My thoughts on Disney, for what it’s worth. Disney is not only a secular institution it is a business. They produce a multitude of entertainment products. I was never fully sold on the SBC boycott of all things Disney back in the 90’s, and that’s when I was young and foolish. There is so much filth and violence on t.v. and the big screen that children shouldn’t see or hear that it was a tough call for families to ignore the billion dollar entertainment giant cranking out the movies, shows, characters and songs that all children love. Continue reading
Category Archives: Christianity
Illustrations Can Come from Anywhere
If you are a preacher, know a preacher, or for that matter have ever listened to a preacher, you may have heard the oft repeated statement illustrations can come from anywhere. It’s a truism that may cause us to smile but seriously; a funny thing a child says, a misunderstanding in the supermarket line, words said in anger that have to be eaten later, literally anything a professional speaker hears about could become an illustration for a point being made. Be careful sharing those funny anecdotes around your clergyman. You may hear them again from the pulpit. Continue reading
The Godly Complexion Movement
10 years ago I had a lot of help starting a blog. I worked with Michael Spencer, the original Internet Monk, in real life. I had all the WordPress experience and pro tips a newbie could ask for. So think of this post as paying it forward.
Chameca Helm was a student at OBI back when I taught geography and World History. Now she makes testimony videos and is building an online community to reach people with the Gospel. She asked me to help make her latest video “go viral” and I told her I would see what I could do. The Godly Complexion Movement by Chameca Helm is an online community that utilizes Facebook and YouTube to be uplifting and encouraging with the goal of pointing people to Jesus. Continue reading
The Phenomenon of Billy Graham
I don’t know how many tributes have been written, published, posted or tweeted this week about Billy Graham. I am not writing because I think there needs to be another one; sometimes the writing process is how we work through things. But in the process of thinking about it, maybe I can share with you some things to think about as well. Continue reading
25 Years of Ministry
I saw a blog post for the 25th anniversary of Bible Gateway yesterday and gave them a shout out. I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts myself this month. In January 1993 I announced a call to preach. I’m not sure of the exact date and taking a look at a January ’93 calendar didn’t help. That doesn’t really matter though. 25 years ago I told our church family that God was calling me into ministry and I was ready to answer that call. So here’s a brief recap of what God has done in my life since then. Continue reading
The Irony of Missions
I remember listening to missionaries tell stories and share slide shows – not Power Point projections, actual slides on carousels. They were from “the mission field” a place with terrible roads, lack of electricity and unsafe drinking water. They worked with people that looked, dressed and spoke differently than we did. What I knew about missions as a child is that they were far away, in difficult to reach places, and we needed to fund missionaries to print Bibles and build churches. I also hoped, at a young age mind you, that God didn’t call me to the mission field because I didn’t want to go. Continue reading
Sermons Online
It is true that I haven’t blogged in a while but I have been preaching. The Sermons Archive page on our church website has been updated with sermons from Acts chapters 8, 9 and 10. Saul beings preaching the Gospel in the 9th chapter and Peter preaches the Gospel to Gentiles in chapter 10 so lots of good stuff in there. If anyone has been wondering what I’ve been up, well there it is.
Sermons page at UnityBaptist.Church
A Christian Response to Racism
Perhaps a better title would be A Scriptural Response to Racism but this is copied and pasted directly from a Facebook post I put up yesterday. There is so much upheaval in the world today and we are bombarded with information from traditional media to social media 24/7. When it gets to be too much, the Christian believer needs to step back, take a breath, and remember that we are in the world but not of the world.
I don’t mean an official resolution passed by any group of representatives from any church denomination; my congregation will tell you that we read a lot of scripture. Every sermon, every Wednesday night Bible study, every Sunday school lesson begins with reading scripture and keeps going back to it. So this is not any particular Christian leader’s response to racism, this should be “our” response to hate and racism anywhere based on the inspired Word we live by. Continue reading
Voddie Baucham
If I went to every conference, seminar and retreat that I get invitations to I would never be at home. It wouldn’t take but a few weeks of missing church to get fired, seeing as how I am the pastor and what not. Having said that, I probably should make time for more of those than I do. So it was a pleasure on the National Day of Prayer to hear some good preaching. Continue reading
Book Review: Jesus Untangled
Click image to view on Amazon.com
Jesus Untangled: Crucifying our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb by Keith Giles
Giles is an intelligent writer that has done his homework and presents his case well. He is right in saying that Americans have their politics wrapped up in their Christianity. There is no morally right political party and pinning all of your hopes and dreams on any party platform will leave Christian believers disappointed. Let’s begin by analyzing what he does a good job of in this book. Continue reading
The Master's Table 