Posts from April 2023

Dear Friends, Instead of something deep, profound and meaningful, I decided you could use a laugh.  Maybe you’ll find one in here somewhere.  I had been teaching my three-year old daughter, Caitlin, the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she would repeat after me the lines from the prayer. Finally, she decided to go solo. I listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed,…

Dear Friends, There is a pretty common pattern found in the New Testament epistles, especially those written by the Apostle Paul.  The pattern is this:  Before any talk about how you should live or behave, we have to talk about what you believe. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating.  Bible teachers talk about the “what you believe” texts as the indicatives.  The “how you behave” texts are called the imperatives.  And the imperatives follow the indicatives.  Because how you live flows from…

Dear Friends, Imagine for a minute that it’s 4023.  Jesus hasn’t come back yet.  Life on earth continues. And people are still talking about you. Now let’s be honest.  That’s pretty unlikely.  If I asked you to tell me the name of your great, great Grandmother, you’d likely give me a blank stare.  And if you knew her name, you probably don’t know much else about her.  It’s the rare person whose name and reputation last longer than a few generations. But let’s say…

Dear Friends, I’ve seen signs of resurrection all over Little Rock this week. In the midst of the destruction and devastation, there have been signs of hope.  Signs of caring.  Signs of compassion.  Signs of love for neighbors you don’t know. I remember standing in front of Matt and Jen Gurney’s home last Friday afternoon, just a few hours after the tornado had done its damage.  It was, for all of us, surreal.  In less than 60 seconds, massive old oak trees had…