I believe that the crucial issue of our day is the question of authority. Who, if anybody, has a right to tell us what to do? How to live? What is right and what is wrong?
If we are facing a moral dilemma, where can we turn to find an answer? Are there any absolutes in our world today? Is there anything about which we...
We pulled into a parking lot of a Christian bookstore on Friday morning in Del Rio and immediately noticed a huge black sign hanging from the door that read, “Closed.” We pulled up closer to the store to find out when it opened, and we saw that there were two additional lines written on the sign. These lines read,...
Sometime ago I read a slogan that captured my imagination. It said, “The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing.” It is talking to us about the priorities of life. There is an experience in the gospel of Mark...
Perhaps you have heard the story about the preacher who was delivering a deep theological sermon one day when his wife scribbled a note on a piece of paper, folded it up, and handed it to the usher who delivered it to the pastor while he was preaching. The pastor saw on the note the word “KISS.” He thought that wa...
Religion—I mean the wrong kind of religion—is at the root of many of the problems in our world today. Consider for example the conflicts in Ireland, Lebanon, and in Iran. It has always been true that the wrong kind of religion does more harm than good. Even Jesus warned us about this. If you have been with us for...
When Jesus wanted to teach us some of his most important truths, he chose some of the most unlikely people as examples.
For example, in Matthew 18, the disciples came to him asking, “Lord, who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus put a little child on his knee and he said, “Except you b...
There once was a little boy who stayed with his grandmother and she sent him to church. She was too old to go herself, but when he returned home she always wanted a report on the sermon. And especially was she interested in the boy remembering the preacher’s text. He went to church one Sunday and it was as cold as a ref...
The Church of England once had a great debate over two of the doctrines of our faith—the virgin birth of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
More than 30 years ago, when I was a student at Baylor University, there was a religious sect settled in that part of the country. They announced that on a given day the world would come to an end and Jesus would return. So they sold their possessions, their land, their houses, and they moved up on a high hill waiting for Jes...