By Tim Frank Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage Focal Passage: Isaiah 44:6-11; John 14:5-7 A common expression says, “All rivers flow into the sea.” The meaning is clear. There are many streams, but, ultimately, they all end the same place. This thinking has been applied in the world to all religions being roads to the same destination — heaven. In fact, it is popular in today’s tolerant, all-inclusive culture to

By Tim Frank Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage Focal Passage: Luke 1:26-35 Merry Christmas! This is the week we have looked forward to throughout the year. The retail stores began decorating for this season well before Thanksgiving. Christmas presents have been bought and wrapped in many homes for weeks. In fact, most church and community Christmas events have come and gone. All that remains is the celebration of Christmas Eve

By Tim Frank Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage Focal Passage: John 1:14-18; 8:30-32; 18:36-38 When my older daughter was in high school, one of her assignments was a debate on absolute truth. She had the side in favor of absolute truth. In order to make the argument for absolute truth, she had to first establish there is one God who is Lord of all, maker of all and above all.

By Tim Frank Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage Focal Passage: Psalm 19:1-6; 111:7-10  I remember as a boy walking to the deer stand on cold, clear mornings, well before the sun began to dawn. On those nights, away from the lights of town, the stars filled the sky with an occasional shooting star passing in sight. Those were times of wonder and awe as I looked into the vastness of

By Tim Frank Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage Focal Passage: Jude 1-4, 20-25 My wife is a software engineer with a company in Southern California. Every day she works diligently, searching through hundreds of lines of computer code, looking for errors in the code.  Her job is to make sure the code is not corrupted; corruption would cause a complete breakdown of the system. A complete breakdown is called a

By Jerry Price Retired Pastor, Spring Hill Focal Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 “A party of pioneers on the Oregon Trail suffered for weeks from a scarcity of water and grass for their animals. Most of the wagons had broken down, causing endless delays in the stifling heat. A feeling of fretfulness and futility prevailed. Optimism and cheer were gone. Courage was in limited supply. “One night the leaders called a

By Jerry Price Retired Pastor, Spring Hill Focal Passage: John 11:1-4, 38-45 When I was 8 years old, a lady named Maureen Ellis came to my grandfather’s mobile home park (we called it a trailer park back then) and led a Vacation Bible School-type event in the laundry room that was attached to the bathhouse. Most mobile homes did not have bathrooms in those days, much less laundry rooms. The

By Jerry Price Retired Pastor, Spring Hill  Focal Passage: Romans 8:26-32  The late Dr. Howard G. Hendricks, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary for 60 years, often spoke at conferences and seminars around the country. I have several of his messages on cassette tape. On one of them he tells about meeting an acquaintance and asking him how he was doing. The other person replied that he was okay under the

By Jerry Price Retired Pastor, Spring Hill Focal Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11  The following illustration comes from Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, WordSearch Bible Software.  “A modern army is fitted with a strategic mix of various weapons to maximize its effectiveness in fulfilling its purpose. Some soldiers receive a rifle and some are given pistols or ride in a tank armed with a cannon and machine guns. Others operate missiles, jet

By Jerry Price Retired Pastor, Spring Hill Focal Passage: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 Pastor and author Gordon MacDonald once wrote, “I used to struggle with [overconfident intelligentsia] while living in Boston. I would leave the town of Lexington, where my family and I lived, and I would drive past the towers of Harvard University. Another mile down the road, on the left, sits the campus of MIT, and to the right,