6:36 PM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Praise God for being the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3).” This Sunday I’ll be speaking the “Billy Sunday” text—2 Timothy 4:6-8. The title of the sermon is “Finishing Well.” Proclaim will be singing in the con…
6:28 AM One thing for certain: It’s hot in Mississippi in August. I mean, it’s real hot in Mississippi. Hot and humid and muggy. Even though I was born and raised in this part of this country, you forget how hot the summers can be. Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley. You see his picture many places. The current sheri…
5:57 PM Arrived in Tupelo a few minutes ago. A quick trip. We stopped at the Lifeway Christian Store in Tupelo and met the manager. They’ve been featuring “He’s God and We’re Not.” Right now we’re at Alan’s camp off the Natchez Trace a few miles north of Tupelo—way out in the woods. Right now Alan is waxing eloque…
5:55 PM My mind is jumbled right now—as it has been for the last few days, but more so now because in twelve hours we leave to take Nick to enroll at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Tomorrow night we’ll be in Tupelo, Mississippi (staying with my brother Alan), then on to Birmingham for two days of orientati…
5:27 PM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Praise God that nothing is impossible with him (Luke 1:37).” Yesterday AM I met with a group of leaders for The Legacy Campaign. We toured the building, discussed the project in depth, and then gave the leaders a chance to make advance commitments to the camp…
3:01 PM Just now the staff surprised me with a small party in the Dining Room in honor of my 14th anniversary. We had chocolate silk pie and told a few stories. Bob Boerman said he knew he was going to like me when, at an early pastoral staff meeting, I stuck a pencil in my ear—the eraser end—and said, “I just wanted to see what w…
6:00 PM News and notes … Just back from a 24.5 mile bike ride along the Prairie Path through Maywood, Bellwood, Hillside, through Elmhurst, Villa Park, and into Lombard. Pretty hot and humid—great biking weather… Came back and found that Nick and Mark had gone golfing at Columbus Park… . On Tuesday we leave to take Nick …
10:36 PM Nick and John Mark Edwards and Caleb Fields arrived back in Oak Park several hours ago from their “senior trip” to visit my brother Alan who lives in Tupelo, Mississippi. They stopped in Tupelo to pick him up, and then they headed down to Destin, Florida, for a few days of fun in the sun. Nick said they played …
7:49 PM Happy to report that 54,000 copies of An Anchor for the Soul were delivered to Oak Park last week and are now safely in storage. Just today we received a note from a retired Chicago firefighter who writes: I send a quarterly mailing to 85 retired Chicago firemen, mostly non-believers. I sometimes include a book in w…
3:12 PM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Praise God that He wil give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).” Mark Alexander, a fifth-generation Episcopalian, offers a comprehensive case against the election of a gay bishop last week. One little snippet: Homosexual advocacy groups often rebut disse…