A couple of Sundays ago, my pastor preached on Psalm 73, reminding me that I had also preached on that Psalm – several times in fact. It is the age-old conflict of the prosperity of the wicked vs. the suffering of the righteous, and the Psalmist began by asking tough questions. Make no mistake, the…
It had been awhile since I had counted, but the recent purchase of more books from a used book dealer, sent me back to the shelves to count how many books I possess on the subject of prayer. The new count is 481. A bit excessive for the normal minister/seminary professor, but not for one…
In the early morning press conference of September 16, 1999, Wedgwood Baptist Church pastor Dr. Al Meredith would speak on behalf of the broken, yet hopeful members of Wedgwood Baptist Church, where on the preceding evening, a lone gunman, using 200 rounds of ammunition and a home-made pipe bomb, had killed seven and wounded seven,…
Last week’s hurricanes (there were several on the map at the same time) took me back to my first one. We had only been living in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for a few weeks when Hurricane Beulah hit. Having been a category 5 hurricane, it hit land as a category 3 with peak…
One of my all-time favorite things to do was sit on my grandfather’s front porch and listen to him recall his “days of old.” He talked of friendships, missed opportunities, family members, and as always, advice (based on his many years of experience). Isaiah must have been getting old. “Then he remembered the days of…
I sat around a rectangular table with seven other men, all focused on an eighth man at the head of the table. That eighth man had been named to a prominent and powerful position. The seven were there to pray for the eighth. How many intercessors does it take to reach maximum effectiveness in prayer?…
What a visit it was, just last week! He was one of my Dad’s best friends. He was one of my brother’s heroes. During my teen-age years, he was one of my greatest encouragers. Now he is ninety-nine years old and on hospice care. Gone are the days of his distinguished military career as a…
I had been writing this Monday Morning Manna for more than a decade but had never heard this particular mispronunciation. In commenting on my writing, people often pause, trying to remember what it is called. “I appreciate your Monday Morning . . . thing” they will say, or “I read your Monday . . ….
I was recently faced with a major decision concerning my future. I realized that the older I got the fewer options I had, and this one was complicated because it involved financial issues. In the midst of the decision, as I was listening for God’s directions, I read Isaiah 30 as a part of my…
I am preparing to speak to another group of Senior Adults. There was a day when most of my preparation time was devoted to young adults – college students, seminary students, young congregations, etc. With the passing of time comes the changing of the audiences. I still speak to younger groups, but increasingly the invitations…