Focal Passage: Genesis 11:1-9  After retirement, my dad served for a year as an interim pastor in Kowloon, Hong Kong, at an English-speaking church. My family went for a visit. Dad wanted to take us out to experience the Hong Kong culture and took us downtown in a taxi to a small “hole in the wall” restaurant for an authentic Chinese meal.  Dad had help writing down directions and ordering

Focal Passage: Genesis 9:1-15  Rebranding is a common theme in the business world. Once a product has hit the market and an initial run has met with success, a company will pull the product off the market, tweak it, repackage it, do a new sales campaign, and then re-release the rebranded product to be sold again, often at a higher price. Rebranding takes a worn-out or broken product, reshapes it,

Focal Passage: Genesis 8:10-22  While stories in Scripture detail the actions of various characters, such as Noah during the time of the Flood, these stories always reflect the nature and character of God.  Two traits of God are revealed during the time of the Flood and the faithfulness of Noah. First, the power of God to unleash the torrents of water to undo the vast Creation that He had made,

Focal Passage: Genesis 6:13-22; 7:20-24  While working in my office one morning, the FBI came to my door. That got my heart racing. He told me the FBI had received a “credible threat” made by the KKK against an event that I and others were planning at our courthouse for MLK Day. He came to warn us. We made plans because of that warning. The result was lots of police,

Focal Passage: Genesis 4:1-15  It was like any Sunday. As I made my way through the sanctuary, greeting people who had arrived early for worship, I reluctantly stopped to check in with the deacons milling around in the back. I knew what was coming. I asked who was taking the offering that day and who would be leading the offertory prayer. They shuffled their feet and looked down until one

Focal Passage: Luke 2:1-15  My wife and I decided to collect Nativity sets early in our marriage.  We would add to our collection from wherever we traveled, or if we found a unique set. Some would be to look at, others to use to tell the story of Jesus to others, while still others were for our children and now grandchildren to play with.  One year, as my wife and

Focal Passage: Genesis 3:1-7; 21-24  I have gotten into the habit of pulling from the closet before bed the clothes I will wear for the next day. It is a mindless task — picking out something that matches (hopefully) and is clean.  Occasionally, walking through a clothing store or flipping through a catalog, I decide I need something new to wear. I then place those new clothes in the closet

Focal Passage: Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25  I have asthma. It is a family trait. My grandfather and my late mother-in-law had it. My oldest son has it.  Asthma constricts the airways and makes it difficult to breathe. When my son was very young, various times he was hospitalized with his asthma.  I remember distinctively watching him in his oxygen tent in the hospital, just waiting and praying for the medicine to

Focal Passage: Genesis 1:1–5, 26-2:3  Often, when reading, hearing, or preaching on rest, our minds imagine some tropical holiday or, perhaps as we do in the Smoky Mountains, we think of a long, fall, mountain-cabin holiday weekend with a cozy fire, warm blankets, and a cup of delicious hot chocolate.  Yet, when God spoke about rest, it was not because He was tired or needed a break. Isaiah 40:28 says,

Focal Passage: Mark 16:1-14   What does the text say: Our focal passage, Mark 16:1-4, recounts the moment when several women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, arrived at the tomb where Jesus had been laid after His crucifixion.  They had brought spices to anoint His body, but as they approached the tomb, they noticed that the large stone sealing the entrance had been rolled away. Upon