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

          Acts 2:42 (NKJV)   And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.          Gathering with God's people is a great privilege given to us by God.  More than that, we are commanded as God's people to gather for the express purpose of praising God corporately.  I have said many times that worship is the thing that God has used in my life above all else to minister to me in days of difficulty.  When we come together and worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done in our lives it places our worldly troubles into proper perspective.  We recognize as we worship that there is a God in Heaven who is sovereign over all things, who has a plan that is beyond our comprehension, and who is completely holy and good.  Worship fixes our eyes on the things above so that we can walk properly through our lives here in this worl...

There are two times a year I get reflective.  One is at New Year's time.  The second is on my birthday.  Perhaps this is true for everyone, but I always find myself in the midst of self-assessment at these times.  Luckily my birthday is in June so that makes for a nice time of reflection every six months.   Recently, I have begun to doubt the value of reflection in my life for a couple of reasons.  Reflection almost inevitably leads to regret.  Regretting things that were done or things that were not done.  This is not necessarily wrong if done properly but the truth is that most of us do not do  it properly.  What do I mean?  The type of reflection that most of us engage in is inherently self-centered.  We linger long in thought over our missed opportunities or perhaps wrong that has been done to us.  That is not the way God calls us to live. It is right and proper to think upon what we have done if we have uncon...

There are times in our life and in our walk with Christ when things just seem to be sideways.  Some call it a desert experience, a dry spell, or just feeling distance from God.  One of my favorite preachers talks about being "dry as cracker juice".  Here is the problem with being in that place.  When we are not in a place where we feel immersed in the living water offered by Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit we, like other dry things, are in danger of crumbling. It happens to all of us.  There is an old preaching illustration about an older couple riding down the road in an old pickup with a bench seat.  As the man drove his wife, who was seated against the passenger door said "honey, whenever we were younger and rode down the road in this old truck we always sat a lot closer together". The man, with his hands on the steering wheel said "Honey, I am not the one who has moved". This is a picture of us with God.  When we feel distance, it is ...

Today is April Fool's Day.  However, it is also the beginning of Autism Awareness month.  A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post titled The Gospel and Autism: A Father's Fear.  You can find that post here .  I relayed in that post many of the things that we were dealing with as a family, and how I had struggled with the ability of my son to mentally access the Gospel.  I would be lying to you if I said I still do not harbor some of those fears from time to time.  In the last six months I have begun to put together the very beginnings of a writing project that may end up being book length or it may just be essay length.  Either way it seeks to explore even deeper these concerns that I have because I know that I cannot be the only one that has them.  In the passing of almost 2 years I have learned some things about my son, about myself, and about God.  First, my son is amazing.  This 6 year old is largely taking life by storm....

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 earth...

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...

Thanksgiving is this week so that means we have already been under a constant barrage of Christmas music for several weeks now.  As I have fought through this in a very Grinchy fashion I have begun to wonder about Parson Brown in the classic Holiday song Winter Wonderland.  You know he was who they were going to pretend that the snowman was."In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown".  Any ways, I have always been aware of the term Parson, but did not really know its origin.  A quick Google search will tell you that a Parson was a clergy member, especially in the Anglican tradition, that was the overseer or pastor of a church, usually in the country, that was not a part of a larger charge or presbytery.   This term has fallen out of use many places, because people are not fond of its rural implications.  Somehow to be called Parson is to be viewed as a rube of sorts amongst men of God.  As I looked at this I was really...