Sep 28, 2023 | Wednesday
John Bunyan, the Baptist preacher, wrote more than one book – several of which became immensely popular. His 1666 autobiography, “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,” is well worth reading. He also wrote more than one extended allegory, including “The Holy War.”...
Sep 21, 2023 | Wednesday
It has been said that Baptists don’t, or didn’t, believe in an educated ministry. While there have been a small minority bearing the Baptist name who believed that ministers should rely on the Holy Spirit alone, to the exclusion of teachers and reference books, and...
Sep 21, 2023 | Wednesday
Most of you know my inclination to comment, from time to time, on the hymns that we sing. Sometimes there is a bit of criticism; sometimes I simple raise a question; sometimes it is to highlight something that I think is good. I rarely interrupt our singing to make...
Sep 14, 2023 | Wednesday
Half a century ago, when I first arrived at Bible school, I entered its doors as an impressionable teenager. Three years later, as I graduated, I was not quite so pliable and malleable. I had a tiny bit of education; I was married by that time; I could almost grow...
Sep 7, 2023 | Wednesday
At our prayer meeting last Saturday, I shared James 4:8 with the men who were there. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” After a few of my simple remarks, one of the men asked: “How do we draw nigh to the Lord?” Quickly I fired off a couple more shallow...
Aug 31, 2023 | Wednesday
I make no apology for coming back to yet another consideration of the doctrine of the devil. As I have said several times recently, Satan is a real and powerful spirit creature. He has us on his radar, and I am sure that he has been disrupting our efforts to bring...
Aug 24, 2023 | Wednesday
There are churches whose primary doctrine is to have no doctrine at all. I know that sounds ridiculous, but what I mean is they deliberately have no doctrinal position on much of anything. For some denominations, like the Quakers, that is their official policy. They...
Aug 17, 2023 | Wednesday
There are people who are willing to do the hardest and most extreme things in order to be saved. There are people who beat and cut themselves, thinking they earn God’s forgiveness for their sins. There are people who starve their bodies, and starve their emotions, in...
Aug 10, 2023 | Wednesday
I know very little about the sport of boxing, and that suits me just fine. But I have heard of the boxer’s use of the “one/two combination.” As I understand it, if he can connect a second punch to a good first punch, he can score a point or two. And it makes sense to...
Jul 20, 2023 | Wednesday
We have all heard the colloquialism: “as light as air.” This can be a misleading comparison. Actually, air has a bit of substance, weighing 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level, and about 12 pounds per square inch in Denver, a mile above the level of the sea. In...
Jul 13, 2023 | Wednesday
We are skipping over five verses in this chapter because they are parenthetical to the theme of this series. I am trying to examine some of the characteristics which make Christians different from non-Christians. And when we bring two dozen Christians with these...
Jul 6, 2023 | Wednesday
I don’t know about your neighborhood, but at our house there is only one kind of elegant butterfly. It is the Yellow Tiger Swallowtail. When it flits its way through our backyard I almost always look up to see. When it lands on one of Judy’s flowers, it usually only...
Jun 29, 2023 | Wednesday
According to IRMI, a risk management company which works with industrial insurance companies, about 100 years ago, 80% of the US population was involved in some aspect of farming. Today, it is 2%. And today, the average farm size is 434 acres, but 55% of all US farms...
Jun 15, 2023 | Wednesday
I make no apology for bringing another lesson from the battle between David and Goliath. There is so much to learn from this event, and I continue to see new things in it. For this lesson, I’m going to assume that you are familiar with the basics. Let’s briefly...
Jun 8, 2023 | Wednesday
I briefly shared this scripture with the men last Saturday morning, but I didn’t develop it very far. It hadn’t developed in my heart very far. But the Spirit has kept it on my mind, and now I hope there might be a blessing in it for all of us. For those of you who...
