I am still overwhelmed by the warm, generous welcome you extended, both to me and to my family, when we came to Charlotte to meet you at the end of July. Your joy, your energy, and your love for Providence Baptist Church are all contagious...
Read moreWho’s Who and What’s What
At long last, we are finally nearing the end of what has been a brutal slog of an election season that has offered a lot more heat than light, and a lot less substance and civility than this country deserves. It has, at times, felt like the civic...
Read moreThe Moments Before Sunrise
One of my absolute, very favorite moments of the year during my time in Murfreesboro happened every Easter Sunday at about 5:30 in the morning. Throughout Lent, a large cross stood on the lawn in front of the church, similar to the one we have...
Read moreNo Room for Racism, Hatred or Violence
There is no room for racism, hatred, or violence in the church of Jesus Christ. It’s hard to believe that this sentence still needs to be written in 2017—and yet it does, because the demonic power of racism, hatred, and violence still knows how...
Read moreThe Answer We’re Waiting For
We will, no doubt, be hearing a great deal over the coming weeks about the need to keep Christ in Christmas, and so there’s no need for me to belabor that point here. More pressing, perhaps – and certainly easier to lose sight of in this...
Read moreListening for a Change
O Master, let me not seek as much ... to be understood as to understand.From the “Prayer of St. Francis” Just about everyone these days agrees that our collective ability to talk constructively and civilly with one another...
Read moreJourney Through the Wild
There was a popular book called “The Things They Carried” about a bunch of soldiers in Vietnam and what they carried. Bibles, letters, snacks, things that might come in handy. Things that reminded them that they were loved. Things...
Read moreThe Desert
Did you know that Lent parallels the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness without food, while being tempted by the devil? For Christians, Lent is 40 days we spend in a metaphorical wilderness, or a desert as the Bible often explains it, with dry...
Read moreSelf Evident Truths
Racism is sin and black lives matter. Neither one of these convictions should be hard to grasp for people of faith who read the Bible and take Jesus seriously. If we believe, as the book of Genesis tells us, that God created all people in God’s...
Read moreWe All Need Resurrection
The word “lent” isn’t in the Bible, but the concept is. The word itself comes from the Old English and German words for “spring” and “long.” During the 40 or so days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, the days grow longer as we enter into spring. We...
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