The Word and the Work: Thoughts on Preaching, Pastoring, and the Christian Life

This may look like a stack of Bibles.  In fact, it is exactly that.  If you asked the average person what was pictured above that is the answer they would give.  I would tell you that it is much more than that. In this picture there is almost 100 years of the godly heritage of my family on display.   The Bible on the bottom belonged to my great grandfather.   Depending on who you ask his legal name was either Willie Russell Threet or William Russell Threet.  According to the census records I have seen It is the latter.  All that being said he is the person that I was named after.  I never knew him, but I know much about him because my Dad was very close to his grandfather.  The Bible here was given to him by his parents on Christmas Day 1924 when he would have been 23 years old.  The inscription reads: Christmas Present. From Father and Mother to Willie, Dec. 25, 1924.  Read this Precious Book with Care for Its our earthly guide. Its tells us how to watch and pray our loving Sav

Sadness. Despair.  Disgust. How many times do we feel these things in tragic situations?  It is normal and human.  What we do not feel is the proper feeling.  That feeling is responsibility.  I said it.  You and I are responsible for these types of tragedies.  Not in the way the politicians are going to paint it.  Not in the way that the media is going to paint it.  Not even in the way that the devil is going to paint it in our minds.  Yet, we are responsible. You read this and say, "How in the world could I be responsible for the actions of a deranged mad man in Charleston, South Carolina?"  We are responsible because for too long people on both ends of the political spectrum, all races, all nationalities, and all stripes of religious persuasions have failed to live courageously.  We have elevated our desire to be right over our duty to care.  We have jumped toward extremism at every opportunity.  Every tragedy has become a place to grind an axe.  We lack courage enoug