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 May 22, 2014 | 0 comments
In most ancient literature, the heroes tend to be very good, with few flaws, while the villains tend to be very bad with few redeeming qualities. Not so in the Bible. Jesus’ disciples are good guys with major flaws—Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s denial, Thomas’s doubting. Paul is a former murderer. David, a man after God’s own heart, was an adulterer, a murderer, a liar, and in many ways a failure as a father....
Joseph and the Egyptian Sl...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on May 16, 2014 | 0 comments
Years ago there was a guy I knew who owned and operated a small finance company. He loaned money to individuals, generally people who couldn’t get a loan from a bank because of various reasons—inconsistent employment, insufficient annual income, bad credit history, etc. Of course, he charged them a higher interest rate than the banks, but the people he loaned to were a greater risk, and that’s what...
Getting Rich on Human Suff...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on May 14, 2014 | 0 comments
Many of us have been taught that Bible doesn’t allow any mixture of works in the appropriation of our salvation, but Paul, James and, especially, Jesus don’t necessarily support that contention. Part of the problem is that we treat gaining salvation as a single point in time—one second I wasn’t saved, the next I was—the fruits of which mainly have to do with life (or death) after death. But as I pointed...
Having Faith to Work the P...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on May 13, 2014 | 0 comments
One of the central tenets of Protestant theology is the idea that salvation is given by grace alone and achieved through faith alone; it is impossible to earn it through good works. This is as good a paraphrase as there is of Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Martin...
Working Out Your Own Salva...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on May 7, 2014 | 4 comments
This week I have to come up with a sermon for Mother’s Day. This is will be my 28th Mother’s Day message, and that’s a problem. There just aren’t that many ways of saying, “Mom’s are great! Go, Mom’s!” And there aren’t that many Scriptures to draw from. I’ve not tried to count, but trust me, there aren’t 28. Especially when you consider that we use the ones about Mary the mother of Jesus at either...
A Fresh Look at the Prover...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on May 1, 2014 | 0 comments
You’ve probably heard about “Christmas and Easter Christians”—those Christians who only show up to church for the big, important services of Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. Sometimes they are called (somewhat pejoratively if not self-righteously) “chreasters” or CEO Christians(Christmas/Easter Only). For the most part it’s a myth; most people who don’t see the point in attending worship throughout the...
Christmas and Easter Chris...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Apr 30, 2014 | 0 comments
The Bible makes a big deal about the sin of idolatry, and since it does we feel like we should also, but the truth is that there aren’t too many idol-worshiping religions to be found in the U.S. It’s just not a threat, so when we teach about idolatry we tend to say that anything that we place above God is an idol—sports, career, wealth, etc. This reduces idolatry to a metaphor about misplaced priorities,...
Idolatry and Injustice: Tw...
recent from Blog
recent from Blog
Welcome!
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.
Feel free to leave a comment. I promise to respond to you. All I ask is that you be respectful in your comments. 
Connect with Me