If you take anything away from the devotional today, then it should be the focal verse. Imagine that you have written on a mirror so that it will be the first thing you see each day. How big are the letters? Perhaps I should state it this way: How big is your Savior? This question figures prominently in the middle sections of Matthew’s gospel. The gospel writer builds a strong case that Jesus is t...  Read More

“I do not like the tone in your voice,” has helped generations of children to be molded in appropriate ways to express their upset. I have benefited from similar words at times when I was a youngster. Sadly, as we grow up, we often fail to express our upset to the Lord. We have come to believe that it is inappropriate. Sometimes, the reason for our reluctance is our poor awareness of God’s desire ...  Read More

The psalmist declares that the cries of the oppressed grow louder by the day, and the Lord hears them. Our psalm today provides us with an individual lament in which the writer combines prayer with praise to give voice to God’s just rule over the nations (EBC). He cries out to God in his need because he knows that God hears his cry and answers him. How can this be so when there are many calls curr...  Read More

The business of doing God’s business carries with it much moral authority. It includes relating properly to him and to the people one is called to lead in his behalf. Our generation gravitates toward leaders who are able to “get things done” or exert a certain type of “influence” over those they lead. I understand the importance of these things; however, there is something much deeper at work when...  Read More

How does one emerge from horrific grief and loss to embrace victorious new life? This transformation may be summed up in one word, “Resurrection.” Friends, this core Biblical truth is recorded throughout the scriptures but too many today find it impossible to believe. These dear souls find it too difficult to believe in life beyond death, nor do they see how believing may strengthen them in the pr...  Read More

"Miss Mac," as she was affectionately known for most of her adult life, was born 26 June 1930 to Rev. Rufus Alexander and Stella Eley McWhorter, on her farm near Centralhatchee, Georgia. She attended school there, worked hard in the fields of her family’s cotton farm, and did heavy chores every day. She was a member of the Baptist church her father pastored and, when Mildred was thirteen, she real...  Read More

What do we see when we see Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday of Holy Week? And, what will be our response?! The world sees a Conqueror, but the reality is Jesus enters as the Redeemer. The prophet Isaiah referred to God as the “Holy One of Israel, our Redeemer” which held implications both for Israel and Gentiles. (Isaiah 44:24; 54:5). The Lord comes to dwell in the midst of his people as Sa...  Read More

The old saying that we will not know where we are going unless we know where we have been applies to Paul’s work in Corinth. The forward progress of the church in Corinth, as well as churches today, was hindered by a great misunderstanding of the central truth of the gospel. Human wisdom and effort will not enable a church or an individual Christian to apprehend the wisdom of God. The church was f...  Read More

“Smooth sailing” is a euphemism that means easy progress without impediment or difficulty. The Galatians were on some windy, choppy waters, so church life was definitely not smooth sailing. Captain Paul’s argument, to carry the analogy forward, takes another tack as he sails toward the final destination of freedom in Christ.Galatians 5:13 serves as a transition verse from his theology of freedom (...  Read More

If we are not careful, an unbridled individualism may well be drawn up within a destructive vortex of Christian nationalism. This failure may happen when Christ-followers fail to bend the knee to his universal authority (Colossians 1:15-20). The underlying challenge that is found in Mark 12 relates to Jesus’ authority. Jesus’ right to rule provides a flash point for the tensions that we see in the...  Read More

“If you do not get anything else right, then make sure you get this right,” are words that seminary professors would utter with urgency when they were trying to teach me and my fellow classmates a central truth. I gave them my full focus because they usually followed that statement with, “This material will be on the final exam!” Mark provides us with thirteen verses to open his gospel, and he is ...  Read More

Pastor Josef Mohr (1792-1848) was a December babe, born in Salzburg, Austria, where he was reared to love Christ and his Church. As a young man, he entered the seminary, where he was ordained in 1815. He then began to minister to the villagers in several hamlets nearby. His work was intense, for there was unending misery in those days.A string of volcanoes had been erupting in Asia for many years ...  Read More