The Christian Index, our Georgia Baptist newspaper, has an article today about Heritage Baptist Church. The reconstruction at Notre Dame is being followed around the world; Heritage is local to my home town of Calhoun, GA. Heritage Baptist is an active partner in the Gordon Memorial Baptist Association. I may have not mentioned it on this blog but friends IRL and on Facebook know that the sudden and expected death of Brent Davis rattled me a bit. Continue reading
It’s fall y’all! Monday was the first day of autumn so I will now officially quit complaining about pumpkin spice, falling leaves and s’mores posts on Facebook and Twitter. My wife finished crocheting my Dr Who scarf just in time. (Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor, Google it.) It’s still in the 90’s here so it’s more fashion statement that useful right now. Btw, the best thing about fall is candy corn. Shout out to the haters! Continue reading
A post from guest blogger Jimmy Humphrey.
I think we could all agree that we want to live lives that feel “blessed.”
We want to feel that God’s fortune shines upon our lives. We want to feel favored. We want to feel like we lack for nothing.
Yet, many of us do not in fact feel that way. Continue reading
We should thank the Area 51 Raid organizers for all the memes (see here and here). It started as a joke back in June, when college student Matty Roberts created a Facebook event. “Storm Area 51, they can’t stop all of us” the title suggested. The event posting went viral and some 2 million people RSVP’d prompting a very real response from the US Air Force. Roberts quit laughing when FBI agents showed up at his door. In the end, the event was re-imagined as a music festival which turned into three different competing music festivals. Local towns near the base, which of course don’t amount to much which is the very reason it is located there, became concerned about thousands of tourists and festival goers showing up. Rachel, NV, has a population of 50 and only 1 hotel.
Well that was fun. Here’s a few more items you may or may not have seen before. Continue reading
Collaborations and remixes are the rule of thumb in the world of hit singles these days. The reason Lil Nas X was able to stay so many weeks at the number one spot on the Billboard charts is that each remix/new collaboration brought new attention from fans but were considered the same entry by Billboard’s method of counting. I don’t know if that has anything to do with what For King & Country have been up to or not but it turns out they are no strangers to featured guests and collaborations. Continue reading
A short Facebook exchange this morning led me to search The Master’s Table for references to hell. The only post with hell in the title was a link to a sermon on the Unity website. Here is the full text of that sermon, preached at Unity Baptist Church on October 4, 2015. The scripture text is Isaiah 11:1-10. Continue reading
Some people on Facebook and Twitter do not read comments as a matter of course. Sometimes a comment thread provides useful context but often they just make me angry. I will sometimes argue with strangers on the internet because, you know, you can’t just let people that are wrong walk around thinking they are right. (I say that tongue in cheek.) As brick-and-mortar LifeWay stores come to end they have several deals on Bibles right now online. I have seen ads in my Facebook newsfeed in the past week for a KJV Minister’s Bibles, a CSB “Ancient Faith” Study Bible and the NKJV large print Bible pictured above. There are several different Bibles, some up to 50% off, with many of the sales lasting only 48 hours.
I would have scrolled past the ads and not written a post about them were it not for the comments. Continue reading
It hasn’t been but a week or two since Hurricane Dorian skirted the east coast after decimated the Bahamas. Another tropical system has been threatening to produce a named storm all week and Tropical Storm Humberto formed last night near the Bahamas. Tropical force winds extend 90 miles out from the center which will pass within 40 miles of the northeast Bahama islands. The latest projections show it turning away from Florida and out to sea. Continue reading
I understand the significance of high production value. Our desire is to bring the very best before God in his house. A congregation expects, as well they should, for the preacher to be prepared. Sermon prep begins on Monday or Tuesday (and sometimes weeks or even months in advance) not on Saturday evening or before church on Sunday morning. Bible teachers and worship leaders, soloists, music directors, choirs and praise band members are all expected to put in time working together and practicing. And in this day and age you need the crew in sound, projection and lighting to go over the program, discussing transitions and the order of service. There is nothing wrong and in fact there is a lot right about devoting time and energy to prepare for worship. But what has slowly happened over the past 20 or 30 years, from my point of view, is that worship has morphed into a spectator sport. Authentic worship is not something we are to sit and watch. I don’t know who said it first but the term I like to use for that activity is worshiptainment. I do not believe that is what God desires. Continue reading
Paul Wilkinson blogs at Thinking Out Loud and Christianity 201. We have been blog friends for several years, having met up in the Christian blogosphere but never in real life. Jimmy Humphrey is a new blog friend, the author/podcaster at Jimmy’s Table. Paul lives in Canada, Jimmy just up the map a little ways in North Carolina. Tuvia Pollack is a blog friend from way back that we haven’t mentioned in a while; so I am going to mention him now. Continue reading
The Master's Table 