Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
How to Cook a Turkey
A sermon delivered by Robert Browning, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Frankfort, Ky., on November 18, 2012. Psalm 100 Little did you know you would come to church today to learn how to cook a turkey. I try my best each...
Investing in God’s Future
A sermon delivered by Michael Cheuk, Senior Minister, University Baptist Church, Charlottesville, Va., on November 18, 2012. Matthew 25:14-30 Today is Stewardship Commitment Sunday, the culmination of our stewardship...
Great Themes of the Bible: Abundance
A sermon delivered by Joel Snider, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Rome, Ga., on November 18, 2012. John 6:1-15 Meditation Text: The greatest lesson a soul has to learn is that God, and God alone, is enough for all its...
The Pillars of the Earth
A sermon delivered by Randy Hyde, Pastor, Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., on November 18, 2012. 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-25 Washington...
Singing Hannah’s Gospel
A sermon delivered by Wendell Griffen, Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Ark., on November 18, 2012. 1 Samuel 2:1-10 2Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My...
A Woman Deeply Troubled
A sermon delivered by Jim Somerville, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., on November 18, 2012. The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 1 Samuel 1:4-20 When the curtain rises on the Book of 1 Samuel it rises...
Waiting in Love, Not Anxiety
A sermon delivered by Keith Herron, Pastor, Holmeswood Baptist Church, Kansas City, Mo., on November 18, 2012. The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Mark 13:1-8 I Samuel 1:4-20; I Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-14...
Why Can’t Churches Be More Like Pecan Trees?
While walking around in a market in Cieneguilla, Peru, I noticed small bags of pecans hanging up for sale. There, amid many kinds of fruit I couldn't identify, was a fruit I can walk out of my office and pick up in...
Rebel Military Displaces Tens of Thousands in Congo
Baptists in Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are urging the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) to assist people displaced by the conflict in the African country. The rebel military group, March...
Will Obama’s ’09 Cairo Speech Bear Fruit in 2nd Term?
On June 4, 2009, about eight months after he took office for his first term, President Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world from Cairo, Egypt. His remarks were titled "A New Beginning" and were delivered from the...
Worship by proxy
The annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature is a delightful opportunity for biblical scholars to get together and talk to each other in a language only they understand, for the most part -- and sometimes...
Baseball Book Covers the Bases on Japan, WWII
In November 1934, the U.S. Major League Baseball All-Stars were on a noteworthy tour to Japan. The story of that tour is engagingly told in Robert K. Fitts' new book, "Banzai Babe Ruth." Actually, Fitts' book is about...
2 Antidotes to Cure Cynicism from Your Life
"Forgiveness" is my wife's favorite song on my new CD (click here to listen to the song). The chorus goes: It's impossible to give forgivenessIt's even worse to have to askIf letting go is the answerLiving like it's...
Baptist Chaplain Supports Prisons Week on British TV
A Baptist minister appeared on "Songs of Praise," a long-running religious program on British television, recently as churches across the United Kingdom were encouraged to focus on everything related to prisons. Rev....
Your Choice on Black Friday: Shopping or Listening
The Price House, built in 1795, is a historic site in Spartanburg County in South Carolina. My great-grandparents owned the property. My parents as a young couple did much of their courting there. My son, Michael,...
British Baptists Dispel 12 Interfaith Myths
"God only works through Christians." "Other faiths only engage in interfaith relations to convert us." "We can't work alongside people of other faiths." These are just three of the 12 myths of interfaith engagement...
Muslim Writer Calls Out “Irresponsible” Mosque Sermons
An Abu Dhabi newspaper columnist wrote a piece on irresponsible mosque sermons, and it deserves recognition from the Christian community. About a sermon delivered at one of the main mosques in Doha, Qatar, Hassan...
Eat the BBQ first
Wilder Tower, Chickamauga NP, by JDPBy John Pierce Age can bring perspective. For example, the U.S. Civil War seemed like ancient history when I was a child and youth. Yet less than a century had passed from the bloody...
In (almost) living color …
I was looking through some examination copies of potential textbooks the other day while planning a course on religion in the Bible and the ancient Near East -- when I noticed that all of the books were some shade of...
“Wreck-It Ralph”
"Wreck-It Ralph" explores what happens in video games after the arcade closes. Like "Toy Story," we see that these characters have a life beyond the action that precedes "Game Over." Ralph, voiced by John C. Reilly, is...
How Diverse Electorate is Good for Everyone
I grew up at a time when the "large stones" were firmly in place (the biblical reference here is Jesus and his crew leaving the temple and the disciples being awed by what they saw around them; see Mark 13:1). Although...