It’s about time Neal Pollard published a book! Many of you are familiar with brother Pollard from his Daily Bread, a (almost) daily email with brief devotional thoughts. In his 2007 release Rise Up & Build: Tools for Church Growth, Pollard presents us with powerful pointers to help our congregations grow–the Lord’s way. While there are dozens of books out there on church growth, so many tackle the subject with many false ideas. Pollard draws the best from those sources and gives us 13 chapters to help our congregations move forward while not forsaking Biblical teaching. As you might expect, the 13 chapters are alliterated. They are: 1. Expository Exploration…

Leah’s mom is a homemaker and Bible class teacher. She gave me two favorite songs and told me to pick one. The one I chose is by John Denver. Besides “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” this song probably stands as his signature. I would have chosen her other favorite, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” but I knew that if I had anything on this blog from Beaches, Amber and mom would cry just from thinking about the movie. By the way, one person in one of those “this is what I thought the song said” surveys said that he thought Annie’s Song started out with, “You filled out my census.”

We are half-way through this uplifting series of devotional thoughts. I am greatly enjoying spending a few minutes with each psalm, and I hope you are as well. Since this series “stretches out” so far, I am putting links to all the Psalms after every set of 25. Here is the list for Psalms 1-75. Psalms 1-50 (A list like this one for the first 1/3 of the book) Psalm 51 Psalm 52 Psalm 53 Psalm 54 Psalm 55 Psalm 56 Psalm 57 Psalm 58 Psalm 59 Psalm 60 Psalm 61 Psalm 62 Psalm 63 Psalm 64 Psalm 65 Psalm 66 Psalm 67 Psalm 68 Psalm 69 Psalm 70 Psalm…

1. What a contrast with Psalm 74. In Psalm 75, the writer admits that wrongs are done in society, but spends basically the entire 10 verses saying that God is ultimately in charge at all times. 2. In verse 1, praise given to God because of His presence is the theme. God continues to be near His people no matter what. Because of that, people speak of God and praise His Name. 3. Verses 3-5 are written from the perspective of what God would say in these circumstances. Verse 3 speaks of God stabilizing a difficult situation. 4 and 5 speak of God giving a stern warning to those who…

1. Psalm 74 is one of the most emotional laments found in the Bible. The land of Israel, including the temple, had been ravaged, and the situation is so bad that the psalmist–expressing the thoughts of the people–feels as though God has abandoned His people. 2. Verse 1 begins the lament in dramatic fashion, asking why God has rejected His people “forever.” It seems as though this psalm is written a while after the temple is destroyed and the people are penitent, but still being punished. Could it be that they know the common “circle” that is found in books such as Judges and wonder why, now that they have…

1. In this psalm, the writer, Asaph, seems to be trying to figure out an ages-old question: “Why do evil people suffer?” He spends the first 14 verses struggling with that question, then turns his attention to the fact that God is ultimately just. 2. Verses 2 and 3 begin to spell out the problem the psalmist is struggling with. He admits to having such trouble with this question that he almost stumbles. As an aside, it is interesting to read the book of Job (especially the speeches of Job’s “friends”), then this psalm. 3. Asaph thinks that evil people have so easy that they don’t even have painful deaths!…

Leah’s dad, J.W. Moon, is an elder of the Blackwater-Macedonia church of Christ. He is retired after working for Alabama Power for many years. His favorite song is a great story-song by Marty Robbins:

Written by Bob Russell, When God Builds a Church is a volume that gives “10 principles for growing a dynamic church.” The book is 10 chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion. This book was recommended to me about three years ago and I read part of it. To be honest, I don’t remember why I didn’t finish the volume then. Over the past few days, I have been reading the book again. Containing just 284 reading pages, this book can easily be read in a weekend (which is basically what I did). Bob Russell is the “senior pastor” of the Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. This congregation has grown…

My grandmother lives in Paducah, Kentucky. She is very special, because she is Mary Carol and Turner’s only great-grandparent. She also used to make the greatest chicken pot pie of all time! Here is a song she used to sing to us all the time when we were little:

1. This psalm was written for Solomon’s dedication (or coronation) ceremony, and is a prayer to God, that He might bless and protect the king. This tradition still continues in every Christian society today; asking for God’s aid for the new leader. 2. The psalm opens with a prayer for the king’s ability to judge the nation. Solomon (and any leader) would need divine guidance to lead his people while still keeping them true to God’s way. It is interesting that Solomon would later ask God for special help in this area and the Lord would grant that request, making Solomon the wisest king Israel ever had. Perhaps the words…