The Fall is the most wonderful time of the year. Why? Football season. All three of my young boys play football; between them, that’s three games and a dozen practices every week.
See the Light
February 9, 2021 by
Leo Tolstoy once compared religious rules to the light given off by a lamp post. It is a bright light. It dispels the darkness. As long as man or woman stood in that light, he or she could see. But the lamp post had limitations, Tolstoy said.
Hard Grace
April 29, 2020 by
It was extremely important for the church of my youth to prove that every single miracle in the Bible be proven as an historical and scientific fact. A literal seven day creation, the parting of the Red Sea, Joshua making the sun stand still, and of course, there was the story of “Jonah and the Whale.”
All That Once Was Good
August 16, 2017 by
Major League Baseball and the burgeoning church down the street from my house: I have developed a suspicion of both of these for many of the same reasons. Don’t get me wrong. I love baseball, and I love the church. But something is not quite right.
Reimagining “Church” and “Christians” as the “Jesus Tribe”
September 21, 2016 by
This may be unsettling to some, but the earliest followers of Jesus did not refer to themselves as Christians. I am rather glad about this because the word “Christian” has too much baggage attached to it.
That Dark Thursday Night: A Maundy Thursday Reading
April 2, 2015 by
“Go into the city,” he said. “A friend of mine will show you a large, upper room, furnished and ready.” Strange. Peter and I rounded a corner and there, coming out of a narrow alley was a man we didn’t know, but he looked at us as if we were expected.
Use It or Lose It
March 4, 2015 by
Antonio Stradivari was the master instrument maker of the last five hundred years. He built a number of stringed masterpieces: Harps, cellos, and guitars. But his name is most closely associated with his violins
A Bunch of Stories
February 3, 2015 by
“I don’t read that article by Ronnie McBrayer,” I heard a critic say not long ago; a critic who did not know I was within earshot. “He thinks the Bible is just a bunch of stories.”
Get Out of the House!
January 7, 2015 by
Last week we had a fire in our home. Our aged heat pump flashed out, blowing smoke throughout the house, tripping alarms and setting off smoke detectors. Thankfully, it turned out to be more of a minor inconvenience than a major disaster.
Faith: Barricaded and Buried
December 31, 2014 by
A few weeks ago I read that doomsday shelters are making a big comeback. Now, I’ve never been in one of these safe havens, but I am told they were all the rage fifty years ago.
Pew Potatoes
November 18, 2014 by
My grandmother lived her entire life on a farm. First, it was cotton, then it was soybean, and finally it was cows and chickens. I spent every summer of my childhood and teen years on that farm, working in my uncle’s chicken houses, chasing stray cows, bailing and stacking hay.
This’ll “Get Your Goat”
October 29, 2014 by
My southern grandmother had a saying she used most every day: “Get your goat.” It was one of those wonderful phrases that could be employed in any number of relevant situations.
Like a Good Neighbor
August 19, 2014 by
A man was going from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Louisville, Kentucky, when along the way he had a flat tire. Stranded on the side of the road, he was robbed, his car was stripped, he was shot, and left for dead.
The Good News Really Is Good News
August 5, 2014 by
Sharing faith, in Christian terms, is known as “evangelism.” This is the English rendering of a Greek word meaning “to proclaim the good news.” That’s a problem, because the news isn’t always good.
The Greatest Good
July 15, 2014 by
My friend Hal never knew what hit him. He was unconscious before he even hit the ground. At least that’s what the script said happened to him. Hal, along with about fifty more of us, was a participant in a disaster drill back when we were in high school.
Take it Outside
July 2, 2014 by
It was the early 1980s. It was Texas. It was December. It was a Southern Baptist church. It is customary in Southern Baptist churches to take up an offering during the Advent season to support missionaries overseas.
The Welcome Wagon
June 18, 2014 by
When my wife’s boss first moved to our small town it was more than a little culture shock. Raised on the slick windy streets of Chicago, he had mastered the ways of the urban jungle, but this experience had done little to prepare him for the Deep South.