Category: Uncategorized

Next week is our forty-fourth anniversary. We are considering taking a few days and getting away. It’s not an easy process. First, where to go? Last year we rented a hotel room in the French Quarter in New Orleans. It was a big mistake. It was noisy especially at night. We are not really party people, but everyone there was. Everyone was having a great time, while we were trying to sleep. We could go to the beach. We aren’t really beach people. We don’t go out on the sand, too hot and sandy. We lay on the balcony and listen to and watch the water. We did that last September. So going to the beach has a kind of been-there-done-that feel to it. It might be too soon to do it again. We have a favorite hotel up in Branson on the lake. We haven’t been there in several years. So that sounds like fun. There is much to do up there but Branson is kind of far. It really takes folks like us a couple of days to get there and a couple of days to get back. It seems like too much trouble. Then there is the issue of all […]

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:2 I have reviewed and edited my blog posts beginning in the middle of 2008. It didn’t take me long to notice that I end nearly every one with “be blessed.” I’m not sure why I started doing that and after seeing it hundreds of times, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s right. I love it when I’m checking out of a store and I’m told to “have a blessed day.” With that I know I’m in the presence of a believer. Some days I feel really alone as far as that goes and it’s a nice thing to hear. When I greet someone and ask how they are, it’s a good thing to hear that they  are “blessed.” I want my postings to be a blessing. I’m sure some are; others not so much. After all can we really do anything to “be blessed?” The blessed state isn’t something that we control. It’s all in the hands of God. Aren’t we all, especially Christians, blessed? Isn’t the thing under our control what […]

As Christians I think we do a disservice by the phrases we use. There are many examples. “Lord of my life” is the one that comes to mind today. We say Jesus is “Lord of my life.” That makes him sound a little like a concierge’, someone who has the duty of keeping our life straight. It sounds like his “job” is to make sure we are healthy, wealthy and wise. It also seems to make Him the responsible party when things don’t go right. If we are sick or unemployed, can’t pay the bills or parent like a drunken sailor, we think, “that’s okay, Jesus has this.” We sit around waiting for things to happen, for our ministry moment to arise “consoling” ourselves with the thought that it’s just not Jesus’ timing yet. I think we say “Lord of my life” instead of “My Lord” because the later phrase puts some responsibility on us. It acknowledges ownership and not just a right of organization. Jesus is more than our calendar keeper and preparer of our to-do list. I’m not saying Jesus isn’t “Lord of my life.” I’m saying He’s much more.  He’s Lord of everything. We make it […]

Yesterday Rose and I made one of our traditional Spring day trips. We drove up Interstate 49 toward Alexandria getting off at the LeCompte exit. We headed west to Forest Hill. Forest Hill has the largest collection of nurseries perhaps anywhere. Our favorite is Doug Young Nursery. It is a wholesale nursery spread over several acres. They allow retail shoppers and its fun to drive over their extremely substandard roads and marvel over the variety of plants. You just stick what  you want in the back of your vehicle and pay on your way out. The place isn’t really designed for the back yard gardener, so don’t expect great customer service or detailed answers to questions. After we gathered up the plants we wanted, we headed back toward the interstate and crossed over to east side and into the town of LeCompte and Lea’s. Lea’s has made great plate lunches and wonderful pies since 1928. Since the inter state was built, it’s business is down, and it’s now about the only reason to go into LeCompte. We have pieces of pie and the coldest glasses of milk anywhere. We buy whole pies to take home and head back. A […]

“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” Mark 9:42 Last night Rose and I watched The Parent Trap with Samantha, the original version from 1961. In case you are too old to remember, Haley Mills played identical twins who were separated by their divorcing parents as infants and who meet each other at summer camp. The girls discover they are sisters and plot to get their parents back together. It was a shock to realize the movie was filmed 53 years ago, in a very different time. In one scene the girls discuss their anger at their parents for denying each of them a parent. The twins remark how terrible divorce is and how they both have friends who have suffered from it. One of them says if this keeps up one day soon there will be more divorces than marriages. The line drew a laugh in 1961. However, the writer turned out to be more of a prophet than a comedian. The divorce rate started a sharp rise soon after […]

I have extolled the virtues of home churches many times before. I need to do so again. The home church I attend just completed a twelve week cycle. We won’t meet again as a group until the end of summer. The twelve weeks were great. The food was great. The teaching was great. The prayer time was great. I can get great teaching anytime I want, on the internet, on tv, from a book. I can get great food anytime I want. I live in a community with more great restaurants per head than anywhere in the world. My wife is a great cook. I don’t even have to leave the house. I can hang around with people in any many places. I can go to ball games or bars. There is an international festival this weekend where I could rub elbows with a hundred thousand folks. The thought is frightening. What I can’t get anywhere else is an atmosphere where folks are willing to share about the battles they are facing. In the last twelve weeks, we learned about and prayed for an amazing number of issues. It isn’t that our group is more needy or has more battles […]

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;    his mercies never come to an end;23 they are new every morning;    great is your faithfulness. I have had a lot of contact with kids and spring recently. We have been taking advantage of the spring weather to work in the  yard. School’s out this week so we’ve also been blessed with lots of kid contact. I couldn’t help but notice how kids and spring are similar. They are both fresh and exciting bursting forth with color and enthusiasm. They both possess promise of new things and futures filled with potential. One of the many blessings of Easter, not the bunnies and candy part, but the risen from the dead part, is that the same kind of fresh promise is ours every day. With each new day comes forgiveness and forgetfulness of the mistakes and missteps of the past. Each new day brings the possibility of new faithfulness and following of the Savior. We need to be more like kids and spring. We need to stay fresh and excited in our perspective and the promise of each new day. We need to shake off the tendency to be burned out by the summer or the failings that […]

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 What’s the meaning of the empty grave? Death is conquered. We tend to focus on the conquering of natural death. The real significance of the empty grave is that spiritual death is conquered. Because the grave is empty, the we can live eternally. Take the empty grave, add faith, you have eternal life. The empty grave is about possibilities. Because the grave is empty, eternal life is possible. Being born again, is being born spiritually. Since Adam we are born dead, spiritually dead. Since Jesus, we can get that spiritual life back. To be born again is to be different. Years ago I remember gathering in Baton Rouge to demonstrate in favor of life. There were two groups present: pro-life and pro death. The demonstrations were large but peaceful. Just before the crucial vote, the pro lifers without any direction, lay silently on their faces and began to pray. The pro deathers were confused but stood in respectful silence. They were in the presence of something spiritual. Something they did not […]