The late Robert Jackson was one of my mentors as a young preacher. He used to preach a sermon in meetings he called “Put Your Finger on the Passage.”
As I recall, Robert would introduce ideas that folks had about the Bible, some accurate and some inaccurate, and then say, “Put your finger on the passage.” Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
What good is a virtue that disappears when it becomes difficult? What value is honesty, faithfulness, or integrity if they only exist when they cost us nothing?
This quote recently caught my eye:
“The virtue of courage is a prerequisite for the practice of all other virtues; otherwise, one is virtuous only when virtue has no cost.”
Filed under Courage, Discipleship
There’s an old story about a young farmer down in the Bootheel of Missouri who’s plowing his field one spring. He’s growing discouraged with farming. He tried planting cotton, but it didn’t do very well. Soybeans weren’t any better.
He’s wondering what he ought to do with the rest of his life. As he steers his tractor up one row and down another, he utters a fervent prayer to God: “Lord, if you have a plan for my life, please send me a sign, and I will obey.” Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship, Gospel
“What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” was once noted by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emerson’s observation reminds us that influence is often communicated more by what we do than by what we say. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship, Influence
Greetings from Beverly Hills, FL
Welcome to new readers around the world. We’ve had a great week of engagement with a surge of hits from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Belgium. Thank you for reading. We hope you will continue to follow our blog regularly. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
“Why Spiritual Growth Requires Hard Training?” was a piece in CT that caught my eye.
It told the story of 21-year-old American Jordan Stolz, who won two gold medals and one silver in speed skating at the Winter Olympics, becoming the first U.S. athlete to win three medals in the Winter Games since 2010. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship, Discipline
“Comedian Nate Bargatze says his career isn’t just about getting laughs — it’s about living out his belief that he is ‘second to God,’” wrote Leah MarieAnn Klett in the Christian Post.
I have to admit I’d never seen his act—or even heard of Nate Bargatze. Yet he’s been performing stand-up comedy since 2002. In 2024, he was the highest-grossing comic, selling over 1.2 million tickets at sold-out venues across America. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
Our Wednesday night class at West Citrus is studying “Major Lessons From Minor Bible Characters” based on a workbook by Matt Hennecke.
Last night’s character might not seem so “minor” to those who grew up attending Bible classes and singing about him.
Can you guess who he is? Here are two hints.
He was a “wee little man.”
He climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
While we have been on our blogging break, we’ve again been reminded how easily people justify violence—even in the name of faith.
A recent act of political violence involved a highly educated young man who targeted a member of a presidential administration. In a manifesto sent to family members just minutes before the attack, he listed numerous grievances and attempted to frame his actions as a defense of the oppressed—even appealing to Christian reasoning. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
At a recent Gospel Meeting, the preacher’s wife gifted my wife some washcloths she had knitted. Apparently, this is more than a passing hobby, as she knits for her family and for others.
While in the mountains, I came across the story of a woman named Grace who knitted blankets—not for profit or recognition, but for people she’d never met. Continue reading
Filed under Discipleship
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