Mar 21, 2021 | Sunday Morning
Paul had just lambasted the Jews for their hypocrisy and heresy. He knew, from experience, how they highly esteemed their ancestry, and their rites and ceremonies. But for the most part, when it came to spiritual realities they were empty husks. “Ye CANNOT serve the...
Mar 18, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day in 1791, Elder Nathanael Green passed into the presence of his Saviour. Green had been pastor of the Baptist Church in Charlton, Massachusetts for 28 tumultuous years. The congregation went through periods of depression and blessing, including persecution...
Mar 18, 2021 | Wednesday
I realize that we looked at this scripture just a few weeks ago, but I’d like to consider it again. Actually, according to my records, this is the 5th or 6th time that I’ve used this as my text for a message. It is not only fascinating, but it contains important...
Mar 14, 2021 | Sunday Morning
The other day, one of the members came to me, asking why Joshua said in v.19, “Ye cannot serve the Lord.” I hope that you’ll always feel free to bring me your questions. I promise never to make fun of you – or ridicule you for something I think that you should already...
Mar 12, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day in 1773, Theodore S. Harding was born in Barrington, Nova Scotia. After his father died, he was raised by his godly mother. At the age of thirteen Harding was born a second time, and shortly thereafter he felt the call of God to go into the ministry. His...
Mar 11, 2021 | Wednesday
One of our faults and failures as 21st century Christians is our propensity to compartmentalize things. Or as my pastor used to say, our “proclivity” – our “proclivity” to pigeonhole various aspects of our lives. A “proclivity” is a choice to do something regularly;...
Mar 8, 2021 | Sunday Evening
I have read, studied and preached from this chapter many times. But it occurred to me the other day that there has been something I’ve skipped over – over and over again. As Goliath came out to challenge Israel, there was a man who came out ahead of him. Verse 7 –...
Mar 7, 2021 | Sunday Morning
How important are the promises of the Lord to YOU personally? Obviously some people treat them like dirt, but to you they are much, much more. But are they like rubies and diamonds, or are they more like granite? There is a great deal of value in gold and...
Mar 5, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
On this day in 1869, Oliver Willis Van Osdel was immersed and joined the Baptist church in Yorkville, Illinois. He had been raised as a Methodist, but he survived, and the Lord saved him when he was a child. He served in the army during the War between the States and...
Mar 4, 2021 | Lessons on Bible Trivia
On this day in 1869, Oliver Willis Van Osdel was immersed and joined the Baptist church in Yorkville, Illinois. He had been raised as a Methodist, but he survived, and the Lord saved him when he was a child. He served in the army during the War between the States and...
Mar 4, 2021 | Wednesday
I am currently reading a book which explains some of the differences between Islam and Christianity. It was written by a couple of converted Muslims, who travel across America, teaching about ways in which to witness to those who worship Allah. One of the things the...
Mar 1, 2021 | Sunday Evening
Our message this morning was from Acts 2:40 – “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” We began reading from verse 29 – “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David.” While I was preparing for that message, I began looking over the...
Feb 28, 2021 | Sunday Morning
We are being told these days that unless we have a “G5 phone” we are antiquated – nearly dinosaurs. The “G” in “G5″ refers to the 5th GENERATION of cell phone – engineered, we are told, to greatly increase the speed and responsiveness of wireless networks. I can...
Feb 25, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Joseph Reese was born in Wales. When he was 13 years old his family moved to the area of South Carolina called “The Congarees,” becoming one of the first families to settle there. He was raised in the Anglican church, but when the pioneer Baptist preacher, Philip...
Feb 21, 2021 | Sunday Evening
As you can see these are the last words of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. Having studied this book just a few years ago, I hope you remember Paul’s general purpose. The Book of Galatians is a defense of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It carries...
Feb 18, 2021 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren: Another New Year 2021 started with an unusual amount of consternation and fear in the hearts of most people in general. Political fear, economic fear, and health fear seem to head the list of those fears. However, we are not afraid by the...
Feb 18, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Most of the first immigrants to this continent brought with them the politics and religions of their homelands. As a result, with only a few exceptions, most of the first thirteen colonies authorized a single denomination and practiced something called “a clergy tax,”...
Feb 18, 2021 | Wednesday
When we get to Heaven; after appearing before the bema – the judgment seat of Christ…. After we settled in to our God-designed mansions… As we get to know our neighbors, and we begin our Heavenly duties… How will we communicate with those around us....
Feb 14, 2021 | Sunday Morning
Let’s say that some friends of yours has paid for you to go to a fancy restaurant with your spouse. This is a very nice, highly recommended, place to which you had never been before. Let’s make it an ethnic restaurant where nothing on the menu was familiar to...
Feb 12, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
It is believed by some that the Apostle Paul personally carried the gospel to the isle of Britain. Whether true or not, Bible Christianity was firmly established among the peoples of those islands long before the arrival of Catholicism. One area where the Baptists...
Feb 11, 2021 | Lessons on Bible Trivia
It is believed by some that the Apostle Paul personally carried the gospel to the isle of Britain. Whether true or not, Bible Christianity was firmly established among the peoples of those islands long before the arrival of Catholicism. One area where the Baptists...
Feb 11, 2021 | Wednesday
I assume you all know how the Lord revealed Himself to Moses through the burning bush. My wife, like so many other Sunday School teachers, has flannel graph illustrations, which I have no doubt she has shared with many of our children. And there are references to this...
Feb 7, 2021 | Sunday Morning
If you’ve never heard the ancient Indian story about the blind men and the elephant, I will correct your lack of education right now. A group of blind men were told that a strange animal, called an “elephant,” had been brought to their town. Not only had they never...
Feb 4, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Jonathan Goble is not a well-known name, but it should be. Goble and his wife were the first Baptist missionaries in Japan. Jonathan was born in 1827. He rejected his religious upbringing and ended up in prison for two years for threatening the life of another man....
Feb 4, 2021 | Wednesday
As I was thinking about a possible message from I Cor.15, I wondered if perhaps some background might be in order. And then my mind wandered back to a chapter in the book I am currently reading – “The Essential Tozer Collection.” A.W. Tozer was a minister of the...
Feb 1, 2021 | Sunday Evening
I have been in God’s service and ministry for over 50 years. I say that without the least bit of pride, because I know that I am here only by God’s grace. And I am constantly discovering my ministerial failures. I could give you a litany of those failures, but even in...
Jan 31, 2021 | Sunday Morning
As you might surmise, I am still building on a message which started two weeks ago. When Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus into the temple to give Him to Jehovah, Simeon was there to greet them. He had been looking for the “consolation of Israel” – the comfort...
Jan 28, 2021 | This Sunday in Baptist History
Isaac Dermout was not born a Baptist, and he never became a Baptist. He was a Protestant, born on this day in 1777, and eventually becoming chaplain to the King of the Netherlands. He and Dr. Anne Ypeij, professor of Theology in Gronigen, were commissioned by the king...
Jan 24, 2021 | Sunday Morning
Sister Brenda Roberts and I were joking back and forth on Thursday about the need to learn new things. She is apparently right-handed, and it was her right shoulder which had surgery on Monday. So she is having to learn to do simple, every-day things differently –...
Jan 23, 2021 | Timothy Parrow
Dear Pastor and Brethren: Interesting Development: Years ago, at the beginning of our ministry here, Roxanne and I witnessed unto a young umnarried Mexican couple and helped Jose find employment and them a place to live. They had been living in their car for lack of...