I love music! Choral music, instrumental music, popular music, classical music . . . folk tunes, ballads, country western and bluegrass . . . the patriotic and romantic. For me, music is a must.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Easter
Our Ultimate Hooray
What gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave? What is the ultimate hope of the handicapped, the abused, the burn victim? What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents? The answer to each of these questions is the same: the hope of bodily resurrection.
Read MoreGardening Season
I really have a way with plants—a knack for turning them brown. So this note isn’t full of tips about tulips, or pointers for primping your petunias. But it is about gardens. As I spend time mulling over the biblical texts of Easter, I’m struck by the contrast between two garden trials. The first, through […]
Read MoreThe Resurrection Changes Things
It was a beautiful English late summer’s afternoon. Dappled sunlight gently warmed the skin. A delicate breeze made the nearby leaves sway. Birds twittered their song. The smell of the freshly mown grass lingered. And a group of people gathered. We gathered to bury a baby. Four weeks old. The parents shared memories of her […]
Read MoreWhat the Resurrection Gives Us
When I was growing up in Houston, our family lived across the street from a widow named Mrs Roberts. Her husband had recently died from a sudden heart attack. Alone, afraid, and facing an unknown future, her grief knew no bounds. In the weeks that followed the funeral, my mother watched Mrs Roberts leave the […]
Read MoreThe Gathering Storm
Introduction While Jesus was indeed gentle and kind, He also took a bold stand against sin. In fact, when confronting evil dressed in the garb of religion, His formidable anger took many by surprise. He sharply rebuked the religious leaders in Israel for turning their privileged status into an opportunity to gain wealth and power. […]
Read MoreThe Trinity and Salvation
You can easily zip through 1 Peter 1:2 and miss the Trinity in the work of salvation. Many Christians forget—or at least fail to appreciate—the fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in perfect harmony to secure our eternal destiny. One author writes, “Each person of the Godhead plays a distinct role: […]
Read MoreThis Should Be Me
The sound of bleating lambs and shuffling footsteps filled the temple. With three trumpet blasts, the priests announced the start of the Passover sacrifices. Worshipers responded to the priests’ psalms with “Hallelujahs” as each man offered his household’s sacrifice to God. As the disciple John raised the knife to the throat of the lamb he’d […]
Read MoreThe Full Gospel…And Nothing More
In Bible college I sat under Dr. Charles Ryrie for a course in soteriology—the doctrine of salvation. He opened the first lecture with this instruction: “Take out a piece of paper. You have less than one minute to share the gospel with a stranger, or he’ll be lost for eternity. Write down what that person […]
Read MoreWhen Jesus Fails Your Expectations
John the Baptist struggled with his own sermon. He had preached about the Messiah’s kingdom coming with power and justice. But instead, Jesus’s ministry centered on preaching and on acts of mercy, and John found himself unfairly wasting away in prison near the blistering shores of the Dead Sea. Gentle Jesus hardly seemed the political […]
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