Years ago I came across a phrase that grabbed my attention. It was a season of my life when I was paying close attention to my own “spiritual state,” and as a result, seeking to develop particular spiritual disciplines. The phrase, a long obedience in the same...
There is no if about death. The question is more accurately put, “When a person dies, shall he or she live again?” Not one line of the New Testament was written… not one sentence was penned apart from the conviction that He of whom these things were being written had...
The preaching must have been powerful. In a recent cartoon, as he leads his parents from worship, Dennis the Menace confronts the preacher. “What happens when everyone stops sinning? What will you do?” While we are not strangers to sin, Dennis stuns us with his ...
I recently heard this story of a boy who desperately wanted a car for his sixteenth birthday. He didn’t hesitate in making that desire known. When that day finally arrived, he looked out the window, hopefully thinking that surely his new car would be there. But to his...
HEALING PRAYER IS GOD’S IDEA I love people! I get excited as I look forward to meeting new people. I am encouraged in my own Christian walk in mentoring young ministers. A few years ago I received an email from a young Canadian minister, asking me to...
GOD IN OUR LIVES Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.(Ps. 37:7 RSV) A little boy was afraid to go to his room alone. He was assured by his mother that God was there, even though it was dark. He went to the door, peeked in, and said, "God, if you're in...
MAN DIMINISHED BY HIS OWN CREATION Maxie Dunnam What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visiteth him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over...
I heard it often in Mississippi in the early sixties, Politics and religion don’t mix. I was a Methodist Minister and the civil rights issue was raging. You couldn’t be a serious Christian, or a faithful church-goer, without having to deal with the claim, politics...
The headline grabbed my attention: ROMNEY MODELS GRACEFIL EXIT FOR AGING POLITICIANS. (The Commercial Appeal, 9-2-24-23). Who could not know to what the article was responding? We are in a political season of a coming presidential election, and there’s never been one...
In my growing up years and in early adulthood, I found myself often thinking and sometimes saying, “Oh, if I could be like him.” As I matured a bit more, the expression of that longing changed. I found myself seeking to ease my sense of failure by thinking and talking...