Monthly Archives: March 2025

In describing the newly nominated Supreme Court Justice, David Souter—President George H.W. Bush’s nominee to fill the vacancy created by Justice William Brennan’s resignation in 1990—one commentator described the New Hampshire nominee as a “blank page.” By that, he meant that Souter was virtually unknown. He had not written many decisions on matters of nationalContinue reading “James, son of Alphaeus, an Apostle (9th in a series on the Apostles)”

(Editor’s Note: Please take a few minutes to read the following testimony that my friend John B. Aker—a retired pastor and former military chaplain and educator—shared with me. You will surely be blessed and inspired, as I was.) “Once in a very great while, someone is blessed, as perhaps you may have been, in meetingContinue reading “I’d Rather Have Jesus”

Bad impressions can be difficult to shake. They sometimes follow you around like a stray dog you’d like to be rid of. Sometimes they are even unfair, but that does not matter. They still persist. Remember Dan Quayle misspelling potato (or was it tomato?). Or, former president Gerald Ford hitting someone in the head withContinue reading “Thomas, the Apostle (8th in a series on the Apostles)”

A prominent evangelical leader—Al Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville—indicted today’s churches with the following alarming evaluation: “The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church.” When was the last time you remember a church exercising this scriptural mandate?Discipline is never joyous at the time,Continue reading “Discipline—in the Local Church”

Before and after pictures are always fascinating to me. You know—like the ones you see in the newspapers or magazines; or, more commonly now, on commercials for diets, plastic surgery, or hair replacement. The Word of God gives us a striking picture of a “before and after” of an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.Continue reading “Matthew, the Apostle (#7 in a series on the Apostles)”

Evangelical churches are generally known by their desire to evangelize the unevangelized world; that is, to send missionaries into all the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, in obedience to Christ’s command (Matt. 28:18-20). Then, when people who hear the gospel accept Christ, the missionary will endeavor to lead the convert into baptism, churchContinue reading “God’s Blueprint for Local Church Leadership”

The 12 men who uniquely lived and labored with Jesus of Nazareth for the duration of his 42-month public ministry are the subjects of this series on the Apostles. They were holy men, yet not hallowed. They were good and godly men, yet men of passions and prejudices as men of today are. They wereContinue reading “Bartholomew (Nathanael) the Apostle (6th in a series on the Apostles)”

Fifty-one years ago, Ed Christy graduated from Beech Grove High School in Beech Grove, Indiana. After graduation he found a job, and working alongside of him was a member of Thompson Road Baptist Church, at that time pastored by Dr. Fred Moritz.  One day, Dick Reed, Ed’s co-worker, invited Ed to attend services at TRBCContinue reading “One Invitation”