Thinking about Life and the Lord!

When tragedy strikes, it is very normal to ask the question, “Where was God while this was happening? Why didn’t God stop the tragedy that happened at Southerland Springs, Texas?"  In times like these, it is important to be open and honest with ourselves and with the truth of what God’s Word teaches us. What we know for a fact is that we live in a sinful, broken, and evil world. Our society is filled with selfishness, hurt, pain and destruction. We live in a fallen world where people intentionally choose to disobey God and hurt others, usually because they have been hurt in some way themselves. The recent shooting of our friends at FBC Southerland Springs is a stark reminder of these facts. This was not God’s plan! From the beginning, God created a perfect world full of life, joy, fulfillment, peace and love. God gave people the free will to choose their own paths. Because Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, sin and brokenness entered the world. We are all sinners by n

On Sundays at FBC, Lexington, Tennessee, I am preaching out of the book of James and the series is called “The JAMES Experiment: Does Faith really work?” We are talking about growing our faith. Last week I wrote that God tests our faith through trials. This week I want us to think about how God tests our faith through our tithe. Tithe…now isn’t that a fun word? A Baptist pastor can say the word “tithe” and watch people cringe, cry, coward, or cop-out. Ha! I am, of course, talking about the topic of faith and our money. Did you know that money is one of the greatest tests of faith in your life? Our material possessions test our character and our faith. For a lot of people, their possessions have become the god of their lives. Possessions or the pursuit of possessions has become the priority and focus of their lives. I have found that this issue of money is one of the greatest tests we face because many people do not want to give up their own self-made god to worship and give to

Right now, at First Baptist Church, Lexington, Tennessee, where I am the pastor, I just started at new sermon series called “THE JAMES EXPERIMENT: Does faith really work?” The Bible is filled with many things to say about faith. I thought I might write a few things related to this series to help encourage others in their faith.  Today I want to share a few words about how God tests our faith through Trials: Trials test our faith as the people of God! The New Testament alone is filled with God’s commands for believers to obey. These commands are the things God tells us we should do or not do. These commands are not presented to us as options, but as obligations. Someone has said there are just over 1000 commands in the New Testament alone. Some of them seem irrational or even crazy to us. Others are very inconvenient, hard, trying, time consuming or they seem quite impossible. These commands are trials in our lives. What is on   trial? Our faith in on trial to determine if