I came into the house after running some errands recently and exclaimed to Bobbye, “I love my church, I love my bank, I love my barber shop, I love my hardware store, I love Clinton!” We have readily assimilated into the community and continue to be overwhelmed by the Southern hospitality and personalized service of […]

No one was more conscientious about praying and religious piety than the Pharisees. But Jesus had nothing but condemnation for their hypocrisy and pretense. It is sad that we, too, have a tendency to allow our Christian life to be reduced to legalistic practices instead of the fulfilling Spirit-led freedom we should have in Christ. […]

Today is “Tujuhbelas Agustus”–that’s the 17th of August in Indonesian, the day of independence for this country with the largest Muslim population in the world. This day also comes in the middle of “Ramadan” which is the month of fasting for Muslims. It is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith. The faithful […]

A delightful marker in our new retirement lifestyle is the privilege of returning to Richmond four times a year to participate in the orientation of new IMB missionaries. It is a significant time of sharing a sense of God’s providence in global missions from our perspective as president emeritus and 40 years of experience.  Communicating […]

Jesus tells an interesting story in Luke 18:1-8 that is identified as the parable of the persistent widow. It is about a widow who continued to appeal to a unjust, insensitive judge to handle her case and give her justice against her adversary. The judge was unmoved and disinterested but finally intervened because the widow […]

Family time together is precious because it is altogether too infrequent. We realized this once we were married, began to have children and the demands of job responsibilities diminished opportunities to gather for family reunions. Our siblings and their families were dispersed to various states, and eventually overseas. By the time we all got together, […]

Most households struggle to make ends meet, especially those growing families with educational bills and mortgages to pay beyond routine living expenses. It is too easy to let credit card balances grow and find oneself being sucked into the quicksand of interest payments and growing indebtedness. Educational institutions, churches, denominational entities and other organizations face […]

I doubt if there is anyone who has not struggled with the issue of unanswered prayer. We know all the promises about God hearing and answering our petitions, how He honors the prayer of faith in Jesus name and so forth. But often, in spite of our prayers, a sick child is not healed, financial […]

Our national government has apparently avoided the catastrophe of financial default, but no one is happy. Seldom have we seen such a shameful lack of statesmanship in dealing with a self-imposed problem. Actually, there was no immediate satisfactory solution to a debt crisis that has been building, even beyond recently imposed aberrant policies. For generations […]

House guests are gone, no more travel for a couple of weeks, and the hot summer days have resulted in some reminiscing as we sit on the porch watching the sunset. Most of our friends are aware that we bought my family home place where I grew up in Clinton, Mississippi. The property had been […]