Immovable Love

Proverbs 3:3-4 – “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”
The Bible says that when we come to Christ old things are past away and all things [...]

God’s Got Your Back

Proverbs 2:7b-8 – “He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.”
What a great promise! Basically, if you do what you know God wants you to do, He’ll get your back. Does that mean you won’t suffer difficult things? That’s not [...]

1. (John 5:1-9) – The Surprising Places You Find Jesus

John 5:2-3 – “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed.”

Some people in the world would never believe that God would want to have a relationship with them. When they here about God, [...]

2. (John 5:1-9) – Waiting for a Miracle

John 5:5 – “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”
One of the hardest difficulties I’ve ever faced in my life was suffering from a chronic daily headache for about twelve years. The intensity of the pain would go back and forth from unbearable to livable. My battles with headaches all together [...]

3. (John 5:1-9) – Do You Want to be Healed?

John 5:6 – “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’”
Does it bother you that Jesus asked him this question? What sense does it make to ask a crippled man if he’d like not to be [...]

4. (John 5:1-9) – It’s Easy to Give Up

John 5:7 – “The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Why do you think this man gave such an answer? Why didn’t he just say “yes”? I believe it’s because there [...]

5. (John 5:1-9) – One Word = New Life

John 5:8-9 – “Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.”
Jesus spoke one sentence and the man’s life was changed forever. Thirty-eight years of being crippled, depressed, lonely, outcast, and [...]

Where Wisdom Comes From

Proverbs 2:6-7a – “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright…”
The Lord gives wisdom. These days there is much emphasis on higher education. The more degrees one has, the more wise and able they must be, so thinks the world. Unfortunately, so thinks [...]

So. Baptists Now a ‘Declining Denomination’

Most of my life I have been affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention starting at the age of 15 when we moved to Alabama and joined the First Baptist Church of Trussville. From there I spent a number of years ministering in SBC churches around the country. Because I have a long history with the [...]

God’s Action Plan for Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-5 – “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden [...]