What Have We Done to His Church?
Some time ago, I came across a book that quickly became a much-welcomed addition to my library, J.B. Phillips’ The Young Church in Action. This book, published in 1955, is a translation of the Book of Acts and is a forerunner to his New Testament in Modern English. While I’ve had his New Testament in Modern English translation as part of my library for over 40 years, having The Young Church in Action excites me because this book adds something that wasn’t included in his translation of the entire New Testament, namely, Phillips’ preface to his translation. After reading this preface, I knew...
Blueprint Followers
For many, it seems logical to think that a bottle of Wite-Out is always in close proximity when reading their Bible. (Wite-Out is a white liquid product sold for users to smear over mistakes or things that they don't want to see or have seen.) You know what I'm talking about. When something appears while reading their Bible that doesn't align with their denomination's doctrine or the way their mama's mama's mama understood the subject, out comes the Wite-Out to remove the scripture from their sight, never to be read again. Here is one of those what I call Wite-Outers —“These signs will...
Quotes from One of God’s Generals
Please do me a favor — yawn with me a couple of times. It's 4:40 a.m., and I'm sitting in front of my computer, writing this post that will be published in a little over an hour. I had prepared another post to send out this morning, but with the recent news of the passing of one of God's generals, Brother Jimmy Swaggart, I felt it would be appropriate to honor this great man of God. What could fill pages of tributes will be summarized in two sentences: the preaching, teaching, and music of Jimmy Swaggart were and continue to be a significant influence in my life. I owe much to this man of...
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
Let me test your television trivia knowledge. Name this television program based upon this one sentence tagline — “your mission, should you choose to accept it…”. If this question were being asked on the Jeopardy television game show, the music would begin now, and you would grab your marker to write your answer. With the music stopped, allotted time completed, markers down, what would be your answer? Mission: Impossible. You're absolutely correct. Sorry, unlike the television program, no cash prize, boat, or car is awarded for the correct answer. I've mentioned Mission: Impossible in hopes...
Pull Out the Knife and Fork!
When Vickie and I made our first trip to Africa, we got to experience life in the bush for a small portion of the trip. One thing I will never forget about this experience was the first meal we ate upon our arrival, curried goat. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fan of anything that is curried (flavored with hot spices) … never liked it, never will. While I know that the host family had put in great effort to prepare a delicious meal, great as it might have been to the host family, it took every effort on my part to eat the meat. I was not only dealing with the flavor of the curry,...
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