A Prayer to Prepare for Easter
This is a guest post from my good friend and colleague Dr. Randy Millwood, Church Services Consultant for the Maryland/Delaware Baptist Convention, FBC Frederick member, and best Real-Beard Santa Claus in the world. He wrote it as an email to the ministers of BCMD for Maundy Thursday, but it speaks to our situation on this Holy Weekend and so I offer it to you, with the necessary alterations, to help you in your preparation for Resurrection Day. In the Christian calendar, the Thursday of Holy Week is...
A Maundy Thursday Prayer (Psalm 88)
Despair is difficult when the Resurrection hovers nearby. For two millennia the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection have been told and retold, celebrated and feted. Everyone knows how the story ends. It doesn’t end with “It is finished.” Rather, with “”Why do you look for the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but has been raised.” It’s difficult, therefore, to read the Passion–the betrayal, the arrest, the beating, the mocking, the...
The Relevant Temptation
The other day our son Austin asked Pam and me if we had ever gone through anything like the COVID-19 pandemic before. The answer, of course, was no. These are unprecedented times. People are fearful, anxious. Angry. Some are complacent. Some are in denial. We are isolating ourselves from each other. If ever we needed a word from God, it is now. As one who weekly speaks to people about God, on behalf of God, and maybe, every once in awhile, delivers a word from God, I feel the weight of that need to hear...
You Don’t Learn Wisdom From a Book Like Proverbs
Let’s talk about the Book of Proverbs. Hey, wait, where are you going? Get back here! Sheesh, hear me out for a second. I know it doesn’t sound very exciting, but hang on, I’m gonna bring on the excitement in a minute. Well, no, probably not, but hang with me for a second anyway. The Book of Proverbs has been called “God’s Instruction Book for Life,” which sounds awesome. Not content with that pithy title, another person said, “Proverbs is actually a book of instructions on how to live a life pleasing...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jul 9, 2016 | 0 comments
I first met Dr. Bruce Hopler twenty years ago when he came to Maryland as the founding pastor of Cornerstone Community Church. We have been friends and colleagues ever since, even when he moved out of state to pursue other callings. He recently received the Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Seminary, and now serves as National Director of Church Strengthening at Converge Worldwide. As is his wont, he has...
Talking Points for the Whi...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jul 7, 2016 | 0 comments
“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” This is one of those statements that is familiar even to people who don’t know the Bible. It’s commonly used to support the proper and separate roles of government and religion and that it is our Christian duty to both pay our taxes and our tithes. Pay the government, and pay the church. A closer look, however,...
Taxes and Tithes: A Fresh ...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jul 6, 2016 | 0 comments
Shohoiya Yokowai was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during WWII. When American forces landed, he fled into the jungle and found a cave in which he hid for 28 years because he was afraid of being captured by the Americans. He learned that the war was over by reading one of the thousands of pamphlets dropped into the jungle, but he was still too afraid. For 28 years he lived in the cave, coming...
Prisoners of Fear
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 23, 2016 | 4 comments
Presidential candidate Donald Trump invited 1,000 evangelical leaders to meet with him last week, and the media coverage—both traditional and social media—had all kinds of takes on it. I’ve watched this happen my entire life as an evangelical pastor—the wooing of evangelicals by politicians and the wooing of politicians by evangelicals. Here are some of my thoughts as I saw it happening again. 1. The...
Five Things I Think I Thin...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 18, 2016 | 0 comments
Dad holding my brother Mickey and me, apparently before I had developed anything resembling a spine. Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, has this to say about Fatherhood: “Much of life, fatherhood included, is the story of knowledge acquired too late: if only I’d known then what I know now, how much smarter, abler, stronger, I would have been. But nothing really prepares you for kids,...
Naturally Clueless Parenti...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 15, 2016 | 2 comments
We have to do something. If all we do is square off in our respective corners—Christian/Muslim, gay/straight, gun control/right-to-bear-arms, Democrat/Republican—then all that will happen is we’ll shout at and past each other, no one will win, everyone will lose, and it will happen again. After a while we’ll get used to it. Shake our heads, say a prayer, have a moment of silence, then switch over to...
Orlando and a Call to Crea...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 15, 2016 | 0 comments
I heard it again. I was listening to a speaker the other day and he said something that I’ve heard many, many times: “The Bible is unique because all the heroes of the Bible are so flawed, and the Bible doesn’t hide their flaws.” I’ve probably said it myself, but this time, it got me wondering: what heroes are we talking about? Exactly how many heroes does the Bible have? If we are using the term “hero”...
Your Biblical Heroes are F...
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I am a lifelong student of the Bible, and have been a pastor for over twenty-five years. My desire through this blog is to help people see things in the intersection of Scripture and real life that they might have missed. The careless handling of the Bible is causing a lot of problems in our churches and our culture--and is literally turning people away from the church, and, sometimes, God. I hope to treat Scripture with the respect it deserves, and, even if you don't agree with what I say, give you some insight.
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