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 Dec 21, 2016 | 0 comments
When the Bible makes a big deal about a baby’s name, you better pay attention. No, I’m not talking about Jesus, though his name is significant. It means, “Yahweh saves,” and is also the name of the man (Joshua) who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, which is not without its own significance. But for now I’m talking about John. John was born to an old priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth,...
“His Name Is John&rd...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 14, 2016 | 0 comments
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. (Luke 2:1-4) There...
Census, Cradles, and the C...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 13, 2016 | 0 comments
Larry L. Eubanks, First Baptist Church, Frederick, Maryland, December 4, 2016 Today is the second Sunday in Advent, and the second in my Advent message series, A Cinematic Christmas, where we are looking at the biblical themes of the birth of Christ through the lens of some popular Christmas movies. Today it’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Now when we laid out this message series we decided to...
Presence, Not Presents
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 12, 2016 | 0 comments
Larry L. Eubanks, First Baptist Church, Frederick, Maryland, November 27, 2016 In the modern age, Christmas movies and TV shows are as much a part of Christmas as Christmas trees and Christmas carols. When I was growing up, my brothers and I would carefully scan the TV guide every week to make sure we didn’t miss “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Those were the prehistoric...
If Jesus Hadn’t Been...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 6, 2016 | 0 comments
Waiting always has a future tense. Something is going to happen, but not yet. Without this sense of something approaching there is no waiting. The thing that is on the way could be bad; this kind of waiting is called dread. When my brothers and I were acting up and wouldn’t listen to Mom she would say, “Just wait until your father gets home.” Way to ruin a kid’s afternoon. We’d then spend the rest of the...
Advent Waiting
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Nov 29, 2016 | 0 comments
One of the things that I frequently encounter as a teacher of the Bible is that people believe the birth narratives of Jesus, particularly the miraculous parts of them, prove his divinity. That is so typical of us Moderns, with our need to have our beliefs based on provable facts. The truth is, however, that the birth narratives, particularly the miraculous parts, were never written to prove anything. The...
The Birth Narratives Don&r...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Nov 17, 2016 | 0 comments
In my last post I wanted to point out that either elation or despair by Christians over the election of Donald Trump indicated that a person had probably put their hope for the future of our country—and perhaps the world—in someone other than Jesus. That is not to say that the election doesn’t have consequences for us as Christians, or that our response is to retreat back into the private world of...
Living Together: Racial Re...
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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.
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