Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
How You Can Help People Overwhelmed by Life
Two-year-old Jonah was from one of Kentucky's poorest counties. During his prolonged stay in the hospital for meningitis and seizures, the staff noticed that the entire family of five was at the hospital all day, every...
Why You Need to Thank Someone “ Right Now
What is your latest accomplishment? Who helped you achieve it? Who recommended you? Who taught you the skills? Who encouraged you? Who opened your eyes to the possibilities? Who opposed you and caused you to work...
Around the sea and back again … Israel2013 Travelblog4
Walking on the cardo of Scythopolis, with the Beth She'an tel in the background.Pentecost Sunday began, for the Campbell University Divinity School study tour group, with a drive down the western shore of the Sea of...
A long and fruitful day … Israel2013 Travelblog3
Saturday began for me with a quiet walk along an abutment running into the Sea of Galilee, with the Nof Ginosar hotel swimming area to the left, and a shallow natural inlet, overgrown with bamboo and other vegetation,...
A northern loop … Israel2013 Travelblog2
Friday for Campbell University's "Bible Land Study Tour" began on the Mount of Beatitudes with an outdoor devotion led by Nathan Morton and surrounded by flowers of many types on the beautifully landscaped grounds...
Domestic Violence Thrives Behind Closed Doors
Recently, I had the fun of going to Glen Lea Elementary School in Richmond, Va., with the staff from First Baptist Church and surprising the teachers with a show of appreciation. We knocked on classroom doors. When the...
Jesus Truth Minus Jesus Way Won’t Equal Jesus Life
In a lecture I heard several years back, Eugene Peterson borrowed from John 14:6 in which Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life." Peterson said, "The Jesus truth, only when it is wedded to the Jesus way,...
Political Abuse of Power Calls for Moral Critique
The White House's spinning of the Benghazi attack, the IRS' targeting of the Tea Party, and the Department of Justice's spying on the Associated Press all disclose varying degrees of the abuse of power. Responding to...
Saved
A sermon by David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., May 12, 2013 Acts 16:16-34 It’s not easy to explain why the word “saved” has been such a problem for me. After all, it’s a very positive word...
A Mother’s Influence
A sermon by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ar., May 12, 2013 Proverbs 6:20-22; Mark 7:24-30 We didn’t have much money...
Parenting Parents
A sermon by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky. May 12, 2013 Judges 13:2-8 Mothers’ Day This morning our attention is drawn to one of Israel’s folk heroes, Samson. He was such an important...
You Won’t Be Disappointed
A Sermon by Howard Batson, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Amarillo, Tx. Romans 10:1-21 May 12, 2013 Let me start the sentence – you finish it in your own mind. “I have been disappointed by....” I can only imagine that...
The Acts of an Easter People: Ceaseless Praise
A sermon by Jim Somerville, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., May 12, 2013 The Seventh Sunday of Easter Acts 16:16-34 Can you believe it’s still Easter? That’s not what it says on most calendars. Most...
All’s Lost, All’s Found
A sermon by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo. Acts 16:16-34 May 12, 2013 Psalm 97; John 17:20-26; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Sooner or later life teaches us we make sense of the...
Open
A sermon by Dr. David Hughes, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C. May 5, 2013 Psalm 67; Acts 16:6-15 How open are you? How open are you, really? How open are you to new or different ideas? Of course it’s...
Where Jesus walked … (Israel2013 – Travelblog 1)
Protestant types love the Holy Land for many reasons, largely for the landscapes, the sense of God's presence in the land, the feeling that when we walk the main street of ancient Capernaum or cross the worn floor of...
Loving Others Requires Sustained, Patient Practice
There are things we can't know instantly or do easily. We have to grow into them. Our capacities have to develop and our abilities have to expand. Quite often, practice and experience often precede skill or wisdom. ...
The Day-To-Day Racism That Many of Us Don’t See
Living in the South during Jim Crow days, though certainly less restricted than during the time before emancipation, was fraught with danger for people of African heritage. Even though I grew up in those days, my...
The Call to Leadership is Often Uncomfortable
Being a leader is a calling, often a very uncomfortable one. Recently, I have read several books and articles about leadership that have caused me to reflect on my own thoughts and assumptions about what...
U.K. Christians: Release Last Briton from Guantanamo
Human rights campaigners in Wales are urging Foreign Secretary William Hague to make a fresh public plea for the return of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident detained in Guantanamo Bay. One of more than 100...
The Fiction of Evangelical Friction Over Immigration
A New York Times article by Julia Preston, published on April 13, reports a shift of opinions on immigration policy among evangelical Protestants in the United States. In her article, Preston suggests that there is a...