Month: February 2015

The backyard of the house I grew up in on Shadburn Avenue in Buford, Georgia, was huge. It was fenced all around like a baseball field and, but for a crabapple tree in one corner and a shed in the other, was clear of any obstruction. We played baseball there, my brother and I, and dreamed of making it to the bigs. I could throw a frozen rope from the Frisbee at third base to the piece of floor tile at first. But from center field, the best I could manage was a one-hopper to the plate. That yard was huge. When … Read more…

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, reflecting on his imprisonment in a Russian gulag, wrote, “When I lay there on rotting prison straw, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. Even in the best of all hearts there remains an un-uprooted small corner of evil.” Even in the best of all human hearts. That sounds a lot like something Paul said in Ephesians 2:1 – 3. As for you, you were dead in your … Read more…

In Eastern Europe, The Ukraine is fighting for its life. Black clad ISIS armies are spreading through the Middle East like ideological Ebola. Hezbollah is pouring into Syria like gasoline on an already out-of-control fire. Racial tensions in the United States seem tighter, more strained and less hopeful. American culture feels as if it has lost its innocence and taken on a much darker nature. A nature about fifty shades darker. Look anywhere in the world right now and you see turmoil, pandemonium and confusion. Add to that the local crises developing in your neck of the woods – the ones that don’t make … Read more…

Have you ever been so bored in a class at school that you counted the dots in the ceiling tile to stay awake? Have you ever tied knots in the hymnal ribbon or tried to see how many songs could be sung to the tune of Gilligan’s Island because the sermon was so intolerably boring? (Amazing Grace, There is a Place of Quiet Rest, How Sweet How Heavenly & How Shall the Young, to name a few). Some things are just dull. Income tax forms. Policy manuals. Parts of the Bible. You read that right. Even for a life-long, Bible-believing, God-fearing … Read more…

It was the Jewish Passover and Jerusalem was flooded with visitors from all over the Roman Empire. For some, who had heard the gossip, there was an air of expectation. Rumors were swirling about a miracle worker, a Galilean named Jesus. The sick had been healed. The blind could see. The lame walked. Just two miles distant from Jerusalem, in Bethany, a man named Lazarus had been raised from the dead. This feast, celebrating deliverance from an ancient taskmaster, always inflamed hope for a new emancipation. The tattle of a miracle worker raised the fever of that year’s celebration. Rebellious words were whispered. Would-be … Read more…

I love the Book of Acts. My heritage is in the Churches of Christ, so reading Acts is like playing a Friday night football game on your home field. The holy ground underneath my exegetical cleats feels firm and familiar. When I was in the ecclesiastic equivalent of Pop Warner football, I could quote Acts 2:38, 8:36 and 20:7. And that section at the end of chapter two, where they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer . . . man, that’s like championship Christianity. The problem, though, with the Book … Read more…

What do the birth of a baby, a birthday, a first date, a wedding, an anniversary and a funeral all have in common? I mean besides people. Food. Every one of those moments demands that somebody bring over a dish, decorate a cake, set a table, bake a casserole or throw a full-on, no-expense-spared, heartburn-inducing feast. We celebrate all of our significant life transitions, not to mention our major and minor holidays, by eating together. But then, that’s the way it’s always been. In Mark’s gospel, the word bread appears 18 times. The verb for eating shows up 25 times. And Mark is … Read more…

Do you remember what it was like to be in Jr. High? That’ll be easy for some because you’re there now. (Hang in there — it gets lots better.) Or you may have Jr. High kids at home or teach them in school, so it’s not a big stretch for you, either.  Some of us, though, struggle to remember what it was like to be 50.  So let me refresh your memory. When you are in Jr. High, you take the same test every day.  The Test does not measure your mastery of any particular subject and you don’t get a … Read more…

Have you ever heard someone, maybe a preacher or a parent, say something like, “The Bible is not a rule book; it’s a love letter from God,”?  Maybe you said it yourself.  And, in a sense, the preacher or parent or you were right.  It’s not a list of rules like you see posted on the gates of a community pool or at the entrance to one of those drive through animal parks.  The Bible is not even like the Student Handbook they give you at the beginning of every semester at school.  But let’s be honest – it has … Read more…