“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” I Peter 2:17 As Independence Day approaches, we turn our thoughts again to the condition of our country and speculate as to what the future holds for our children. We are seeing more and more conflicts in rendering unto Caesar and at the same time being able to render unto God. No one knows exactly what the future holds, but certain trends seem quite evident. We are seeing greater antagonism … [Read more...]
Plan to make disciples
Editor’s note: The following material was first introduced several years ago in a Discipleship Training Resource entitled, “Becoming a Disciple-making Church” by Steve J. Williams. It has been updated and is used by permission. This is the second of three articles. This article will look at four steps for making disciples: Step 1 – Refine your vision. All great disciple-making begins as a vision in someone’s heart. Every church needs a vision for disciple-making. It needs to be written … [Read more...]
‘My dad’s the greatest’
Every child wants to be able to boast about his/her dad! Little boys may be heard to say, “My dad can beat up your dad!” The truth is that in our era of time, many dads are absent or confused about the roles they should play. Recently a dad was shown on TV taking his son to a marijuana festival in Colorado. He said he thought it was good for his son to see!?? What makes a great dad? The Bible tells us that the father should be the spiritual head of the home. Research tells us that dads, … [Read more...]
What’s for dinner? A heavenly casserole?
“Stare into the pantry.” I ought to just go ahead and write that on my to-do list. You’ve probably heard me whine about it before. I hate it when I realize I’ve been standing, staring and pondering for 15 minutes and still have no idea what could possibly come together for a dinner. I recently found myself gawking at the pitiful assortment in there, drumming my fingers on the pantry door, trying to figure out what I could get from half a bag of macaroni, the creams from a box of assorted … [Read more...]
Interruptions God uses
We’ve all experienced this. We make our plans for the day or week and something comes along that obliterates our carefully constructed agenda. Unless we are the one making the changes, we don’t like having our plans modified. After all, we have places we want to go and things we want to do. Then along comes an interruption. Something explodes our plans and we have significant choices to make. We can become angry, frustrated, bitter and grouchy. Or we can use the interruption as a divine … [Read more...]
Never surrender to flesh, ever-surrender to Jesus
Eating on the healthier side of the food pyramid is a battle for me. My pyramid is much more … shall we say … prismatic. And probably at least a heptagonal prism at that. I hear I’m not the only one. For those of us who struggle with food geometry, some days “diet victory” means we chewed the donut before swallowing it. (I would mention the “ring torus” here, but I’m really not that good at geometry.) That battle to eat well? That’s on the front lines. But related skirmishes break out … [Read more...]
Vocationally called by God
In the Lord’s Prayer we are told to pray for our daily bread (Matt 6:11). This prayer is a model of what it means to trust and ask God to meet our needs, our physical and spiritual needs, by asking God to provide our most basic need, the need to eat. But how does God normally give us our daily bread? None of us got up this morning, went outside, and collected the daily bread that God deposited on our doorstep while we were sleeping. We either went to the refrigerator or drove somewhere to … [Read more...]
BlessMom on Mother’s Day
“Her children arise and call her blessed.” – Proverbs 31:28 Wouldn’t it be nice if children would appreciate and bless their mothers from birth? Why is it that so many people really don’t appreciate their moms until they are grown? Young children cling to their moms, but often teens will shout, “I hate you” so convincingly that we may believe it. Whatever the reasons, it is nice to know that in many cases children do come to realize the importance of their mothers once they are on their … [Read more...]
Book of Acts 3-man show comes to life
Richard Nations/contributing writer KIRKSVILLE – The stoning of Stephen. Saul being called to be the Apostle Paul. Paul and Barnabas quarreling over John Mark. King Agrippa. What were the best scenes in a 2.5 hour drama portrayed on a stage on a Friday night in Kirksville? The 1,200 people who packed The Crossing Church here discussed these scenes as they left the venue, April 11. Professional Los-Angeles-based Christian actors Bryce Lenon, J.D. Jackson, and Vinicius Machado star in a … [Read more...]
Beating Cancer, staying faithful
Two types of cancer were growing in my body when I was ordained to the gospel ministry back in 1986. That was in March and by May, my oncologist had scheduled me for four week-long courses of chemotherapy over the next four months. God has healed me and I am grateful! The phone call was for me. My doctor’s voice had a sterile chill, “Mr. Snowden, the tests came back. Those nodules in your lungs have metastasized – and it’s spreading fast. You are scheduled to begin your first round of … [Read more...]
The total package is giving and receiving
Big things come in small packages. I think the person who said that sat beside me in my high school geometry class. And even though I was really bad at geometry, I would never copy off that guy’s paper. Because that would be very wrong, yes. But also because the answer would also likely be very wrong. Let’s be real. As much as I tried, I could never make myself care what “Y” equaled. Congruently (see what I did there?), I don’t care what size the package is. Just as long as the package is … [Read more...]
LifeWay curriculum tour reveals options for all ages
Richard Nations/contributing writer MACON – Missouri Baptists were introduced to new options for “Explore the Bible” study curriculum in an April statewide tour with LifeWay Christian Resources specialist Sergio Arce. Arce indicated there is a major facelift of the material being introduced in September, and this line of curriculum will have options for students, children and preschoolers which they do not currently offer. The tour had stops in almost all regions of the state. Mark … [Read more...]
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