Church Blog (Page 2)

Dear Friends, “I try to be a good person.” That’s how most people will respond if you ask them why they believe they will go to heaven when they die.  It is, of course, a disastrous way to think.  It’s akin to thinking that you can arrive at the gates to Disneyland and suggesting that they should let you in because you try to be a good person.  They will smile at you and tell you “that’s nice, but that’s not how it works here.” The…

Dear Friends, In June of 2020, Tim Keller announced that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He faced the diagnosis with characteristic honesty and resolve.  He knew that 80% of the people who receive that diagnosis are dead with a year.  He has battled and beaten those odds.  But he has also been aware that like all of us, his condition is terminal.  That’s why when he received the diagnosis, he quoted Psalm 90.  “Teach us to number our days.” I…

Dear Friends, In 1956, Johnny Cash was backstage waiting to perform at a concert in Gladewater, Texas, when he picked up his guitar and started picking out the chords to a new song.  These now familiar lyrics began to wrap their way around those chords. I keep a close watch on this heart of mine,I keep my eyes wide open all the time,I keep the ends out for the tie that binds,Because you’re mine, I walk the line.  I find it very,…

 Dear Friends, Are Christians called to be bold? Before you jump right to the “sometimes” answer, let’s think about this for a minute.  It’s not that “sometimes” is the wrong answer.  But maybe we need to think this through a little more carefully. I think we may have a caricature in our minds about what it means to be bold.  What comes to mind for me is the speech given by President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, in the 1996 movie…

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…

Dear Friends, I’m sure you, like me, have been saddened and sobered by the news from Nashville this week.  My heart sank on Monday morning when I got in my car and heard the somber voices of news reporters confirming the shooting deaths of three young children, and later, the deaths of three adults at a Christian school.  Later, as I saw the picture of one of the victims, Hallie Scruggs and her family, the grief deepened.  All of us ache with…

Dear Friends, See if you can spot the issue here. “We worship a living God.  Not one locked up in the Scripture of 2,000 years ago.”  That sentiment was voiced some years ago by a protestant clergyman, who went on to say “What I love about believing in a living God is that I believe God is constantly revealing God’s self to us over time, and with each succeeding generation, we come a little closer to understanding the mind of God.” The clergyman’s words…

Dear Friends, For years now, many of us have looked at the condition of our culture and concluded that the only hope we have is for a spiritual awakening.  The strife and division we see in our land today feels a lot like what we experienced in America in 1969 and 1970.  In the midst of the turmoil of those days, God sent a revival – what we now look back on as the Jesus Movement.  Those of us who lived…