A few nights ago I was up late going through some mp3 songs to put on my phone. I’m sure you know how songs so easily take you down Memory Lane. I was well on my way when I ran across Phil Vassar’s song from back in 2000 called “Just Another Day in Paradise.” The song is all about how crazy life…
CONNECT people to Christ and POUR into their lives His teaching so they'll OVERFLOW for the glory of God
CONNECT people to Christ and POUR into their lives His teaching so they'll OVERFLOW for the glory of God
Posts from 2011 (Page 4)
The most common religion in American might surprise you. It’s not Christianity. Neither is it Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Scientology, or Oprahism. Neither is it atheism or science. According to Christian Smith, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, the most popular religion…
In honor of the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, I committed to put aside my preferred translation, the New American Standard Bible, and solely preach from the KJV for the month of May. That commitment is now over. So, I thought that I would share with you some of my reflections. I want to say up front…
This poem is one of my favorites. It has two characters. One is a person fleeing from and resisting God–His love, His leadership, His salvation. The other is an incessantly persuing God who will not rest until “all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more,” as the old hymn goes. The author is Francis Thompson, a 19th-century poet who…
One of the most memorable quotes I remember from Dr. David Puckett at Southern Seminary is this: “We are like dwarves sitting upon the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great…
“Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master,” (Matthew 25:21). That’s what we want to hear when we stand before God. That judgment comes out of Jesus’ “Parable of the Talents.” Literally, a “talent” in that parable is a measure of money, but I believe, parabolically-speaking, it represents anything that God has made us stewards over — time, money, aptitude, family, position, etc. We’re to be faithful with what He’s put us over, and the entire point of that parable is that God will hold us accountable for our stewardship…
If you’re Southern Baptist, you really need to check this out! Dr. Jeremy Vanatta is beginning an important series he’s calling The Ephesians 4 Project. The purpose is: to seek unity among Southern Baptists around the fact that our doctrine is mostly uniform, though our practice may be less so. It seeks to highlight the unifying principles of the Baptist Faith & Message,…
Meditate on the following word and concept for a moment: con·tam·i·nant kən-‘ta-mə-nənt noun : something that soils, stains, corrupts, or infects by contact or association. It sounds alarming, doesn’t it? It certainly is. In fact, it’s potentially fatal. Therefore, we must take contaminants seriously and vigilantly guard ourselves against them…
Focal Passage: Esther 4:13-17; 8:3-8 One of the great joys I’ve had over the past three springs is being the head coach of my oldest son’s tee ball team. In fact, the season’s already a fourth of the way done. What a combination of challenge and real joy it is leading 3- to 5-year-olds to learn and love the game of baseball!…
Around the dawn of the fifth century A.D., a scholar of the church by the name of Jerome did something that was rather controversial in his day: He produced the official Latin translation of the Bible, which become known as the Vulgate. That in itself wasn’t controversial. The controversy lay in the fact that he ignored the Greek translation of the Old…