I have noted here before that there are certain words which are frequently used in the Bible which often go undefined for us formerly because we assume we know exactly what they mean already. For instance: Glory Love Holy Faith Grace Here’s the one that currently has my attention: Evil. In Luke 11, Jesus points out that the men in his audience would never even consider giving their children a snake or a scorpion if what they asked for was a piece of bread or an egg. Then he draws a contrast between them and God – they give good…

 As part of His response to a disciple’s plea of “Teach us to pray”, Jesus sets up the following scenario: “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’  And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up…

I am having trouble relaxing these days.  Even while on vacation recently, I just couldn’t let go during the day and I wasn’t sleeping well at night. In fact, I woke up every morning between 2:30 and 4:30. (It didn’t help that our windows overlooked the pool – which was fully lit throughout the night.)  My work schedule these days is extremely flexible – for which I am thankful – but my days are choppy and there’s no daily “quittin’ time”. No finish line. Not to mention the fact I am left setting my own schedule hour by hour, which…

One of the clumsy parts of my sermon last Sunday was my attempt to say something intelligent about the original Greek wording of the text.  I have an interest in Greek and a year of study under my belt (nearly 30 years ago now), but I am no expert.  And, as the saying goes, what was a mist in my mind became a fog in the pews.  Still, in general I believe it’s important for the preacher to pay close attention to the original languages, to whatever extent time and study and familiarity allow, even if nothing gets mentioned directly…

This morning I started to rectify my prayer problem.  Here’s where I started:  With another look at Luke 11:1 where the disciples walked right up to Jesus and said, “Teach us to pray”. Just that way – as a demand, not a request.  It wasn’t “Would you teach us?” or “Please teach us”.  Instead, it was a flat out, unapologetic imperative: “Teach us”.  And then the crazy thing is that Jesus turned around and modeled and encouraged similar imperatives in their prayers to their heavenly Father: “GIVE US this day our daily bread.” “FORGIVE US our sins.” “LEAD US not into…

I stepped into the pulpit this morning – Father’s Day – and face-planted. Hard. I stumbled through the opening of a sermon about prayer and then put the whole thing on pause to admit that the message hadn’t traveled through me in any authentic way before I tried to pass it along to the congregation.  The reality is that my prayer life has never been consistent nor deep. I have had my moments and my seasons, true, but the moments have been sporadic and the seasons have been short.  I am no prayer warrior. I have “wanted” to be a…

Yesterday became one of the handful of days I have not written and posted at least some little thing daily over the last 2 and a half years.  It crossed my mind to sit down at 1:00 am and write but I gave myself permission just to give in to the exhaustion. Yesterday morning was the final class meeting for the week of intensives on campus at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. Each of us had to prepare and deliver a sermon – and then be critiqued by the other students. Yes, it was as stressful and awkward as…

In class today we were reminded of these tough words from John Wesley to one of his preachers, a certain John Trembath. In a letter dated 1760, Wesley took Trembath to task for his lack of self-discipline:  “What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a Preacher read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but…

Review of Dennis F. Kinlaw, Preaching in the Spirit, Francis Asbury Press: Anderson, IN, 1985.  Introduction: Preaching Without Inspiration I once sat under a pastor who described his approach to preaching in this way: “In truth, I only have two or three sermons that I preach. Each Sunday I deliver a variation of one of those three.” His most common sermon was an exhortation to reach out to the surrounding community of unbelievers. He considered his repetitive approach a virtue. The congregation, however, was never transformed.  He, and not the Spirit of God, determined what the congregation needed to hear.…

 A quote tonight from Dennis Kinlaw’s book, Preaching in the Spirit:  “Have you ever noticed that Abraham is the prime biblical model of faith? When Paul wishes to illustrate the meaning of justification by faith, he doesn’t use one of the twelve apostles or even himself; he points to Abraham. The same thing is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of James, and various other Bible books. “Abraham lived long before Jewish institutional religion, before the law was given at Sinai. He demonstrated a faith that was not law-related, church-related, or lifestyle-related. What does God really want…