The Apostle Paul writes to the local church at Philippi of his joyful prayers for them due to his partnership with them. He states in Philippians 1:3-5, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

​I am not a fisherman. I fished as a child, but I was always scared to touch the fish and get it off the hook because I didn’t want it to cut me with its fin. And after about age 11, it was just pathetic to have my dad get the fish off the hook, so I quit fishing.

God has given me the privilege of serving as editor of one of the longest continually published papers in the United States for 26 years. The Baptist and Reflector was established as The Baptist in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1835.

Apparently, it is very important to repent as part of being saved. But exactly what is repentance?

Chances are you’ve never heard of Ed. Years ago he paced back and forth outside of Holton’s Shoe Store in Boston. The reason for his angst was the 18-year-old store clerk who worked inside that had been attending his Sunday School Class. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Ed felt compelled to share his faith with the young man. His doubts, however, ravaged his good intentions with uncertainty.

My friend, the late Sam Orr, served as pastor of Hardwick Baptist Church near Milledgeville, Georgia. His parents, Sam and Doris, were members of our Fayetteville congregation. One week, Sam wrote in his church newsletter column an article about marveling.

We know something about anxiety. Sometimes it shows up on an x-ray. You can hear it in the pacing rhythm of footsteps late at night. Troubled eyes and wrinkled foreheads are also telltale signs. Desperate silence and nervous chatter are dead giveaways.

Every church has a process for making disciples.  In other words, all churches are doing something with the hopes of making disciples.  Unfortunately, most churches are not very successful in making disciples. 

A young boy went into the drug store along the town square where he lived and asked the pharmacist if he could make a phone call. Of course, the man said yes. He knew the lad to be a good boy who came from a fine family.

Eva Thelka Eisenhut was born in 1928 in Apolda, a small town that later became part of Communist East Germany. She was the oldest of four girls living with their parents in a four-room upstairs apartment.

We have all been bombarded with television advertisements, phone calls, text messages, emails, billboards, posters and multiple conversations about the 2024 presidential election and all the other ceaseless appeals to vote for one candidate or another.

​A well-known South Georgia pastor once shared about his spunky, senior adult sister who drove a sports car. She got pulled over for speeding. The officer walked up to the car and asked for her license.

Visitors will once again have the opportunity to get a close-up look at the Christmas decorations at the Georgia State Capitol during a series of Christmas prayer tours scheduled starting December 4th.

Christian philosopher Dr. William Lane Craig, said, “Man cannot live consistently and happily as though life were ultimately without meaning, value, or purpose. If we try to live consistently within the framework of the atheistic worldview, we shall find ourselves profoundly unhappy.”

I recently watched with amusement as Vice-President Kamala Harris spoke at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta on Sunday where she was likened to the biblical Esther because of her readiness to rescue her people from annihilation.

Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States was speaking at a rally last week at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. In her speech, she was focusing her remarks on the economy and other salient points frequently highlighted in the 2024 campaign cycle.

As Jackie DeShannon sang in the Bert Bacharach/Hal David hit from the 1960s, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love; it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” And though the song came out nearly six decades ago, its message is more relevant than ever. 

I recently received my first Social Security check. Having served in interim pastorates and freelance research, writing, and speaking in recent years means there will be no “formal retirement” or closure to ministry. In fact, I hope to continue doing all these things as the opportunities avail themselves. Yet, a wave of nostalgia has swept over my soul during this transition.

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board is encouraging all of our churches to hold a Religious Freedom Sunday in their church. This initiative is for the purpose of emphasizing the importance of religious freedom.

A man with a nagging secret could keep it no longer. He confessed to his priest that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked. “What did you take?” his priest asked.

The roads were littered with fallen power lines and abandoned cars. Heavy duty work vehicles with license plates from all over the country filled every open lane. These are some of the scenes that greeted us when we arrived in Valdosta Georgia on October 3, 2024. Our mission was to help those who had been impacted by hurricane Helene. I was privileged to be among the fifteen unique individuals from TMU who felt a burden on their hearts to partner with Samaritan's Purse to do disaster relief.

Much has been written and said about Dikembe Mutombo since his untimely death on Sept. 30, 2024. To me he always seemed larger than life, and although he valiantly fought a maleficent brain cancer, he succumbed to the disease at the all too early age of 58.

When I graduated from high school, I received a gift from a family in our church with the following note. “Hope you can use this throughout your whole life.” I have. Over 40 years later, I still use that gift almost weekly. The gift? The Random House College Dictionary. (I know, I’m a luddite, still using a real, hard-cover dictionary.)

Often I feel led to do or to write something that proves most appropriate and even fruitful. Recently, I came to realize how often I do things unaware that it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s leadership. I have even come to depend on His guidance in many of the things I do.

Not long ago I officiated a wedding ceremony that followed the predictable theme of faithfulness. I, groom, take you bride, to be my wedded wife. I promise to love you, comfort you, honor and keep you, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to you so long as we both shall live. Soon, the bride pledged the same loyalty to her new husband.