Nov 19, 2022 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren Autumn Analysis We are in the autumn of our year; many of us are in the autumn of our lives, and many are yet unconverted or the Lord would return. We look and labor for our Lord’s return. Despite all the theories about the timing of our...
Nov 17, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
1527 was, in many ways, not a good year for the Anabaptists of Europe. George Wagner, of Emmerich, Germany, was charged with the crime that he did not believe that water baptism possessed any saving power. He was bound and thrown into a bonfire on February 8. Melchior...
Nov 17, 2022 | Wednesday
Here we are in the auditorium of the Calvary Baptist Church. Why are you here? Is it to see your Christian friends? Do you come to sing the songs of Zion? Is it out of habit? Why are you here? Is it to worship the Lord? Is it to testify of your faith to the community?...
Nov 14, 2022 | Sunday Evening
Back in chapter 1, Peter introduced himself to his readers using the word “apostle.” He was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ; one of those to whom Christ gave that special title in Luke 6. “And it came to pass in those days that (Jesus) went out into a...
Nov 13, 2022 | Sunday Morning
You and your friend have just entered the newest Italian restaurant in town. It looks like you have just stepped back into 19th century Italy. The menus are well-designed with fancy lettering and a few illustrations, but no pictures of the food. You are not an expert...
Nov 10, 2022 | Wednesday
It appears to me that Peter was concerned about the saints in Asia Minor – Galatia, Pontus and Cappadocia. Perhaps he had heard that they were suffering under severe persecution. Perhaps he was afraid they would stumble and turn from Christ, even renouncing...
Nov 6, 2022 | Sunday Morning
I will begin with a horrible illustration, which I pray will never take place in any of our lives. Your family doctor thinks you have a rare, fatal medical condition, and he gives you several options. You decide to attack this disease head-on with the latest and best...
Nov 3, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Elijah Baker was born and raised, and born again, in Lunenburg County, Virginia. After his salvation, he fearlessly began preaching Christ where the government and state-sanctioned church forbade him. While many of his Christian friends were moving into Kentucky, the...
Nov 3, 2022 | Wednesday
Last week we looked at the Lord Jesus’ “Parable of the Talents” applying it to the work of evangelism. Matthew 25 tell us that this was given just two or three days before Jesus’ crucifixion. In Luke 19 we read a similar, but different illustration, called the...
Oct 31, 2022 | Timothy Parrow
Pastor and Brethren: We have had a month of increased activity at the courthouse of Payne County, Ok., translating from English into Spanish and Spanish into English. Because of the changes in legal procedure, I do not always get an opportunity to present the clients...
Oct 31, 2022 | Sunday Evening
No sincere Christian would readily admit to arguing with Peter or any other penman of the scriptures. Every well-taught Christian knows that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Word of God, and no one should argue or differ with the Lord. But the truth of the matter...
Oct 27, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
David Barrow was born on this day in 1753. He was raised on a Virginia farm and was not privileged to have much formal education. But the Lord saved him at the age of sixteen. He was baptized and immediately started exhorting his friends to come to Christ. After...
Oct 23, 2022 | Sunday Morning
I believe you’ve heard this story recently, but I am repeating it because it jump-starts this message. Lewis Craig was a Baptist pastor in Virginia during the days when it was illegal to be a Baptist pastor. In the course of preaching the gospel, in about 1767, he was...
Oct 20, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
In 1800 many churches in Kentucky were blessed with a soul-stirring revival. When pastor and historian Lemuel Burkitt heard of it, he traveled from North Carolina to experience and record what the Lord was doing. On this day in 1801, he wrote: “The first appearance...
Oct 20, 2022 | Wednesday
Before the 19th century, there were only two ways to travel from New York to Sydney, Australia. Usually those old sailing vessels went under the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of Africa. But there was another route: sailing by way of the Drake Passage or...
Oct 16, 2022 | Sunday Evening
The title to this afternoon’s message is: “Where Can I Find Christ Jesus?” I will begin with something for which I might get some flack, but I know I’m not the only guilty person here, so I might let you shield me if there is any push-back. Years ago, I read and...
Oct 16, 2022 | Sunday Morning
You fishermen know that the best way to catch fish is to use some sort of bait or other enticement. The enemies of Truth – those who are trying to catch souls – usually use a little bit of bait as well. And like the lure which resembles a fish or some other food,...
Oct 13, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Gottlob Bruckner was born outside of Berlin, Germany in 1783. When he was twenty years old he moved to the big city to find work, and there he met a preacher whose sermons brought him to the cross for salvation. Becoming a new creature in Christ, Gottlob desired to...
Oct 13, 2022 | Wednesday
Where would you prefer to live: on the planet Mercury or on whatever Pluto is being called today? Astronomers tell us that the surface temperature of Mercury is 354 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t know if that is on our side of Mercury or on the Sun’s side, but it doesn’t...
Oct 10, 2022 | Sunday Evening
Elizabeth Barrett’s parents disapproved so strongly of her marriage to Robert Browning that they disowned her. Almost every week for years Elizabeth wrote letters to her parents begging for reconciliation. Not once did they ever reply. Then after 10 years of...
Oct 9, 2022 | Sunday Morning
As we read this letter from Peter, remember that each word is colored by things which he had experienced. Ie. there were negative things, like his denial of Christ, when the Lord was being questioned and tortured. And then there were his foolish suggestion to build...
Oct 6, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
This little vignette is not about Christiania Polk, but I mention this extraordinary woman because she married Isaac McCoy, who was perhaps America’s the most important missionary to this country’s Indians. That Christiania was an important part of McCoy’s ministry is...
Oct 6, 2022 | Wednesday
Do you have a sister, who used to be very close to you, but who now refuses to let you see her children, because you became a Christian, and she became a Mormon? Or did you loose your job when you told your employer that you had been saved? Have you ever been teased...
Oct 5, 2022 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren: Latino Outreach This month several things have happened which we would like you all to know. We went to court with eight Latinos to help them with their language difficulties and to hope for a chance to be a witness to them. Some of them will...
Sep 30, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day in 1919, just before a large convention of Baptists was to take place, the Canadian Baptist, that country’s largest Baptist journal, published an article entitled: “The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture.” The worthy title belied its true purpose: to...
Sep 22, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
The name, Luther Rice, should be held in high esteem among missionary-minded Baptists. Appropriately, engraved over his burial place are the words, “Perhaps no American has done more for the great missionary enterprise.” Sadly that name has been...
Sep 22, 2022 | Wednesday
Have you ever noticed that every once in a while I can make some really profound statement? I have to think really hard to come up with these to make sure they are accurate as well as erudite. For example we begin with one tonight: “Life is always changing.” Have you...
Sep 18, 2022 | Sunday Evening
When the church in Jerusalem was needing help for their widows and orphans, the congregation set forth seven men to serve as servants – “deacons.” There was the famous Philip, and the not so famous Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. In Acts 6 these men...
Sep 18, 2022 | Sunday Morning
I would like to look at Moses in much the same way as I did Daniel last week. We can find the ancestors of New Testament soul-winners in the first half of our Bibles. As I said last week, they are not precise duplicates or images of today’s evangelists, but they do...
Sep 15, 2022 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Alexander Campbell is most infamously known for teaching that baptism is a condition of salvation. This ultimately helped to found the Disciples of Christ denomination and indirectly others as well. But baptismal regeneration was not his only attack upon the truth. He...
