Entries Tagged as ‘Stuff I've Written’

June 1, 2008

A Fish Tale

Some time ago, as I sat listening to Dr. Hillery Motsinger talk about the Family Upreach ministry ( a Christian ministry to prison and jail inmates and their families ) my thoughts were prompted by what he called “a fish tale.” As he related the story of a young woman who had been reached in [...]

May 26, 2008

Together

Because we do
All things together
All things improve
Even weather.
Our daily meat
And bread taste better
Trees greener,
Rain wetter.
I don’t make a habit of reading poetry, but I ran across this Paul Engle, short poem as I was glancing through a literature textbook recently. I don’t think I have ever read a better description of the whole purpose of [...]

May 23, 2008

JACK AND JILL

Let me tell you about two young people I know. I’ll call them Jack and Jill.
Jack is eighteen years old. Jack was in honors classes when he started high school, before he was suspended for punching an assistant principal.
Jack lives with his mother although she doesn’t want him or his older brother or his little [...]

August 4, 2007

Green Beans

This is an edited repost of an October 2006 post. This week, my grandmother’s only two other grandchildren were in my home and sharing memories of our grandmother brought this post to mind. I dug around and found this faint photo of one of the most beautiful women God ever created. I have added the photo below.
Original Post With [...]

April 14, 2007

Looking At Restoration Movement History: Part 3

1741 In Enfield, CN, Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” -
“the people were so stirred that they held on to benches and tree trunks lest the ground open up and they be swolled by hell.”
Edwards and George Whitfield were the leading preachers of the “Great Awakening” of the [...]

April 7, 2007

Looking At Restoration Movement History: Part 2b

Continuing with details of the Glasite movement which began in 1728:
1. Weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper (covered in Part 2a)
2.Plurality of elders
Concerning the ministry,…. Glas especially emphasized the eldership, which he concluded from a study of the New Testament must be plural in nature. Glas believed in ordination, but not that it conveyed special [...]

April 4, 2007

Looking At Restoration Movement History: Part 2a

1728  John Glas was removed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He believed that church and state should not be linked, each congregation should be independent, following no particular creed, being governed by Holy Scriptures alone. He taught, among other things:
 1. Weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper
 2. Plurality of elders
 3. Scriptural names for congregations, primarily, “Church [...]

April 2, 2007

Looking At Restoration Movement History: Part 1

1625 “If we would but observe unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, charity in all things, our affairs would certainly be in the best possible situation.” (From a Latin treatise in Germany - Anonymous)
Following are excerpts from a talk given by Hans Rolleman at the Christian Scholars Conference in July 1996 at David Lipscomb University, [...]

March 31, 2007

Looking At Restoration Movement History: An Introduction

This life therefore,
is not righteousness but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it,
the process is not yet finished but it is going on,
this is not the end but it is the road.
All does yet gleam in glory [...]

March 17, 2007

“If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us.”

This quote from P.T. Forsyth (1907) was posted on the wall in my last classroom for 10 years. Many times students would ask me for an explanation. The discussions that followed also included ideas presented in the following:
Corinthians 15:19 (NIV) “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied [...]