Singing Through the Lord’s Prayer, Part 2

June 14, 2006

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread
Be Thou My Vision
Breathe
Children of the Heavenly Father
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
For the Beauty of the Earth
Forever
Give Thanks
God is Good All the Time
God is So Good
Good to Me
He is Able
God Will Make a Way
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
His Eye is on the Sparrow
It is No Secret
Let …

Reunion on the Natchez Trace

June 13, 2006

This morning I left the cabin about 6:30 AM and drove thirteen miles north on the Natchez Trace, parking my car at a scenic location called Browns Bottom. That’s a change for me because a) I usually ride my bike in the late afternoon, and b) I generally start at the Saltillo exit and ride north. But I had some extra t …

Singing Through the Lord’s Prayer, Part 1

June 12, 2006

A few years ago I wrote a book on the Lord’s Prayer called And When You Pray. Shortly after I turned in the manuscript but before the book was published, I spent a week speaking at Word of Life in Schroon Lake, New York. I spent several afternoons walking the streets of that quaint village, praying the Lord’s Pr …

Marlene’s Scalloped Vidalia Onions

June 11, 2006

Last weekend Peter and Judy Faulkner brought a big bag of sweet Vidalia onions from Georgia to the KBM board retreat. After passing out a few of the onions, they left the rest of the bag with us. A few days later Marlene made a delectable dish that was such a culinary triumph that I thought I should share it with the world. …

Has God Lost the Battle?

The latest sermon in the “Understanding God’s Plan” series has just been posted:Has God Lost the Battle?This sermon is longer than usual, but I wanted to tell my own story at the end of the sermon for some personal reasons that you will understand when you read it. I hope you find this sermon encouraging. It certainly …

A Brief Story for Those Who Would Rather Not Take Any Chances

June 10, 2006

A friend gave me a good piece of wisdom about the importance of making decisions. He said we sometimes put things off because the stakes are high and we fear making a mistake. But the longer we put off a decision, the bigger it looms in our mind until finally it becomes so big that we are scared to do anything. Our desire n …

A Chinese Dissident’s Faith

June 9, 2006

Jim Hoagland, a writer for the Washington Post, recently interviewed Yu Jie, a Chinese writer who says that Christianity will play a decisive role in bringing democracy to China. Along with several house church leaders, Yu Lie met with President Bush at the White House in early May. Here is the heart of Jim Hoagland’s …

She Prayed for Fifty Years

June 8, 2006

I met a woman recently who told me that she prayed for fifty years for her brother to be saved. For most of that time, he showed little interest in spiritual things. But through an amazing series of events, he saw his need of Christ and embraced him as his Savior. For the last six years, he grew in his love for the Lord and …

“You Must Not Fear Them”

June 7, 2006

I taught three sessions at the GPA today. In the first hour, we covered the importance of the Apostles’ Creed and the fact that Christianity is a doctrinal faith. G. A. Studdert Kennedy put the matter in perspective: All men act upon their real creed. It may not be the creed that they profess, because they may be liar …

The Night Before the GPA

June 6, 2006

I am writing this note from one of the guest rooms at Dallas Theological Seminary. Just before we landed at DFW Airport, the pilot announced that the temperature was 96 degrees. I think he understated it because it felt like a blast furnace when I stepped outside. I had forgotten how hot Texas gets in the summer, and I know …