Susan B. Anthony once said, “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires (Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Vol. 2, 384). I have heard lessons and sermons my entire life about the wicked Jewish religious leaders and Romans who opposed Christ. They both knew, and justified, what they were going to do. It is apparen...  Read More

Who do you invite to church table fellowships? I recall an occasion where a church that I served held a semi-formal banquet. The setting was warm, and the church members were in a banquet mood. The room was filled with the scent of lovely food, as well as laughter and conversation among the guests. An unexpected entrance occurred, however, when a homeless man walked in off the street in search of ...  Read More

Joseph Samuel Murrow was born to a Methodist pastor and wife, John and Mary Badger Murrow, on 7 June 1835 and was reared in a devout home. He trusted Christ at age nineteen and joined the Baptist church nearby. Joseph was called to preach and trained for the ministry at Mercer University. At age twenty, he was ordained the same year he proposed and married his bride, Nannie Elizabeth Tatom, of Ful...  Read More

The “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” we must remember, was not first used by Jesus to promote crisis center ministry! I certainly have used it in devotionals for the Baptist Center for Global Concerns’ Mary’s Table ministry, but I am well aware of its deeper significance. If you are like me, then you sense that Luke has a specific purpose in mind when he places this teaching-story in this place. T...  Read More

“He will wipe away every tear . . .” is one of the most chosen passages for a funeral service. I understand why this is the case because of the hope that it inspires in people. R.C. Sproul once said, "Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life” (Sproul, 1-2 Peter, p. 43). This chapter provides not only a powerful closing to John’s vision ...  Read More

One of our most beloved hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” incorporates the words of Lamentation 3:22 into the first verse. What we may not know is that the hymn was penned not because of any catastrophic event, but simply as an outgrowth of the songwriter’s life. Thomas Chisolm was born into a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, in 1866. He did not attend high school or college but became a schoolt...  Read More

I have good and bad news today. The good news is that we have arrived at a central passage in the book of Revelation. Wahoo! The bad news is that it is one of the most difficult passages to interpret in the entire book. Bummer! Nevertheless, if we take the chapter at face value, it will help us to gain a secure footing for a moral application to our lives. We will consider two of the symbols John ...  Read More

“We may be true Christians, really born-again Christians, and yet fail in our love toward other Christians” (Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian, Kindle, loc. 111). The heart of the third letter of John is found in an exhortation to love (vv. 5-8) and a stern warning concerning a glaring lack of the same (vv. 9-10)! John sends the missive to Gaius, confronts Diotrephes, and commends Demet...  Read More

“Believing, then, is directing the hearts’ attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to ‘behold the Lamb of God,’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives,” says A.W. Tozer. The great preacher nails the truth on the head. This claim is precisely what John wished to communicate in the crucifixion account. In my estimation, our focal verse today provides the heart of John’s theolo...  Read More

Between the years 1000 and 1250 several new Christian groups arose in Europe. Men and women, young and old, streamed to settle with others in new communities of faith. Here they lived calmly, prayed intentionally, found joy in simple work, and spent time with God. They had known too much greed, selfishness, injustice, politics, and lifeless worship. They now longed instead to think purely, to expe...  Read More

Ever increasing numbers of older Americans begin a slow walk down “the long gray hallway” years before their symptoms are diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Alzheimer’s, a significant cause of dementia among older people, “is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks of daily living.” ...  Read More

“As the cross is the sign of submission, so the towel is the sign of service” (Richard Foster). The author of the Celebration of Discipline confronts us with our own human frailty when he challenges the viral attitude of superiority that so often infects our hearts in subtle ways. He states that most of us are comfortable with not being the greatest, but we recoil at the thought that we must be t...  Read More