Our practice for forgiveness to others reflects what we think and understand about God’s forgiveness. When you get to the heart of the Gospel it is all about forgiveness. Because of Jesus sacrifice and death on the cross we can be forgiven when we accept Him as...
I will never forget seeing Mary for the first time at our informational meeting in the fellowship hall at Stroud, First Baptist Church. She attended to hear about the mission trip that her church would be taking since 1993. I wrongly assumed that she was there to...
Mom, I’m so glad our life isn’t boring. We were buckling our seatbelts in the plane, preparing for takeoff. Our family was in the middle of discerning and confirming a major ministry move, and it required several trips back and forth out of state. My teenage...
My Father and mother moved to Shawnee a couple years ago after their house flooded a couple of times back in Louisiana. One of the great but problematic things of their move was the consolidation of tools! My dad and I are both “wannabe” handymen. So, we have many...
We southern Baptist preachers often either avoid the Old Testament or relegate it to the kid’s ministry. As the professor of Old Testament at Your Oklahoma Baptist University, I engage with students who have an Old Testament knowledge that is severely lacking the “so...
I will never forget seeing Mary for the first time at our informational meeting in the fellowship hall at Stroud, First Baptist Church. She attended to hear about the mission trip that her church would be taking since 1993. I wrongly assumed that she was there to...
Living at peace with God, ourselves, and others is essential for our witness for Christ. Everything God does He does in love. He is always working things out for the good. Even in the midst of conflict, if we allow Him to, He will work things out for our good. Acts...
I will never forget the first time I took a team to Santo Thomas, Nicaragua. We had an amazing medical team, lots of medicine to help the people, and a great VBS team with all the supplies. Everything was pretty perfect. We were the first team to ever go into this...
In the mid-’90s, Paul Powell of the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention wrote a book titled “Taking the Stew Out of Stewardship.” While the book was well circulated, many pastors still find themselves in a “stew” regarding teaching and preaching about...
In the book Discovering Relational Wisdom by Ken Sande we are called to serve by living the Acronym SERVE S is for SMILE. E is for explore and empathize R is for Reconcile V is for Value E is for encourage. We are called to put wind under the wings of every person we...
