time. So what do we do? What do you do when your job feels monotonous and you never feel appreciated? What do you do when the physical therapy isn’t helping and you are no closer to being “your old self again” despite the doctor’s promises. What do you do when your spouse never seems happy with…

Yes. It is sometimes permissible, if not necessary, to be jealous. Let’s face it – Our God is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 even says that His name is “Jealous.” This Hebrew word in the original text indicates that God is not going to put up with any rival, such that any departure from one’s desire for Him to pursue someone or something else would bring about His severe and justified anger. Therefore – He’s jealous. It’s a relationship thing. It’s an ownership thing. It’s a love thing. There are legitimate reasons for humans to practice godly jealousy. But really quickly let’s first discuss what godly jealousy is not. Godly…

If I remember correctly, my first baseball “uniform” consisted of a baseball cap and a t-shirt. The t-shirt had the name of a local funeral home on the front of it and a number on the back.  The man who owned the funeral home knew that he was not trying to supply uniforms for a major league team. He was just kind enough to try to help some seven-year-old boys get a start. He probably thought at the time (and rightly so), “Those t-shirts and caps are good enough for who it’s for.“ If that is what he thought, he was correct. We were just a group of seven-year-old boys who were excited about…

Exodus 18 is very often used in leadership books written by Christian writers. Many have described it as the foundation of the US legal system (and other similar systems throughout history). It simply is the idea of delegation, but it took someone giving Moses the idea before it ever became a reality. Jethro, who was the father-in-law of Moses, saw that Moses was attempting to take care of every dispute among the people, and he was making both the people and himself weary. So Jethro had a simple but needed idea. Basically, he told Moses to only handle the biggest disputes and let trusted men handle smaller groups of people…

What is your first response to the sins that are committed by other people? Wait a minute, should I clarify? Let’s say that someone who doesn’t like you or who has hurt you in some way does something to stain their character. Maybe they do something that is obviously not morally right. What is the first thing that goes through your mind? OK let’s go again. This time let’s say your sweet grandmother was to sin? (Yes, grandmothers sin, too). Let’s say she does something that is obviously not becoming a person who claims to be a Christian. Now, what’s your first response? Should the identity of the person matter…

The post that appeared here last week was originally scheduled for a little over a year ago. [Here is that post.] That did not happen, though, because of some “production issues.” A little editing was done in order for what I wrote at that time to be able to be published last week. Those “production issues” have provided a unique opportunity. They have allowed something that has taken a year to develop to be condensed into only a week. A year or so ago, when I wrote what was posted only last week, I was writing in anticipation of a new phase in my life. On December 31, 2016, I “retired” from full-time local preaching. On…