One Sunday morning I found myself in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. As is often my wont, I struck up a conversation with a stranger, who happened to be the pastor of Nazareth Baptist Church. He invited me to bring my group to his church before services that morning. He...

Jonah is regarded as a Biblical prophet, and in fact his very name means “Dove of Faithfulness,” but a prophet of God is precisely what Jonah DOES NOT want to be. That is not to say that he could claim ignorance of God’s will, for God’s word came to him clearly:...

I am not sure how many of you know this, but our church has a stated motto, a theme. That motto is actually featured at the bottom of all of our stationary. This stated theme of our church is: “A Hunger for a Deeper Faith.” I am going to take this stated theme at face...

I confess that the matter of the Biblical understanding of divorce was somewhat thrust upon me by an incident early in my ministry. A couple of thirtysomethings came to me asking if I would perform their marriage. They were not church members, and quickly admitted...

Only once in your life can you see the city of Venice for the first time. Pray that your initial encounter will be on a bright, resplendent day, for only a brilliant sun can reveal the startling beauty of this colorful city that looks as if it is always on festival....

An oft-repeated axiom about our society is that we are radically polarized. It is true that even within our congregation people hold a variety of opinions on gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion, the importance of January 6th, and a host of other issues. But the...

The woman who is the focus of our story today enjoys at least one advantage that most of those thronged around Jesus do not: she knows that she needs healing. Most of the people crowded around Jesus need guidance, need direction, need to experience redemptive power,...

Some years ago, the eye of a small hurricane stalled over that sizable body of water known as Mobile Bay. To everyone’s astonishment, the hurricane sucked up virtually all of the moisture of that vast body of water, creating a dry walkway where once had stood a sea....

Bold, boisterous, aggressive, outsized-personality types dominate our business landscape, our political stage, our sports pages, even our religious attention. Flamboyant visionaries often set the agenda in their respective fields. Yet Isaac, one of our faith’s three...

Our Baptist story started when Henry VIII wanted the Pope (Clement VII) to grant him a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon, and the Pope would not do it. Henry decided he could deal with this problem by creating an entirely new church movement that essentially...