As I write these words in 2001, I face a small and treasured family picture on my desk. Melanie appears to be four or five years old, Jeremy about two. Both are now grown and married. Where did those years go? Can I really turn 57 this year? The folks I once knew as grownups are now either old or dead. My contemporaries are showing their own years. The youths are taking over the world. Thus it has been from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. And -- we might add, before saying "Amen" -- thus it ought to be, as well. A preacher in the New Testament once remarked concerning King David, … [Read more...]
Archives for 2001
BEYOND TERROR
Is there a word from God, following Tuesday's (September 11, 2001) unprecedented terrorist attacks in New York and Washington which claimed thousands of lives, shut down air travel nationwide and launched the USA into a state of virtual war against an invisible enemy who as yet remains unknown? Three solemn truths transport us beyond terror, as we reflect on the whole teaching of Scripture. * * * First, we lament the mind-numbing and momentous loss of life. We mourn for those who perished and pray for their loved ones. Though thousands died, each was an individual, snatched … [Read more...]
FAMILY ROOTS & BRANCHES
June 2001 -- This weekend Sara Faye, Grandma Locke and I, with both our children and their spouses (all from Texas), enjoyed a Fudge family reunion at beautiful, wooded, Doublehead Resort on Wilson Lake in North Alabama (www.doublehead.com). My brothers from California and Florida werethere, as well as two brothers and a sister from Alabama and our mother from Ohio. Plus dozens of other Fudge-related kin covering about four generations. You will understand when I say that the event was both restful and tiring. Along the way, we visited the little stone house in Franklin, Tenn. where Sara … [Read more...]
HOME FOLKS
July 2001. Those who know first-hand the joy and assurance of salvation through trusting in Jesus Christ also experience the family love of fellow believers as spiritual brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. This weekend my own heart filled to overflowing with pleasure and with love as I worshiped, ate, visited and studied the Bible with "home folks" in both a physical and a spiritual sense. The occasion was a weekend of gospel ministry at Seven Mile Post Road Church in Athens (Limestone County), Ala., the town in which I grew up and the county of my ancestors since … [Read more...]
RENEWAL IN REGINA
April 2001 -- Outdoors the sun reflects off snowbanks as the Canadian Spring temperature dances in the 40's (F). Inside the Regina Church of Christ building, however, hearts warmed by the gospel glow in God's presence, and sweet harmony of worship rises as a sacrifice before the throne of God in heaven. The Holy Spirit hovers over God's new creation in an atmosphere of manifest reverence and celebratory joy. Churches of Christ are rather scarce in Canada, and not large by U.S. standards. This annual Spring Renewal thus brings believers to Saskatchewan from Alberta and British Columbia on … [Read more...]
MINISTRY IN OREGON
March 2001 -- For three days this week, I had the pleasure, along with my co-author Dr. Robert A. Peterson of Covenant Theological Seminary, of presenting the Bueerman-Champion Lectureship at Western Theological Seminary in Portland, Oregon on the theme "Two Views of Hell." Dr. Peterson argued that hell will involve unending conscious torment. I argued that hell will culminate in the everlasting extinction of the entire person, body and soul. We both appealed to the Scriptures as primary and final authority on the subject. The Western Seminary administration, faculty, staff and students … [Read more...]