Articles

Man sets foot on the surface of the moon!  Apollo 11, July 20, 1969. Twenty-one years old, along with 94% of Americans, I watched on black & white TV, Neil Armstrong stepping onto lunar soil. "One small step for man, One giant leap for Mankind." Before that, because it was Sunday when they landed, Buzz Aldrin brought along communion.  The first thing eaten on the moon was the Lords' Supp...

V.E. Howard, well known preacher for the International Gospel Hour, who preached on the radio for fifty years, punctuated his sermons with the sobering question, “Are You Listening?” Despite the reputation he gained for that preaching pattern, have we appreciated the appropriateness and pertinence of what he was doing?  In Jeremiah 7, God “rejected and abandoned “ His people  (v.29), men...

Of course it was part of God’s great plan to redeem man, but how was it that people came to hate him so much that they begged the Romans to crucify him? Simply put, Jesus made people uncomfortable, because he told the truth. In a world that hates truth, truth is hate. Folks were told that believing Jesus would get them thrown out of the synagogue (John 9:22 & 12:42).  Those who loved the appr...

The first question people ask when they find out that I’m a minister is the name of the church that I preach for and then, without fail, follow up with the query, “How big is your congregation?” It seems as if there is something about the size of the congregation I serve that somehow gives them insight into who I am and probably my abilities as a minister. When it comes to judging the value of any...

Think for a moment...Have you ever had a child say or do something in a public surrounding that made you want to dig a hole and pull the ground in over you?  It could be your child, or grandchild, cousin, some relative or maybe someone unrelated to you at all.  The words or actions at that moment may come from an innocent child, but  we, with our extreme maturity, don't know how to ...

We have all most likely heard the phrase, “Communication is Key.” It is usually connected to an intimate relationship like a marriage or a friendship. The phrase is also used in most job places. Now that I’m involved in ministry, I realize it applies to the Church as well. My wife and I used to think we were good communicators. We found out we were good “assumers” and it tore us apart. We ended up...

I have been thinking lately about what our individual roles are in the Church. Are we working? I seem to have tunnel vision toward this subject of doing Kingdom works and just regular works that come with being involved in church. What is the need and how do we fulfill it? As I’ve been thinking about ways to get members involved, I’ve started to ask myself, “How can it be made simple?” I mean, wha...

On Sunday, July 7th our new Summer education quarter for adult Bible classes begin.  On Wednesday nights we will have the third edition of “The Main Lesson in____” series with different speakers coming each week to summarize and explain what they believe is the main teaching of each book of the Bible.  We have a great line of speakers beginning with Howard Norton, kicking off the series ...

“The supreme test of any civilization is whether or not it can teach men to be good fathers”- Margaret Meade, cultural anthropologist “Every social ill that we are dealing with is directly or indirectly related to fatherlessness”- Otto Kelly, executive director of Crisis Pregnancy Center, Reno Nevada Do the above quotes reflect the truth?  Consider the statistics below… 1 out of every 3 child...

You won’t see that headline in any news broadcast or newspaper, but Oklahoma has the attention of our nation.  Tragedies normally bring out the best and/or the worst in people.  The recent storms again have shown one of God’s teachings and Oklahoman’s have dazzled the nation with it – “foot washing”! Commentators, reporters, networks continue amazed with the “caring”, “concern” and the n...

Have you ever used a socket wrench? It is a tool of varying lengths and sizes that holds a socket on its end according to your need. Wrenches are pretty standard, but there are many different kinds and styles of sockets because it is imperative to have the correct fit for the job at hand. If the socket is not the correct fit, the job will be much harder to accomplish. Yet, just having the correct ...

Bunker Hill, Fork McHenry, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, the Argonne Forest, Normandy, Truk, Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, Ia Drang, Fallujah, are just a few of the places where American servicemen have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  We remember those who’ve fallen this weekend.  That’s what Memorial Day is for. I am convinced, however, that if we could speak with those who have pa...

Today we honor our seniors who are graduating from high school as well as those from our congregation who are graduating from college.  These are men and women who have completed this great task and are now entering into a new phase of their life.  We all have these moments of transition in life.  Sometimes our transitions of life are big but other times they are small.  But re...

“Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living”, Genesis 3:20 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you”, Exodus 20:12 “Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father”, Leviticus 19:3 “Who is like the Lord our God…. He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyf...

Ever wonder why God wants us to obey Him?  What exactly does God receive from our faithfulness and obedience?  We say that we want to please God and do so by avoiding sin or making a sacrifice in our service to others but how does our improved morality or increased service advantage God?  He doesn’t need anything nor does our goodness add any advantage to Him—He’s above it all...

I’m going on vacation, to relieve my tired mind,  I can’t wait to start forgetting, all the stuff I’ll leave behind My job with all its stress will be the first thing that will go, and maybe then those constant bills that to my mailbox flow I’ll forget about those people who always bring me strife, their caustic negativity is just a blight on life I’ll turn off tv, twitter & surely facebook t...

Where I grew up, when someone died, older men would simply take off work and younger men would skip a day of school to dig the grave.  It was my privilege to help dig several graves.  Almost all of them were for people I knew. Grave digging starts our relatively easy.  Someone with some know-how and experience marks out the rectangular shape of the grave on the surface in the exact ...

Andrew Connally (as given by his wife, Claudene, in her book, I Walked By His Side, pp.103ff) told of a heart-touching moment, when he stood near Lake Nyasa (Africa) in the midst of “The graves of Bandawe.”              Here were some twenty three missionaries who left Scotland in the 1870’s with a burning desire to establish the Church o...

Almost everyone I know has spent some time in a hospital and for a variety of problems.  Once we have been diagnosed with something, we agree to be admitted to the care of that institution.  There are doctors, nurses, medications, and health equipment to aid our needs.  And even though it greatly affects our routine and our lives, we want it fixed.  We then accept the care and ...

I would like to thank all the teachers, helpers and cooridnators who have served during the winter quarter (January-April).  Our education program is the ministry that requires the most volunteers (of at least 40) and functions year round.    With it we train the young and prepare them to receive the gospel when they are old enough; we strengthen Christian families with our you...