“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15,16 “My, how time flies!” is an expression that most of us have heard. Another year of school has drawn to a close. Children and parents are facing challenges as to how to spend the summer. Some children will enroll in summer school, but even so, there will be more time available to fill with positive activities. Soon, we will be saying, “Where did the summer … [Read more...]
MONA threatens religious freedom in Missouri
MONA is an acronym for the cruelly misleading Missouri Nondiscrimination Act. MONA represents a menacing domestic threat to religious freedom. If it passes it could serve as a mechanism for LGBT people to claim discrimination in a variety of ways, triggering lawsuits against religious organizations and people of faith who want to run their businesses according to the dictates of their faith. Think about a baker who refuses to bake a wedding cake for same-sex couples, a photographer who … [Read more...]
Pray Across Missouri: ‘The Fried Pickle Tour’
This spring, Sharon and I have been on the road to pray with people at Missouri’s county courthouses. It has been an amazing journey to 41 county courthouses where we prayed with some of Missouri’s finest saints. Our goal is all 114 county courthouses and the City of St. Louis. The gatherings were primarily Baptist in composition, but some other evangelical groups participated in the local prayer gatherings. Joining us were county commissioners, assessors, collectors, sheriffs, mayors, … [Read more...]
Calvin & Calvinism
When Martin Luther pinned (or pasted) his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, John Calvin was only 8 years old. By the time Calvin published the first edition of his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536, Ulrich Zwingli—the Reformer of Zurich—had been dead for five years, having been cut down in battle against the city’s Catholic opponents in 1531. Multiple pathways for reform had been carved out across the European landscape before Calvin even entered … [Read more...]
Ken Parker: The Nostalgia of HLGU & Highway 36
It’s easy to become pessimistic, isn’t it? I mean, every time we turn on the television, check the news on the web, read the paper (some of you know what I mean when I say “read the paper”. . . if not, ask your grandparents). We all need things, people, and experiences to help us maintain perspective. I’m afforded the rich opportunity to meet a lot of people and sometimes have the chance to represent Jesus and our church in some really great places. Such was the case last Wednesday. I had … [Read more...]
John Calvin: A ministry of Word and Spirit
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 13th column in a year-long series leading up to the 500th anniversary of the 16th-century Reformation on Oct. 31, 2017. By the spring of 1539, John Calvin had been twice-exiled. First, he had been forced to leave his beloved homeland, France. At one time, having fostered Christian humanism within its borders, this kingdom seemed ripe for receiving the Reformation ideas of men like Martin Luther in Germany or Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich. But in the early 1530s, … [Read more...]
Praying together at church, home
Hill, Megan. Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer in Our Homes, Communities, and Churches. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016. 158 pages. $12.99. I was thirteen when my family started attending church, and my parents went all-in. We didn’t just go to church on Sunday mornings, but on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights as well. Wednesday nights were church-wide prayer services. You were handed a prayer list when you entered, and then my pastor would take prayer … [Read more...]
For want of a better word
Some people seem to have a way with words. Words, sentences, paragraphs—they all just flow out of those people, all polished and pretty. The fact that I don’t despise those people is a testament to how truly spiritual I am. (If you’re not rolling your eyes right here, then you’re obviously even more spiritual than I am. Impressive.) Most of the time my words have to be coaxed, wheedled and prodded. My muse cops an attitude and is all like, “Not today, suckah.” Then when I finally do get … [Read more...]
The Book of Jude: Who are those guys?
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “The Last Apologist: A Commentary on Jude for Defenders of the Christian Faith,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics. Who, exactly, are the “certain men” about whom Jude writes in verse 4 of his epistle? Jude delivers serious warnings about the religious scoundrels who have infiltrated the church - without naming them. Perhaps this is because there are too many to name - an indication of how … [Read more...]
Treasury of Testimonies: A tool for reporting accurate church membership
Baptists are notorious for throwing numbers around. “There are 16.5 million Southern Baptists!” the brochure proudly exclaims. If so, where are they? If only 4 million show up for Sunday school, and estimates run as high as 8 million for worship, what makes us think we can account for all who actually belong to a Southern Baptist church? In the context of churches affiliated with the MBC, we estimate somewhere between 550,000 to 600,000 people acknowledge their membership at one of our … [Read more...]
Netflix builds buzz with suicide series ‘13 Reasons Why,’ but critics cautious
NASHVILLE (BP) – A streamed Netflix series dramatizing the fictional story of a teen’s suicide has drawn disparate reactions from secular and Christian sectors in the U.S. and abroad as the show’s popularity continues strong. Netflix strengthened viewer warnings May 1 regarding the content of the series, “13 Reasons Why,” after cries of possible “suicide contagion” and the glamorization of suicide spilled from religious, educational and clinical sectors within the U.S. and as far away as … [Read more...]
DR’s witness pops up during late night flood duty
It was somewhere between 2 and 5 a.m., April 30. It was cold, wet, and windy as I watched the waters of the Osage River creep ever closer. When the Cole County Sheriff activated his posse (a ready-to-go group of trained civilian volunteers… no, we don’t chase after cattle rustlers, but my fingers are crossed) for flood duty, I changed into my uniform and immediately confirmed my availability. I thought I might spend the afternoon rescuing stranded citizens trapped in their flooded homes. … [Read more...]
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