Up or Down

Growing up in Mexico, I was exposed to soccer (futbol) all the time until I heard of the Cowboys, an American football team, who instead of kicking the ball would throw it.  They didn’t play with a round ball but rather an oval shaped ball. One time they put it on TV.  When it came […]

Growing up in Mexico, I was exposed to soccer (futbol) all the time until I heard of the Cowboys, an American football team, who instead of kicking the ball would throw it.  They didn’t play with a round ball but rather an oval shaped ball. One time they put it on TV.  When it came time for the cowboys to kick a field goal, I was wondering why the kicker missed so badly, but the people were cheering. The ball went way up instead of underneath the poles. They did it again, and they won the game.  Needless to say I was confused. Was the ball supposed to go up or down? I wanted to know the rules of this game.

It is confusing for someone who is used to certain rules to find a game with the same name but with different rules. Sometimes people who visit the church might get confused as well when they find that we do things differently than their church. It is our duty to know how to explain to them why we do what we do. With time and lots of love and patience they might come to love and understand what we do. The purpose of it is for them to come to know our Lord Jesus. With so many religions out there with so many rules, we need to help our guests realize that there is only one man they need to follow and that is Jesus.

Faith On a Shelf

I have this hat that my dad brought back to me from a business trip to Atlanta when I was 9 or 10 years old. You can see that I’ve worn it a lot. In fact, I wore it to just about everywhere I went during the summer when I was a kid. Church camps, grandparents’ house,...

“Jesus Loves Me”

After being led in this song by two of our young men Sunday night, I was reminded of a quotation from Karl Barth. On April 23, 1962, Karl Barth (the renown 20th Century Swiss-German, neo-orthodox theologian) spoke at Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University...

That’s Not a Candle

Several years ago, there was story shared about a woman from Connecticut whose power had gone out during a storm. She left her house to go to a local hardware store to purchase some flashlights, but the store was closed. She returned home and found what she thought...

The Post-Christian Problem

I attended the New Day Conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the end of last week with a small group from Riverchase. It was a good conference and I left encouraged about the opportunities we have to fulfill the call of Christ to make disciples. On Friday evening,...

Josiah’s Reform

In the thirty-one years of his rule, King Josiah proved to be a faithful man of God and a great king of Judah. He served God from the beginning as a young king and grew into a greater understanding of God’s will and a determination to follow that will. He made a...

You Are What You Eat

You Are What You Eat You’ve heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” Simply defined, it means that you should eat healthy if you want to be healthy. This phrase can trace its roots back to the early 1800’s. It came from the 1826 work The Physiology of Taste, in which...

It Is Well

Above the piano in our house is a large wood sign with the phrase, “it is well with my soul” on it. Kimberly and I purchased it during a season of our life together where we were not completely sure what the future had in store for our little family. Since then, the...

Do Over

  I messed up on recording my recent radio programs. The sound quality was so bad Mark could not run them on the air. So, I deleted them and recorded them again.   I sure wish I could do that in real life with all the other mistakes I make. Just delete them...

Don’t Believe Your Preacher

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 1:9 ESV) Here is the test. The “teaching of Christ” is, of course, the very word of God. So, if your...

Balloons Belong in Church

I would like to share with you an excerpt from a poem written by Ann Weems. The beginning of it describes a four-year-old child that brought with her a balloon to church one Sunday. When her Sunday school teacher saw the balloon, she mockingly said to the girl, “We...