Thinking about Life and the Lord!

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 det...