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Blessings on My Birthday
On my sixteenth birthday, it snowed 5 inches. I was all set to take my driver’s test and get my license. I was prepared because in those days you had to take a full semester of driver’s education – half of it was learning the rules of the road and half of it was driving around town with an instructor. To say I was disappointed that my father wouldn’t let me take the test that day is an understatement. It was nearly a week before I was able to take the test and get my license. As far as I can remember, it has not snowed on my birthday again…
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Does My Life Produce Praise?
When I read through the letters written by Paul, there is one feature that just leaps off the page. It happens enough that, if I’m not careful, I just run over it and fail to realize what is really going on. It is when Paul–seemingly mid-thought–stops to praise God or to extol the name of Jesus. He will be writing about the plan of God or about the ways of God and then, without any literary warning, will just leap into a few sentences praising the Lord. You know it is just a “reaction” to what he has been writing because, if you take out those verses, the text would…
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Beyond the Threshold of Failure
A few weeks ago, something took place that was historic, dramatic, boring, and consequential – all at the same time. It took fifteen roll call votes to elect a Speaker of The United States House of Representatives. Typically, as you know, this is a mere formality. For about one hundred years, it has only taken one vote to elect the leader of the party that is in the majority of the House of Representatives to that position. It did not go quite that smoothly this time. Representative Kevin McCarthy has been the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the last congressional election resulted in that party having a slim…
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Abortion’s Anti-Gospel Premise
As this is being released, the 50th anniversary of the decision being handed down in the case of Roe v. Wade was this past Sunday. Thankfully, in 2022, there was a huge breakthrough with the decision to reverse Roe, but that huge Supreme Court decision put the issue back in the hands of the states, so the work continues. As setbacks in such places as Kansas and even my state of Kentucky show, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done. It has been said a number of times, but we need to continue to make it plain: the work is not done until abortion is not…
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Why Wait Until Then?
I recently posted some information about a college football coach who passed away unexpectedly. After his passing, there were a lot of stories about him. As stated in my earlier post, Mike Leach was a unique individual. That made for a lot of interesting stories. All of that prompted me to think about the fact that each of us is unique. No two people are exactly alike – even “identical” twins. That means that there are stories to be told and memories to be shared about each of us. It also means that there are stories we can tell and memories we can share with our families and friends. Most of those stories and memories typically…
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A Conversation Starter
I’m part of a Ladies’ Bible Class which has met every Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 for about thirteen years (we do take a few weeks off around the holidays). We have studied deeply the books of law and the historical books of the Old Testament. We are now on a schedule that takes us through the Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophetic books. We began our next section of Proverbs yesterday – Proverbs 25-29. As we got into chapter 25, near the end of that chapter, verses 23 and 24 really started a great discussion. They read: “The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks. It is…
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The Church is Not the Lion’s Club
Congregations of the Lord’s people should do good things within their local communities. That needs to be said from the outset. Service works, kindness to neighbors, and being a good citizen are wonderful hallmarks of a faithful congregation. That said, there are some Christians who so emphasize that aspect of the Christian life, that they forget that there is to be an eternal purpose to it. Jesus “went about doing good.” That is a clear statement and reminds us that we need to do the same. We are to let others “see [our] good works.” That cannot occur if we are not actually involved in good works! However, the focus…
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The Sweater-Wearers
About a month ago, a college football coach died unexpectedly. He had been with his team on Saturday to practice for an upcoming bowl game, had gone to a holiday party that evening, had a massive heart attack early Sunday, and was dead by Tuesday. He was only sixty-one years old. Mike Leach was unique in a lot of ways. He had a law degree, but never practiced law. He became a successful coach at the college level despite having never played football on that level. During an interview about football, he didn’t always stick to the subject. Instead, he might launch into a discussion about pirates, military strategy, his opinion about…
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O Captain! My Captain!
Those words are the first of a famous poem by Walt Whitman. Some people may think of the poem itself but many people my age also think of a Robin Williams movie where a group of students idolize him as their mentor and declare that with these words. I thought of these words recently when I heard a verse from Hebrews. Hebrews 2:10 reads “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings …” In writing this article, I decided to look up the entire poem…
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Excitement Over the Most Important Thing
I had a couple of ideas for posts just about ready to go for this week, but those can be shared anytime. Instead, I decided to write something more “in the moment” that I hope will encourage you. It was something I said almost off the cuff a couple of days ago, but then reiterated in public just a few hours later. At Central, we have been working hard for awhile now to organize a congregational emphasis on evangelism. Instead of just preaching and teaching, “do this,” we are putting several things into place where each and every member has a role and so that many seeds can be sown.…
