The other day my friend, Billy Akin, in Nashville, wrote asking me for a piece that I had recently used in a sermon about the Kingship of Christ that I thought our readers would enjoy. It’s by the 20th century African-American minister S. M. Lockridge.
These words came toward end of his famous sermon “He’s My King.” It speaks to the greatness of Christ and his absolute supremacy and preeminence. Read it slowly. Thoughtfully. Reverently. And adoringly. Continue reading
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I’m not in the habit of reading random obituaries, but this one dated August 7, 2012 grabbed my attention.
Virginia Dean Whalen Farless got the last laugh Tuesday evening
According to the obituary in the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal Mrs. Farless was the source of smiles, laughter, jokes and funny stories. It read in part.
“She chuckled in the face of death from the time she was born, the baby child of Thaddeus and Lottie Whalen in Harrison County, KY, on May 10, 1932. She had severe asthma and on many occasions, the doctor predicted to her older brother Gerald that she would not live through the night.”
“She not only lived, but laughed a lot, when she graduated from Oddville High School (perfect), as a funny pastor’s wife in SC, KY and Ashland City, TN, a Kentucky Colonel, and a nurse at Deberry Prison. “ Continue reading
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In his poem, In A U-Haul North of Damascus, Georgia poet, David Bottoms, expresses the lament of the soul that cries for redemption and wonders if it’s worthy of grace.
Lord, what are the sins
I have tried to leave behind me? The bad checks,
the workless days, the scotch bottles thrown across the fence
and into the woods, the cruelty of silence,
the cruelty of lies, the jealousy,
the indifference? Continue reading
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Jennie Wilson was born on an Indiana farm in 1857. Her life was filled with trouble and change. Her father died in infancy. At age 4 she suffered a spinal disease that rendered her an invalid, confined to a wheel chair. However, she developed a love for music and poetry and began writing lyrics for hymns.
The post civil era in which she lived was a time of transition and vulnerability for many poor farmers, share croppers and emancipated slaves. In was during the time of societal upheaval that Jennie wrote these words that later became a famous hymn. Continue reading
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We’ve all experienced it. The roller coaster of emotions. The highs and lows of life. Exhilaration to exhaustion. Excitement to Discouragement. Hope to despair.
Life is a mixture of good and bad. Sunshine and rain. Pay raises. But unexpected bills. The birth of baby. The death of a grandmother. A joyful wedding. A bitter divorce. Health and sickness.
But think of the incredible range of emotions the disciples of Christ experienced in just three days? Continue reading
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Randy Aly tells a story about a native from a remote mountain village who had the opportunity to visit a large modern city for the first time. He was amazed at the electric lights which he saw everywhere. So he bought a sack full of electric light bulbs and sockets with switches so he could turn them off and on.
Arriving home he hung the light bulbs in front of his home and on his and his neighbor’s trees. Everyone watched him with curiosity and asked him what he was doing, but he just smiled and said, “Just wait until dark–you’ll see.” Continue reading
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In a blog entitled “Six Things Christians Should Just Stop Staying, Dr. Steve McSwain wrote that Christians should quit saying “Jesus is the only way to heaven.”
“What you are really saying,” he writes, “is the way we interpret John 14:6 is that Jesus was clearly drawing a line in the sand and telling his hearers and the world: ‘If you do not believe in Me, you won’t go to the Father when you die.'”
The “Spiritual Teacher” and “Thought Leader” McSwain disagrees. “I am one of them, who do not interpret Jesus’ words the same way.” Continue reading
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I recently read a story about a painting called “Checkmate” painted by Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch that used to hang in the Louvre Art Museum in Paris.
The painting depicts a chess match between the devil and Goethe’s Dr. Faust, who had sold his soul to the devil. It appears as if the devil has won. Faust has only the king, the queen, and a weak pawn left. The look on Faust’s face is one of abject despair. From across the chessboard the devil leers at him in anticipation of his expected victory. Ready to say, Checkmate! Continue reading
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Philip Keller in A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 writes, “When all is said and done the welfare of any flock is entirely dependent upon the management afforded them by their owner.
“The tenant sheepman on the farm next to my first ranch was the most indifferent manager I had ever met. He was not concerned about the condition of his sheep. His land was neglected. He gave little or no time to his flock, letting them pretty well forage for themselves as best they could, both summer and winter.” Continue reading
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When you go home at night how do you enter your house? Down the chimney? Though an open window? By digging a tunnel? Of course not!
You enter through a door. It might be a garage door. A side door. A back boor. Or an elaborate and expensive front door. It might be wood, metal or glass. But it’s a door.
In one of the 7 vivid I AM statements of Jesus, he says, “I am the door” in John 10:7-10. Continue reading
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