“Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.” (Phil. 3:17) Is there a difference between personal heroes and mentors? I think of a hero as someone I admire, but I could never be like. I find...
It seems to me that the sky is falling every four years. Every time we have an election I hear that someone is going to move to Canada if their candidate of choice does not win. Every election things are much worse than they were before and the stakes are higher than they ever have been. It is a...
Is there any part of the American experience that does not involve competitive marketing? The American consumer is daily barraged with product claims and comparisons, with advertisements extolling the superior virtues of one soap over another. We are targeted as a potential jury to judge between...
The early days of the Baptist people in England were marked by disagreements. The disagreements were not necessarily loud and angry…but they did generate some debates and pamphlets. At one point in the early 1800s a new hymnal was written that did not include some of the older Baptist...
It is hard adjusting, I’ll admit it. The situation with Covid-19 is marginalizing the church experience. We are a long way from the 3 or 4 church service routine that some of us grew up with! At this point we meet once a week for over an hour. That’s a big change! On the other hand...
"but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah..." (John 20:30) We take for granted that things are written down. So much is written today that we have difficulty discerning texts that are of value and those that are not. The phrase "fake news"...
Juneteenth. It sounds strange because it has not benefitted by being embraced by popular culture. But if there was ever a holiday that made sense, this would be it. I mean c’mon, we “celebrate” Halloween. But this date actually has meaning. My experience has been that white...
Luke 10:29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" When I was growing up, I lived in a very segregated town in Alabama. There was a section for Blacks and another for Whites. My father delivered groceries for a store that he and my grandfather ran. I remember...
I knew I needed to write a blog about this. But…how? I mean, what has not been said already? And what is controversial here? Who defends the practice of what happened to George Floyd? I think no one. And by “no one,” I realize there is some warped person who would try to...
I mentioned Sunday while preaching that I sometimes like to watch documentaries about World War 2. That was a perfect time to mention that it was Memorial Day…but I was preoccupied with the details of a unique Sunday of re-gathering. Sunday, I watched a few more of those...