As I am preparing to speak to a group of young pastors in south Texas, my thoughts have returned to Jonah and a long-ago presentation I did for another group of young ministers, entitled, “Settled at the Start.” One day Jonah received a call from God to go to Nineveh and preach (Jonah 1:1-2). Nineveh…
I guess I was not unlike others who stood in a pulpit yesterday morning to preach, with mixed emotions. The week had been marked with the report of sexual abuse cover-up among Southern Baptist ministers and the release of over 700 names of some who were found guilty or confessed to sexual abuse. Far too many…
I could have attended a large university like many in my family did. I could have attended a medium sized university where I had a baseball scholarship offer. I chose to attend a small, Baptist college in a small west Texas town. Having grown up in Houston from the third grade through High School graduation, everything at Howard…
I had been thinking lately about yesterday and tomorrow. I guess that goes with today’s age. Willie Nelson sings, “Three days that I dread to see arrive; Three days that I hate to be alive; Three days filled with tears and sorrow; Yesterday, today and tomorrow.” As much as I enjoy most of Willie’s songs, and even…
Three years before my mother was born, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson set the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. If she were still alive, she would be 105 years old and celebrating her 80th Mother’s Day. However, she transferred all of her celebrations to heaven twenty-two years ago. She was the greatest prayer warrior…
Last Monday, my Morning Manna was about our terminology of saying Jesus was in our heart vs. Him being in our life. One of the responses was from my friend Judy, who further spoke of the “heart” issue when she wrote, “When my younger daughter was 3, she asked where God is. “Everywhere.” “Even in…
A friend’s recent successful heart transplant caused the resurfacing of an old question. Many years ago, when my daughter was a little girl watching the evening news with me, there was a report of a heart transplant at a nearby hospital. Danna asked, “Daddy, now that he has a new heart, does he need to…
In the five months between my last Interim Pastorate and the present one, I preached and visited numerous churches. The various worship styles reminded me that I worship better when I am a participant, versus when I am an observer. I suppose there is a place for spectator worship, and I am certainly in favor…
I remember a weekend where my pastor-father spent Saturday morning preaching the funeral of a long-time church member and close friend, then spent the evening officiating the wedding of a young couple who had been faithful in the church through their youth years, but in between, he made it to yet another one of my…
One should always be open to suggestions. For many years I traveled back and forth to Vancouver, Canada, and while there I loved Tim Horton’s coffee and Canadian Maple Donuts. So much so, that I developed a theory that the “manna” (meaning, “what is it?”) of the Old Testament might have been donuts. Now that…