“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…
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
Blog (Page 36)
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…
Today, May 2, 2011 is the 400th anniversary of the Bible translation known as the King James Version (KJV) or the Authorized Version (AV), which was first published in 1611. Although I very rarely read or use it because of its outdated language, it has been a great gift to the church over the last four centuries. I highly regard it and…
Focal Passage: Joshua 1:1-11,16-18 Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at how we can grow as leaders. Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as a leader, but undoubtedly everyone is a leader in some capacity. However, godly leadership isn’t something you’re just born with. Certainly, I was a leader in many ways before the Lord saved me, but because of the…
I pray you had an amazing Easter weekend! He’s alive! Glory to God in Christ Jesus! I don’t know about you, but I get utterly pumped up at Easter time. We strive at West Main Baptist to help Easter surpass Christmas in the hearts of our people. The Christmas season with its manger celebrating the incarnation of Jesus is undoubtedly special, but…
Over the past month or so, there has been has been quite a bit of discussion about the state and direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in Baptist newspapers and blogs. The discussion was set off by South Carolina pastor Brad Whitt, and a few weeks later I had the privilege of offering a published response in our Tennessee Baptist newspaper. Soon…
One of the questions that inevitably forms in our mind when tragedy strikes is, “Why did God allow this to happen to me?” That’s a legitimate question with multiple layers of answers, some of which we probably will never know this side of glory, but this week’s text provides us with at least one of the answers to the “why” question: God…