How NOT to begin a sermon:"I’m sorry I didn’t have time to prepare.” (Don’t tell us. Let us figure that out on our own.)"I’ve been busy this week.” (Everyone has been busy this week.)"I have 17 points I’d like to share with you.” (Don’t scare us like that.)"I"m sure …
Not long ago a friend I never met died.I suppose to call him a “friend” would be a stretch because I never met him and never spoke to him. It would be more accurate to say that he was a friend to this ministry and a friend to our China outreach.He was a veteran of World War II who loved the Lord and wanted to see his assets used for Kin…
Recently H. B. Charles Jr. offered some wise counsel about sermon titles. He says that preachers don’t give enough thought to their titles. In this day of extremely short attention spans, a well-thought-out title can be the door that opens the way for a biblical sermon to do its work.Here are three general principles for choosing a good title…
Several months ago we opened our new Anchor Book Depot in Pontiac, IL with 100,000 copies of An Anchor for the Soul. Since then we have shipped out over 18,000 copies to ministries across America. Here’s list of some of the ministries receiving copies of the book: Crisis Pregnancy Center, Reno NVGenesis Pregnancy Care Center, Pottstown PACros…
On Wednesday night I spoke at the campfire service at the Word of Life Campground. Afterward I told Marlene (who stayed in the room babysitting Eli) that the service was stunning in its simplicity. At 8 PM 200+ people gathered on the wooden benches built into the hillside overlooking Andrews Pond. While several young men lit the fire, Jason Perkins…
Consider this a Facebook-focused followup to the Chick-fil-A dust-up earlier this week. A friend wrote saying that she was struggling with certain very unkind things that were posted on her Facebook page. Someone actually put a note on her Facebook page saying that she could take her business elsewhere because he didn’t want to do business wi…
Here’s a story that illustrates the truth that we “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Several years ago a woman asked me to pray that her aged mother would come to Christ. We prayed together and went our separate ways. I hadn’t thought about that prayer until I received an email yesterday:Hi Ray,A few years ago…
Dear Prayer Partners, When Ray answered the phone, he heard a familiar voice. His friend was calling from 8000 miles away to say hello and to check out some thoughts about a sermon he was preaching the next day. As they talked, Ray made one or two suggestions. It was clear that his friend had a good sense of what God was speaking to his he…
“It’s a great day at Chick-fil-A."Actually that’s only part of what the voice said as we pulled up to the drive-through ordering station. The whole spiel went something like this: “Hi, my name is Amy. It’s a great day at Chick-fil-A. How may I serve you today?” Amy may have added something about the peach m…
Psalm 37 contains some of the most precious promises in the Word of God. But those promises coexist with some straight talk about the existence of evildoers. These words written 3000 years ago perfectly describe life in the 21st century. How should we bring together the blunt talk and the promises of God? Four considerations will help us.1. Ev…