As I write these words, I am (as they say where I come from) “smack dab in the middle” of a couple of anniversaries. July 6 marked the 62nd anniversary of my birth. I don’t remember the event, but I suppose it was significant—to my mother, at least. She had a very difficult labor and delivery and I was born by caesarian section. Although she died when I was only six years old, I can feel her love today. As a little boy I sensed she was crazy about me. The little boy in me today is still conscious of her warm affection.  more...

While we remember our honored dead this week, we must remind ourselves why they died. We must refresh our collective and corporate memories and educate our children.  more...

In my final message in the HOMEFIRES series, I talked about four stages of married love - Young Love, the Middle Years, the Empty Nest, and the Golden Years. But there is another stage that some of us will experience.  more...

America sets aside a day to honor mothers and motherhood, but our actions the rest of the year tell another story. We really do not value mothers as God does. We do not understand how important - how critical - a mother’s role is in shaping the consciences and values and characters of children. Our culture respects woman as a producer and a consumer, not as a bearer and nurturer of children.  more...

I remember the tumultuous ‘60’s antiwar protests. One of the best-known slogans during those days was,” MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR.” That’s pretty good advice for married couples. You’re on the same team. The enemies are selfishness, creeping separatism, and emotional opacity. Fight the enemies of marital intimacy. You can have a “BEST” marriage.  more...

All of us need two things in our lives: models and mentors. We need someone to show us what it looks like to have a successful marriage and to be good parents and to live a consistent Christian life. That's the MODEL. Then we need the MENTOR - someone who will walk with us, hold us accountable, and encourage us to keep on.  more...

Strong marriages are essential for strong families. Strong families are essential for rearing children of character. People of character are essential for the welfare of a community or nation.  more...

“I know without a doubt that the only way I have overcome the evil in my life, both my own sin and the pain of losing my mother, is by running to Jesus, the author of mercy.  . . .The freedom you receive from seeking Jesus far outweighs anything that this world could offer.  Your temporary selfish desires and understandings quickly fade, and you see the possibility of an eternity surrounded by love and joy and peace.”  more...

Our Savior died on a cross.  On Good Friday the representatives of the Roman government nailed his hands and his feet to that tree fixed atop Golgotha.  His mission was not then and not now to eliminate poverty and disease.  His purpose for His life was to die so that His children could be saved.  more...

How do we move from the state of the “wretched man” to the state of “more than victorious”?  I have to admit to sharing his dilemma.  more...

Bring your Bible to church.  Open the Bible when the pastor or pulpit guest is preaching.  We put the scriptures on the IMAG screen to help those who do not have Bibles and to help move the message along without waiting for people to locate a scripture.  But you don't have to depend solely on the IMAG.  You can bring your Bible and open it to the text and follow along when the pastor teaches.  Then you can check the passage after the message and apply the Scripture to your own life.  more...

These six false gospels are much too prevalent in our world, even in the Bible belt.  There are some, however, who still believe that the Word of God is sufficient and the Spirit of God is adequate to change lives and to transform culture.  I’m one of them.  more...

There are only two kinds of Christians:  those who are filled with themselves and those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Many of us spent time at the altar during HEARTLAND dealing with issues that have prevented the Spirit from controlling our lives.  God has spoken.  Many critical decisions -- about sin and lack of discipline and failure to surrender -- have been made.  Many of us have crowned Christ the Lord of our lives once again.  That is revival!  Are you experiencing revival?  more...

I’m old enough to remember when theaters forced African Americans to sit in the balconies, public transportation authorities required them to sit in the back of the buses or train cars, and restaurants served them only if they came to the back door.  The motto of most businesses in the 50’s and 60’s in my neck of the woods could very well have been, “If you’re black, go to the back.”  more...

Revival praying is not prayer for revival; it is prayer that precipitates revival.  It is prayer that responds to the conviction of the Spirit which has exposed coldness, callousness, and carelessness.  It is prayer that “owns up” to the indictment that the Spirit has leveled against the people.  more...

"The New Normal" means that events have so changed the cultural or economic or social or religious landscape (depending on the subject being discussed) that what was "normal" is no longer the norm; there is a "new normal," a new environment of actualities and expectations and opportunities and threats and possibilities.  more...

I got on my Harley the other day to go get the cobwebs out of my mind.  It’s amazing how clear my mind can be when I feel the rush of wind in my face and there’s nothing between me and the clouds but God’s clean air and a bird now and then.  As it so often has happened in my experience, when I get my mind cleansed of clutter, God speaks with a clarity that is stunning.  more...

As a young preacher I often listened to Southern Gospel music on Sunday mornings while preparing to go to church.  I listened to the Florida Boys, the Inspirations, the Happy Goodmans, and many others.  I didn’t have many options back then—I think we got three channels on our black and white television.  more...

I met Avery Willis in the early 1980’s at a conference where he was teaching his discipleship program, MASTERLIFE.  I was impressed by his deep spirituality, warm spirit, and unpretentious intelligence.  I was also gripped by his message.  more...

Just this week (February 1, 2010), Pope Benedict XVI criticized British laws which offer special protection for homosexual behavior as a “violation of natural law.”  Those who are knowledgeable of recent political battles for Supreme Court appointments are familiar with the hotly-contested debate about the issue of natural law.  more...

There’s an old adage, “Believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you see.”  There’s more truth in that than meets the eye—or the ear.  more...

If you've just arrived from Mars, you may not know that the New Orleans Saints defeated the Minnesota Vikings last night for the NFC Championship title.  The Saints’ slogan all year has been “Who Dat,” which is shorthand for  the Southern/Creole/Cajun/African American slang “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints”  more...

For 40 years I've heard that Christianity is not rules, it is relationship.  OK.  But some teachers have objected to any rules, any "thou shalt nots" as if relationship precludes all rules.  We are led by some to believe that, if we love Jesus, we can dispense with "don'ts” and “thou shalt not's"; and we are often told that some parents are brutes who impose clear rules for moral behavior and obedience upon their children.  more...

I have written and spoken often about the perils of the "Word of Faith" movement.  This misguided and misguiding group not only teaches what has been called the "prosperity gospel," it also distorts the biblical idea of the curse of sin (and Satanic curses).  more...

There are several reasons that I have concluded that not all church growth is of God.  One of the biggest reasons is that much church growth is the product of false teaching given by false teachers to shallow listeners who want to be entertained more than they want to be changed.  more...

If you’re as old as I (older than red dirt), then you’ll agree with what I’m about to say.  Mirrors don’t tell the truth.  I’ll say it even plainer - mirrors lie.   Candid photographs, on the other hand, tell the dirty, rotten truth.  Here’s how I know.  more...

Why did some Southern Baptists object to the label, "evangelical"? I believe there are three primary rea­sons.  more...

When I was about 7 years old (circa 1955), my dad took me to visit my great uncle Willie Day in Jayess, Mississippi.  Uncle Willie was a farmer, and I remember eating fried chicken for breakfast, along with eggs and ham and grits and biscuits and red-eye gravy.  I remember the farm animals and the tractor and cultivating implements and the barn and the wonderful smells of freshly-plowed earth.  more...

Both John and Charles Wesley, founders of the movement that became known as Methodism, claimed that their followers were distinguished, among other things, by how they faced death.  This book is the account of the deaths of many of those early Methodists, including John and Charles Wesley.  The stories are often inspiring, sometimes melancholy, but always informative of the theology and practice of the original Wesleyans.  more...

Pastors and teachers have attempted to explain the Trinity by finding analogies that can illustrate the truth.  I am not one of them.  In my opinion, there is no analogy in our experience that can adequately explain the three-in-oneness of our God.  more...

Don't misunderstand. I do not expect quantum physics to prove the doctrine of the Trinity, for instance. But that foundational truth of Christianity, that God is both three and one, appears to be more in harmony with the essence of our universe than we before imagined.  more...

We need this book today more than ever, but not because people will not fill our churches even when we are spiritually empty. We need this book today because a Sovereign God has inextricably linked the persistent praying of His people to the manifestation of His life-changing power and sin-killing presence.  more...

If you are concerned about where we are headed as a nation, read this book.  Then do something. more...

John Avant's new book is both provocative and disturbing.  He writes, "I believe in Jesus.  I love Jesus.  But I'm done with 'Christianity’. . . My journey away from Christianity has not led me away from Jesus.  In fact, it has led me straight to him.  I really believe that if we live as though God is real, Christianity as we know it will die.  It's terminally ill, and I can't see a cure"  more...

A book given to me last week by a representative of the International Missions Board has provided additional insight into the need for churches to become disciple-makers and not just recruiters of new members.  more...

Edmond’s First Baptist is committed to doing partnership missions by establishing churches and supporting existing mission work through volunteer teams.  We need to continually evaluate what we do to make sure that we are properly motivated and trained to have the greatest positive impact.  more...

W. Cleon Skousen was the founder of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a university professor and the author of 23 books, including six college texts.  His book, THE 5000 YEAR LEAP, should be required reading for every high school student in America.  more...

Churches that have neglected church discipline for decades will not be able to move quickly back toward a more biblical and baptistic form of corrective discipline.  Much wisdom and patience is required for any who would seek to do so.  more...

I have just had the pleasure of spending a couple of afternoons with Tom Nettles’ new biography of the founder of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Every preacher, involved lay person, or history buff who cares about the beginnings of our Southern Baptist Convention will thank Dr. Nettles for this splendid contribution to Baptist history.  more...

FINALLY - someone has had the nerve to say what needs to be said about “America’s slide into socialism.”  Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina hit a home run with his new book, SAVING FREEDOM.  Every American should read this book and somebody needs to shout it from the rooftops.  more...

On Saturday, July 4,  our nation will once again celebrate the adoption of one of the greatest documents in human history, the Declaration of Independence.  We've all read it and studied it, but the words seem so foreign to our modern thinking and acting.  more...

Dead churches don't cry.  Dead Christians don't cry.  They don't cry in brokenness for their own sin; neither do they weep for the brokenness of a world spinning out of control in rebellion against God.  In an entertainment-crazed world that demands that every second be filled with activity and every message be tailored for each person’s individual tastes, it is tempting for churches to become social clubs and for preachers to become stand-up comedians or ambassadors of warm-fuzzy feelings.  more...

Does Jesus save us if we do not honor Him as Lord?  Another way of asking the question is:  can we accept Jesus as Savior and not submit to Him as Lord?  more...

At EFBC we are asking the question, “What does it mean to be a member of this congregation?”  We have answered that membership involves covenant, and covenant involves accountability and responsibility.  more...

The adoption of our new Church Covenant has raised some questions that I feel the need to address.  more...

Most of us today do not often think of God as beautiful. A quick survey of theolog­ical textbooks revealed what I expected: the topic is seldom dis­cussed. Yet, the great mystics of the church often focused their musings on this attribute of God.  more...

In an earlier blog I recommended  Hank Hanegraaff’s writings which expose the fallacies and untruths of the so-called “Word of Faith” teachers.  In this blog I want to reproduce an item I found in my research recently.  I don’t know who the author is or was - other than his name.  He nailed it.  I’ve tried to say this over the past several decades; but I never said it as clearly and powerfully as this.  more...

God is the enemy of the nations (and this includes America) who refuse to honor the Son - the “anointed one” who has been enthroned to rule the nations.   If we love America, we must pray for revival.  We must pray for God to glorify Himself in this nation.  We must care more about God’s honor than we do about our portfolios.  more...

Enemies of the Christian faith have said that the resurrection of Christ was a hoax perpetrated by Peter and the other disciples.  Hoax?   Not likely.  You don’t die for what you know is a lie.  more...

Lest anyone think that grace comes by any means other than faith, Baptists are quick to say that the Lord's Supper is "just a symbol."  There is no automatic dispensing of grace or forgiveness when we take the bread and wine.  The Lord’s Supper, we believe, is a memorial meal and a time of rededication to our covenant relationship with God based upon the finished work of Christ at Calvary.  It is also a time of renewing our covenant with our local congregation. more...