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...]
KEEN ON KIWI-LAND (3)
Most New Zealanders speak English, with a modified British accent to American ears, although Maori is also enjoying a revival among the growing indigenous population. One-third of the nation lives in Auckland -- NZ's counterpart to New York City -- and one of them in five came there from some other part of Asia or the Pacific. By far the country's largest and most cosmopolitan city, Auckland's 1.3 million residents sprawl from Waitemata Harbor on the Pacific Ocean to Manukau Harbor on the Tasman Sea. Auckland appropriately calls itself "The City of Sails" -- its harbors' dancing waters sparkle … [Read more...]
KEEN ON KIWI-LAND (2)
This was a working vacation to New Zealand, in which I averaged almost one presentation per day. On successive Sunday mornings I preached at Titirangi Baptist Church (pastor Jonathon Weir) and at Owairaka Baptist Church (pastors Bruce Hilder and Carl Josephson), sharing three points from John 3:13-17 -- that God desires to save people, not to condemn them; that he saves believers through the merits and for the sake of Jesus Christ; and that the alternative to eternal life is, indeed, to perish. Sunday evenings saw advertised public meetings at Remuera Baptist Church (pastor Warren Prestidge) … [Read more...]
KEEN ON KIWI-LAND (1)
We arrived home safely about 9 p.m. last night (Thursday, August 24, 2000 Houston time), 28 hours after waking on the same date in the distinctly "Scottish" town of Dunedin on the South Island of predominately "British" New Zealand. New Zealand is an extraordinarily beautiful Pacific country composed of two major islands, situated 1200 miles southeast of Australia. Explorers launch out from NZ to Antarctica and the South Pole. If you imagine England and Scotland 125% larger, inverted in the South Pacific, you won't be far wrong. Or think of California, reduced by 25%, then stretched thinner to … [Read more...]
FAMILY MATTERS
July 2000 -- This past Thursday through Sunday, Sara Faye and I attended a reunion of the extended family of my maternal grandparents, Will and Delia (O'Neal) Short, who themselves went to Africa in 1921 as missionaries and served Christ there for more than 60 years. About 100 Shorts, O'Neals, Fudges, Ewings, Mansurs and decendants came from across the United States, England, Holland and (recently) Africa to the beautiful Roman Nose State Park Resort in northern Oklahoma. There we variously made new acquaintances and renewed old ones, golfed, swam, picnicked, played, rode horseback, and … [Read more...]
PRAISE ON THE HIGH PLAINS
February 2000 -- Joyful praises ascended to God in songs and prayers from the Texas plains this weekend as some 90-100 men from Broadway and Vandelia Churches of Christ, St. Luke's and Aldersgate Methodist Churches, a Bible church, an Hispanic Baptist church and a Worldwide Church of God -- all in Lubbock, Texas -- joined in a spiritual feast of worship, fellowship and ministry of the Word. I was privileged to deliver four messages from the Bible at the multi-church men's retreat, conducted at Plains Baptist Center, in a sequestered canyon on the Caprock (high plains) of West Texas. God not … [Read more...]
