In his book, Begin Again, Max Lucado shares the story of Nadin Khoury, who was just a 5’2”, 100 pound immigrant when he and his mother moved to Philadelphia. He never stood a chance when a group of neighborhood kids began to bully him daily. As their taunting escalated, it led to full blown assault on a cold day in January.

A dream trip turned into reality when my church family generously gave us an Alaska adventure as a retirement gift. In 2020, Amy and I planned a 40th wedding anniversary land tour of Alaska. Then came the pandemic.

The greatest barrier to disciple-making in the United States is undiscipled believers. We have resources and opportunities like never before, and yet our churches still struggle to fulfill the one task our Lord left us to accomplish — to make disciples. Just ask the majority of churches that have plateaued or are in decline since the pandemic.

The good news is that we can celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24th. Under the Lord’s leadership, we can keep working together to build a culture of life in Georgia that stands up for all innocent human life and ministers both to mothers and babies.

I was recently hiking on the Appalachian Trail in north Georgia with some friends. One of my companions was Jack, a 25-year-old young man from Nashville, Tenn. I was told Jack had just checked his compass when he called out to me, “What direction are we going?” It’s an important question while navigating the AT, you don’t want to become disoriented on the trail.

I heard about a physician who said, “Many of my patients have nothing wrong with them except their thoughts. So I have a favorite prescription I write for some. But it is not a prescription that you can fill at a drugstore. The prescription I write is a verse from the Bible, Romans 12:2.

In 1787, while Benjamin Franklin was walking out of the convention hall, a woman approached him and asked, “What have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin said, “A republic, madam - if you can keep it.”

Former Minnesota Twin Harmon Killebrew died May 17, 2011. The Hall of Fame slugger, 12th on baseball’s all-time home run list with 573, once shared, “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ​My dad would tell her, 'We’re not raising grass. We’re raising boys.'”

The second coming of Jesus Christ will be a personal, visible, and physical return. This Jesus is the  same one who was born in a manger, lived a holy life, suffered death on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. His return will have consequences.

I have a deep concern that the reckless spending of the federal government will plunge the next three or four generations into an abysmal debt. At age 83 the impact upon me will likely be incidental. However, it deeply concerns me that we are plunging future generations into deep debt and an unsustainable economy.

According to D.L. Moody, the renowned evangelist from a previous generation,  “You might as well try to see without eyes, hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as to try to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit.”

Finding a genuine community can be challenging. Georgia consistently ranks as the loneliest state in America. Nearly 50% of all adults in Georgia are lonely, and 30% of those are young adults under 30, according to the US Surgeon General's report in 2023.

Mark Hallock, pastor at Calvary Church in Englewood, Colo., and a member of the Replant Team, wrote a book several years ago called God’s Not Done with Your Church. In it, he reminds leaders and members of dying and declining churches that God still has a plan for their church.

Having been to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, I could never think about anything but having compassion for the Jewish people. Yad Vashem is the World Holocaust Remembrance Center where the devastation of the Third Reich upon the Jewish people is documented in ways that are indescribable.

​Cleaning out my desk, I found my “Handyman Club of America” sticker. I remember the day I received it. This piece of junk mail caught my eye, I opened it, and my self-esteem received an immediate boost.

There is much you and I can’t do anything about.  If you live, you can’t stop aging. The only way to stop aging is to die. 

 When the renowned evangelist D.L. Moody was asked to have a campaign in England, a skeptical pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” A discerning minister stood up and responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”

Growing up, my family went to a lot of revival meetings. Not only did we attend the revivals at our home church, but we would also attend revivals at neighboring churches and camp meetings. At the time, those revivals typically lasted a week, and rarely would we miss any service.

When Jack Brown’s son Adam graduated from high school, the father decided to write down the most important things his son needed to know as he started college and stepped into life’s next chapter. ​This going away present contained 511 reminders about how to live a happy and rewarding life.

One of the distinctive characteristics of my home church was the clear invitations offered by my pastor each Sunday. Added to his encouragements for people to repent of their sins in order to follow Christ were the consistent appeals for baptism and church membership. Nearly every weekend, he also proposed the possibility that God was likely calling some to ministry as he admonished us to discern the Lord’s leading.

As many of you know, we are approaching the Georgia primary election on May 21. It is a time for Georgians to make their voices heard for those they support for the General Election coming up on Nov. 5, 2024. 

The renowned preacher R. G. Lee, pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis for over 30 years, stood at the site in Jerusalem where it is believed Jesus was crucified. When it came time for his tour group to move on, Lee told his guide he wanted to walk to the top of the hill. The man tried to discourage him, yet could see that the preacher was determined to go.

Mother’s Day provides us an opportunity to thank the Good Lord for blessing us with this awesome and extraordinary woman who helped us to see our need for Him. We take time to celebrate how He used her as a light in our lives and a standard of virtue for all to see. There are historic, family, and spiritual reasons we should celebrate Mother’s Day.

Mark 2:1-5 provides a powerful account of being a friend worth having to carry people to Jesus. This passage describes a paralytic man being carried by four of his friends to Jesus, unable to reach Him on his own.

Jesus was known for asking questions. According to Bob Tiede of Biblical Leadership, the four gospels record 339 questions that Jesus asked. Others say the number is a little lower, but all agree that Jesus asked lots of questions. Tiede mentions, “He sometimes answered questions with questions of his own.” Jesus was the master of well-placed questions.