I remember when I first heard about people being depressed around the holidays. My only thought was, “Really?” As a young person, it was hard to understand how anyone could get down with all the good food and presents flying around. But as I got older, I began to understand holiday depression can be a
As a minister, you never want to minimize sin. Sin brought death into the world. Sin cost God his one and only Son. Sin put a guiltless Jesus on the cross. Without a proper understanding of sin, you are incapable of grasping the gospel. I find myself divided between two kinds of lessons on the
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”-Genesis 1:1-3 I was reading a
Growing up the son of a deacon in the 13th and Main congregation in Blytheville, Arkansas, I heard many a sermon about “the great apostasy” prophesied by the Holy Spirit. The gist of the lessons was this: The church was built the way God, through Jesus, desired it. The Holy Spirit gave perfect instruction. The
For many people with little to no knowledge of God, they tend to have two favorite verses: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”-John 3:16 “Judge not, tat you be not judged.”-Matthew 7:1 It seems as if people
Preachers and elders are frequently asked, “Which Bible translation should I buy?” To keep it simple, I usually recommend what I call, “The Big Four.” They are the King James, New King James, New American Standard, and English Standard Version of the Bible. This quartet is: available in most stores, reliable, and trustworthy. They are
Here is a series of bulletin articles and sermons on the book of Revelation. My prayer is that it is coherent and puts across a common-sense, consistent approach to the book. It is not as though I have a special capacity for understanding the book. However, once I became a minister, it became glaringly obvious