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“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.” That’s part of what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 1:9). Eloquent, isn’t it. Real. Raw. Authentic. “We felt a death sentence. In our hearts. We despaired of life.” It may even sound like someone tore a page out of your personal journal or hacked into your heart and wrote what they found in the Bible. Paul could write that way because he had been there. He had penned into his … Read more…

We chose that particular church because we figured it would be the place we were least likely to see someone we knew, or someone who knew us.  It was out of our driving pattern, distant from where most of our friends and acquaintances lived, and not a part of our religious tribe.  We wanted — we needed — to go to church because we wanted to stay connected to God.  But we were not ready to reconnect with God’s people.  That may be hard for you to read if you’ve never been there, but we were both pretty beaten up; … Read more…

Irony is the incongruity between the expected result of a sequence of events and the actual result. That’s how old Mr. Webster defines the word. I don’t remember who it was, but someone once defined definition as the imprisonment of an idea within a wall of words. Which is, itself, ironic. However you define them, ironies surprise us. Or sadden us. Sometimes, they shock us. And now and then, irony explodes with new meaning. The last few hours of Jesus’ life may possess that kind of incongruity. A friend and follower betrayed Jesus to his enemies. Then signaled his treachery with a … Read more…

My apologies for the recent FTP (Failure to Post). I aspire to share something at least once through the week and early every Sunday morning. Recent speaking commitments, travel and work have limited my time to reflect and write. Hopefully, we’re back on track with today’s post. Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness.” So God created humans in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26, 27) What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? And are … Read more…

The backyard of the house I grew up in on Shadburn Avenue in Buford, Georgia, was huge. It was fenced all around like a baseball field and, but for a crabapple tree in one corner and a shed in the other, was clear of any obstruction. We played baseball there, my brother and I, and dreamed of making it to the bigs. I could throw a frozen rope from the Frisbee at third base to the piece of floor tile at first. But from center field, the best I could manage was a one-hopper to the plate. That yard was huge. When … Read more…

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, reflecting on his imprisonment in a Russian gulag, wrote, “When I lay there on rotting prison straw, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. Even in the best of all hearts there remains an un-uprooted small corner of evil.” Even in the best of all human hearts. That sounds a lot like something Paul said in Ephesians 2:1 – 3. As for you, you were dead in your … Read more…

In Eastern Europe, The Ukraine is fighting for its life. Black clad ISIS armies are spreading through the Middle East like ideological Ebola. Hezbollah is pouring into Syria like gasoline on an already out-of-control fire. Racial tensions in the United States seem tighter, more strained and less hopeful. American culture feels as if it has lost its innocence and taken on a much darker nature. A nature about fifty shades darker. Look anywhere in the world right now and you see turmoil, pandemonium and confusion. Add to that the local crises developing in your neck of the woods – the ones that don’t make … Read more…

Have you ever been so bored in a class at school that you counted the dots in the ceiling tile to stay awake? Have you ever tied knots in the hymnal ribbon or tried to see how many songs could be sung to the tune of Gilligan’s Island because the sermon was so intolerably boring? (Amazing Grace, There is a Place of Quiet Rest, How Sweet How Heavenly & How Shall the Young, to name a few). Some things are just dull. Income tax forms. Policy manuals. Parts of the Bible. You read that right. Even for a life-long, Bible-believing, God-fearing … Read more…

It was the Jewish Passover and Jerusalem was flooded with visitors from all over the Roman Empire. For some, who had heard the gossip, there was an air of expectation. Rumors were swirling about a miracle worker, a Galilean named Jesus. The sick had been healed. The blind could see. The lame walked. Just two miles distant from Jerusalem, in Bethany, a man named Lazarus had been raised from the dead. This feast, celebrating deliverance from an ancient taskmaster, always inflamed hope for a new emancipation. The tattle of a miracle worker raised the fever of that year’s celebration. Rebellious words were whispered. Would-be … Read more…

I love the Book of Acts. My heritage is in the Churches of Christ, so reading Acts is like playing a Friday night football game on your home field. The holy ground underneath my exegetical cleats feels firm and familiar. When I was in the ecclesiastic equivalent of Pop Warner football, I could quote Acts 2:38, 8:36 and 20:7. And that section at the end of chapter two, where they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer . . . man, that’s like championship Christianity. The problem, though, with the Book … Read more…