When grace replaces guilt and fear...
When relationship outweighs behavior...
When church involvement becomes meaningless rituals...
When you refuse to live in fear of what others might think or say...
When rejecting others over dogma or doctrine becomes sickening...
And when you want to be a simple human being accepting and loving all the other human beings...
The only thing left is a carpenters son saying Come Follow Me and that makes all of the difference.
Church is a great place to find friends and fellowship with fellow believers. It is a great place to study the history and doctrines of the Christian faith. It is a great place to find a way to serve others. And can become almost a family to us.
But the church is not the best place to discover and develop a real, close and individualized relationship with Christ. That happens inside the human heart.
Read MoreMy incurable addiction to people-watching resulted in me spending most of an afternoon in a dress shop so expensive I don’t think there was a single item there that I could buy without a loan or selling one of my children. It actually became an epiphany for me. I watched some very intelligent and talented women whose lives had been consumed by the opinions of others shop for clothes to wear to events they did not want to attend in order to impress people, many of whom they did not like and some they did not even know. I came away with what I think are two major truths about life as we know it.
Read MoreMy friend Grady Nutt died in a plane crash in November 1982. Now, almost forty years later, I still think of him and missing him has never stopped. He was the most creative storyteller I have ever known. He made his living as a religious entertainer and was part of the cast on Hee Haw for several years.
Grady did not preach normal sermons, he told Biblical stories in unusual ways that made their meaning come alive.
Read MoreA woman in her seventies showed up early to the first night of a grief seminar for grieving parents. She was not sure she should be there but the leader welcomed her, and since they had time he asked her about her loss.
She said “fifty years ago I gave birth to a stillborn son. Almost immediately my husband buried the body somewhere and on his return said that it was over and done with and we were not to speak of it again. I named my son Tommy.
Read MoreIn 1956 at 24 years of age, I was moving into the parsonage of the First Baptist Church in the city where I had graduated from college three months before. As I was carrying things into the house a professor from the college walked back-and-forth with me telling me that his wife was having an affair. Ready or not and, without my intention, I had become a counselor. I do not claim that title.
Read MoreJust as I turned on the television a beautiful young woman stood at the podium dressed in a gorgeous yellow coat, her hair perfectly formed and her inner beauty glowing even brighter than her smile. Then she began to read her poem. What a brilliant mind. What a wondrous way with words. What a master of communications. I think I am in love, but I am also sad.
Read MoreIt may sound pious to say, “Christ is all I need,” but it isn’t what He had in mind. He thinks we need each other and even says “Bear one another’s burdens, if anyone thinks he is too good for that he is fooling himself, he is really a nobody.”
Read MoreI have the joy of participating in a no agenda Zoom group with some other guys. The very first meeting we all agreed that we seemed to have a problem being motivated. Here we are staying home with more down-time than any of us could remember and we each wondered why we were not getting very much done. We could not seem to find ways to self-motivate and get off the couch.
Read MoreHis name will be Sam for this article. He sold parts to auto stores and dealerships and had the perfect personality for the task. A large happy man who would talk to a fence post and joke with the Pope if given a chance.
A District Attorney in Oklahoma City decided to set a trap to round up and try all of the homosexuals in the city and my friend Sam stumbled in while being one of the most non-homosexual people I have ever known.
Read MoreSeptember 24 was on Friday ten years ago and became the longest and saddest day of my life. At seven o’clock that morning a fairly cold and matter-of-fact internist told me my wife had five systems shutting down and they had never been able to save anyone with that many. She went through the list of things they were going to do anyway and left my daughters and me sitting in stunned silence and disbelief. My wife had entered the hospital the night before with what we thought was a case of dehydration.
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