State of the Church 2021
Per our Constitution, the Senior Pastor is asked to give an annual appraisal of the State of the Church, this church. Today is that day, so we will come back to our study of the Psalms later. Right now, however, it is important for us to look forward to 2021 and ask where I believe, […]
Psalm 56
When you are in a threatening situation, the last thing you want to do is freeze up in fear. Take a young, single woman in my last church as a case study. Driving along a levee road near water which was over 30 feet deep, she suddenly had a blowout. Immediately, her car careened off […]
Psalm 55
I mentioned the old hit Backstabbers last week by the O’Jays, and only a handful of people remember this song and this tune. It’s worth recalling the lyrics since many of us have faced, are facing, or will face those people who oppose you for your Christian walk, thinking, and stance. What they do . […]
Psalm 52 – Part 2
Several years ago, at a growing church in San Diego, Donna the Dragon used her sinister methods to grab power while trashing those biblically given the power to lead. After she demonstrated her in depth knowledge of the Bible as a parishioner in a variety of women’s settings, leadership eventually gave her a large women’s […]
Psalm 52 – Part 1
During my fourth, and last, year at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1985, our Hebrew professor arbitrarily assigned us psalms to exegete and preach. No one wanted a rather obscure, somewhat unrelatable section. Obviously, as a student and future preacher, each man wanted a passage he could really preach with personal power and conviction. As the […]
Christmas Eve 2020: The Seer & the Savior
No one in Israel could forget the year 739 B.C. Politically, the king, Uzziah, who had enjoyed a 52-year reign, had his share of leadership issues. Scripture does denote he did lead in a godly, righteous fashion which pleased God (2 Kings 15). However, he spiritually compromised in key areas. He failed to remove pagan […]
Anna & Christ
Hope. It’s a rare commodity in our day and age. More than any other time in our history I think many people are on the verge of simply losing hope that darkness will ever be totally pushed back by light. Nationally, many are wondering if our Constitution and nation will survive the now blatant corruption […]
The Priests & Christ
The late Dr. Duane Gish is best remembered as a highly educated Christian scientist who courageously presented the weaknesses of evolution and the strengths of special creationism on secular university campuses. His academic and professorial record made him a force to be reckoned with. During WWII, he bravely served in the Pacific Theater as an […]
Herod & Christ
Matthew, a former tax collector, a man known for digging into details, makes sure we know the geo-political situation of the birth and infancy of Jesus when he writes these words: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, (Matt. 2:1). Focus, please, on that prepositional phrase. […]
Psalm 51 – Part 2
The young bride-to-be had a credit card problem. During our last counseling session prior the wedding, I discovered she, at twenty-seven years old, had a minimum payment on her Visa card for $720. You read that right. After I explained to her and her groom how to strategically eliminate this massive debt, she looked at […]
Psalm 51 – Part 1
Much spiritual wisdom can be gained by studying the flora and fauna around us. Take, for instance, a tree I trimmed as a gardener years ago. Outwardly, the tree exhibited life and health. Internally, however, the evidence could not have been more contrary. Cutting my way through a large vibrant branch with a sharp, many-toothed […]
Psalm 46
Making a Hebrew exegetical class on the Psalms, while a student at Dallas Theological Seminary in the early 1980s, changed, challenged, and comforted me in so many ways. During that class, the professor arbitrarily assigned various periscopes/texts for each student to dissect, using all of their grammatical, textual, and rhetorical skills. One passage I had […]