Nov. 2004 -- Pleasant Street Church of Christ was the venue and the weekend just ended matched well the name. It was pleasant for the natural surroundings in Springdale, Arkansas, a family-oriented city of 58,000 adjacent to Fayetteville (home of University of Arkansas) near both Oklahoma and Missouri. It was especially pleasant for the loving church family hosting the Saturday seminar on "Surprises from a Study of Hell" and for the hospitality of minister Larry Branum and his wife Reba. The giant yellow oak in front of the church building and the 50-foot tall pecan tree in the parsonage … [Read more...]
BILL LOVE — ASLEEP IN JESUS
Bill Love, known to many gracEmail subscribers around the world, died peacefully in his bed on Friday, April 30, 2004, following about two weeks of hospitalization and hospice care at home. Bill was preaching minister at the Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston, Texas from 1974-1996 where he was my family's preacher and dear friend from 1982 onward. Bill suffered a stroke in 1998 that left him paralyzed on one side and unable to speak or to write. He also suffered for many years from congestive heart failure. Despite these infirmities, Bill set a valiant example of courage and faith, … [Read more...]
GLAD FOR GOD’S GRACE
August 2003 -- I write this in the Birmingham airport, waiting several hours for a plane stalled in the Northeast by inclement weather. Outside, the North Alabama skies also are dark and stormy, lightning flashing, peals of thunder reverberating across the heavens. But no thunderstorm can dampen the joy I feel following a full weekend with Disciples Fellowship in this city of rolling hills, luxuriant foliage and stately tree-lined streets. Like Barnabas at ancient Antioch, I have witnessed the grace of God and I am glad (Acts 11:23). This new community of believers began only months ago as … [Read more...]
BOMBING BAGHDAD’S BABIES
A gracEmail reader in Romania writes that U.S. sanctions against Iraq have led to the starvation of about one million innocent citizens. "What have they done to us?" he asks. "Should we punish them because of their dictator? If we do, the same will happen to us. We reap what we sow. 'Suffer the little Iraqi children to come unto me and kill them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven' (my unauthorized version)." * * * In the Old Testament, the land we identify as Iraq was known as Mesopotamia. Ur of the Chaldees was there, and perhaps the Garden of Eden. This land also contained Babylonia … [Read more...]
SHOWERS IN THE DESERT
September 2002 -- It doesn't rain often in Phoenix, Arizona, but the desert city received some downpours this past Saturday, as well as reminders in lightning and thunder of power greater than our own. The physical phenomena were fitting accompaniments to our seminar at Tatum Boulevard Church of Christ, in which we looked afresh at Scripture teaching concerning God's presence with us, his guidance for us and his voice to us today -- in Scripture and (always measured by Scripture) by his Spirit to our hearts. The Bible often uses the wind as a symbol of God's Spirit ("spirit" and "wind" are … [Read more...]
REUNION AND RENEWAL
July 2002 -- It is late Sunday night and I have just returned home to Houston from a weekend of very special blessing in Athens, Alabama where I grew up and where my ancestors had lived since about 1805. The occasion was the 40th year reunion on Saturday night of the Athens Bible School graduating class of 1962. All 17 members of our class are still living and 13 were present for this occasion, plus several others who were part of our class somewhere along the way. Four decades have sobered our foolishness, whitened our hair, produced a host of grandchildren and at least one … [Read more...]
TWO PHOTOS
One of our family's cherished photos, taken 29 years ago, portrays three women and a baby girl. The infant is our weeks-old daughter Melanie, held by my wife Sara Faye (then in her 20's), accompanied by Sara Faye's mother Celia and Celia's then-aged mother whom we called Tata. On this Mother's Day 2002, we took another photograph to place beside that one. Celia is the 90-year-old in this picture and the infant is our granddaughter Julia. Between them are Sara Faye and Melanie, now herself a mother. This morning also included Julia's dedication service at our church, an event during which … [Read more...]
GRANDPA’S FAITH AND FEAR
As I write this on a Sunday afternoon in early April 2002, our first grandbaby Julia remains in the special care nursery at the hospital where she was born five long days ago. Her parents, Melanie and Michael, are staying at the hospital, although Melanie has been officially discharged as a patient. It seems that Julia's temperature is lower than normal and her heart beat is slower than usual. The neonatologist says this is cause for concern and caution but not necessarily for alarm. We hope to hear from a pediatric cardiologist tomorrow when tests are analyzed. We grasp at positive … [Read more...]
DEATH, BE NOT PROUD
(This gracEmail summarizes remarks I gave on March 26, 2002 at Mason {Ohio} Christian Village Chapel at the memorial service for my stepfather, Joseph Dewhirst of Morrow, Ohio. These thoughts come from the story in John 11 of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead.) 1. Death is inevitable. Mary and Martha both tell Jesus, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died" (v. 21, 32). The truth is that Lazarus might not have died then, but he would have died sometime. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time to be born and a time to die. From the moment we are born, we are … [Read more...]
MORTALITY
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...]
