August 1997 -- Sara Faye and I enjoyed 30 hours in a car together this past weekend, driving from our home in Houston to attend niece Leslie's wedding in Huntsville, Alabama, then back again to Texas. Three of my five siblings were there, plus Mom and stepfather Joe from Ohio, and we spent some fine time catching up all around. Sunday morning, I preached at Winchester Road Church of Christ as guest of my brother Henry, father of the bride, whose pulpit ministry God has blessed the past couple of years by doubling the size of his congregation from 55 to more than 100. Besides preaching, Henry … [Read more...]
SOUL-LONGING FOR A WORLD TO COME
July 1997 -- We took my wife's 85-year-old widowed mother home last week, to a little stone house in Tennessee which Granddad built for her 57 years ago and in which she has lived ever since. Sara Faye carried her by car to experience the transition, then stayed the remainder of the week to help her get readjusted. I flew to Nashville Saturday afternoon, and drove back to Houston with Sara Faye on Saturday night and Sunday. Back in Franklin, Tenn., we visited Granddad's grave, beside both of Grandma's parents, and next to a plot where Grandma will rest one day if Jesus doesn't come first. … [Read more...]
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS PROTECTION
Last week (June 1997), son Jeremy left our driveway in suburban Houston to drive to Colorado for the summer, where he hoped to find work near a young lady who lately has become special in his life. It had not been 21 days since we watched him graduate from Baylor University with high honors, "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," as my own Mother used to say (a squirrely expression if I ever heard one), with plans to attend the University of Texas Law School come September. As the familiar '87 Chevy Blazer left our driveway, Jeremy also left standing there two parents, a Grandma and an older sister … [Read more...]
GOD’S ‘POEMS’ (2)
April/May 1997 -- Yesterday we noted Paul's use of the Greek word poema (from which we get "poem") to describe God's workmanship in Creation (Rom. 1:20) and in his New Creation in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10). I described the divine handiwork in Creation, which we experienced recently in California. It aawed us into silence and then elicited outbursts of adoration. God's "poem" in his New Creation awed us as well these past eight days. For four days at Pepperdine, we joined an estimated 5,000 believers who packed the Fieldhouse twice each day to worship God in song and to enjoy soul-stirring … [Read more...]
GOD’S ‘POEMS’ (1)
April/May 1997 -- Our English word "poem" comes directly from the Greek poema which means "a piece of work," whether an act, deed or -- as in this instance -- a literary product. Paul uses this Greek word twice in the New Testament to describe God's workmanship. God's first "poem" is Creation itself (Rom. 1:20). His second "poem" is the redeemed life of women and men who constitute God's new creation in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10). These past eight days Sara Faye and I have thrilled to both of God's "poems." First at the Pepperdine University Annual Bible Lectures in Malibu, California, then … [Read more...]
MINISTRY IN FLORENCE/TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA
March 1997 -- With praise and thanksgiving to God, I report on a full and fruitful weekend of ministry in North Alabama during Saturday-Sunday just past. Saturday morning the preachers and elders of the three sponsoring congregations in the Florence/Tuscumbia area met at 7 a.m. at an area restaurant for breakfast, fellowship and a time of prayer. I was privileged to join that meeting. Then, for four hours on Saturday, we examined many Scriptures from both Old and New Testaments regarding five truths. (1) God saved us once for all, in the perfect and finished atonement wrought by Jesus … [Read more...]
PRAISE GOD WHO GIVES ALL BLESSINGS
August 1996 -- We returned safely about 11 pm Sunday night from ministry in Athens, Alabama, my hometown, where God moved mightily through his Spirit at "Seven Mile Post Road Church (a church of Christ)." By his provision, I spoke seven times (Friday p.m. through Sunday) through most of the Book of Romans to assemblies who came ready to receive from God. Also preached 30 minutes via radio from Hebrews 10, and we had a men's prayer breakfast and a booksigning as guests of a Methodist brother and sister who own a local Christian bookstore. The worship times were mighty and God's presence was … [Read more...]
CHURCH HISTORY JIGSAW PUZZLE
Part 1 One of many blessings that come from reading church history is a perspective sufficiently distant to see the larger picture with all its harmony and its diversity. Blessed with such perspective, we see God continually at work among his people: now turning, then correcting, sometimes simply allowing, the course of his church through the centuries. No believer and no Christian group can afford to believe or think or live in isolation. We all -- individuals and groups -- can and need to learn from each other. The undivided church of the first several centuries gave us the "rule of faith" … [Read more...]
