This week I’ve been mentally compiling a list of self-evident truths that cannot be denied. You can ignore them but you can’t disprove them. Here is my list so far, with a few explanatory comments: 1. Life goes on. No matter what we do, life goes on. If we foul up, life goes on. If we hit the jackpot, life goes on. Whether …
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999I never thought I’d live to see the day when the Southern Baptists would make the front page of the Chicago Tribune. In this part of the world we generally have more important things to worry about, such as will any of us live long enough to see the Bulls win the NBA Championship again, but that’s a topic for another day. T…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999If your family is like our family, fishing for fun or profit would not be high on your list of things to do during December. Yet fishing is vitally important to who we are. No, I’m not talking about throwing a hook into the lake on a balmy December day, or even following some family’s traditions of picking out a live fish a…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 19991 Thessalonians 5:18 admonishes us to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Sometimes that is easy to do, sometimes not so easy. In the last few days I have found comfort in two places: great music and good theology. By “great music” I am not referring to a style or to a particular period but rather to music that contains a s…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999By now you probably know that Calvary is sponsoring a Bible Reading Marathon during the last 90 hours of this year. We will mark the arrival of the new millennium by publicly reading God’s Word from the pulpit of the church starting with the first verse of Genesis at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 28, and ending with the fi…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999I do not remember much about the day itself. A few days earlier we had flown from Dallas to Birmingham to see my father one last time. The three weeks before that are a blur in my mind, starting with the late-night phone call from my mother saying that my father had suddenly become very ill. That in itself was strange to me…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999This week I don’t have enough to make a full column, but here are some items that you might file under the general category of Odds and Ends. 1) Plans for the Bible Reading Marathon (December 28-31) are well underway. By now the 30 Watch Captains are actively recruiting Bible readers for this unique 90-hour event where we w…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999A few months ago the Southern Baptist Convention published a prayer guide urging Christians to pray for the followers of other religions to come to personal saving faith in Jesus Christ. The suggested guidelines included praying for your Jewish friends and acquaintances during the Jewish Holy Days (especially Yom Kippur, th…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999It is a fundamental mark of spiritual health to be able to say, “I was wrong.” If you want a verse to go with my thesis, take a look at Proverbs 28:13, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” When we sin, Solomon says we only have two options. Option 1 is to conceal…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999A few months ago I announced to the congregation that we would mark the end of this millennium with a Bible Reading Marathon. Here are the details. The Bible Reading Marathon will take place during the last 90 hours of this year-from 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 28, to 12:00 midnight on Friday, December 31. During that ti…
Sermon Series: Ponder This - 1999