July 1998

Praying For The Church

No matter how long I have been leading public prayer (and it has been over 25 years now), it always makes me nervous. It is an awesome responsibility to go before our God in prayer on behalf of the entire church, and I do not want to make mistakes, nor do I want to recite some cliched set of phrases which connote a shallow, surface faith in God. more...

How To Teach Your Father The Truth

[Note: my brother-in-law is Ed Good, a fine Gospel preacher who works with the church in Seminole, Texas. He and I talked at length about the difficulty of a grown child teaching his parents the gospel. Ed emailed me the thoughts that make up the article below. I had expected to work with them, add some of my own and make an article out of it. After reading Ed's thoughts I decided they spoke powerfully to this matter and stood on their own. They may be a bit "rough" as Ed didn't send them for publication but I believe you will be benefitted by them. MR] more...

Dealing With Suffering

"Picture this: more...

Christians And The Sexual Relationship

Admit it that is the catchiest title you have seen in a while, isn't it? We live in a world that is seemingly captive to the sexual impulse. In such a time as this it is vital that Christian adults understand clearly the teaching of scripture regrading this sacred relationship. To hide our heads in the sand and hope the perversions and lust of our time will simply go away is hopelessly naive. Let's turn to the scriptures to see what God has to say about the physical side of the marriage relationship. more...

Striving For Unity: Dont't Cross A Fence!

It has been almost 20 years since I last was there, but I still remember the best lesson I ever learned while hunting. My family and some friends leased some land in the hill country of Texas for over a decade. Besides the usual admonitions about gun safety and hunting regulations, there was one simple, unbreakable rule: Do not, under any circumstances, cross a fence. more...

The Preacher's Pen

"Dressing badly can be taken as contempt for other people or not being serious. Clothing is a way to show others that you have respect and consideration for others and the situation at hand. If you have respect for the church, for example, you don't show up in shorts and a T-shirt on Sunday morning. And if you have a reasonable sensibility about the traditions of the theater, you wouldn't wear cut-offs and flip-flops to a Broadway play." more...