By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Ecclesiastes 7:11-22  Remember learning to ride a bicycle? It was about balance: being balanced getting up on (and off) the bike, staying balanced while riding, and remaining balanced when braking.  Leaning heavily to one side or the other meant falling over — resulting in “skint knees” and elbows or worse. In our focal passage (Ecclesiastes 7:11-22), King Solomon looks

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Ecclesiastes 4:13-5:7  Some older readers may remember “Hey There,” a popular song in the 50’s. It’s about a young lady in love, trying to talk herself into making wise decisions. She says, “Will you take this advice I hand you, like a mother? Or, am I not seeing things too clear? Are you just too far gone to hear?

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Ecclesiastes 3:1-15  A Jewish rabbi was once asked by an inquirer, “Why do Jewish teachers always seem to answer a question with a question?” The rabbi replied, “Why not?” Of course that was originally told as a joke, but it’s actually quite true; the greatest Rabbi ever, Jesus Himself, often answered questions with questions.  Each of our studies in

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:12-15; 2:18-26  Remember your (or your child’s) first chocolate ‘Easter’ bunny? Maybe it was huge, and you could hardly wait to enjoy its chocolaty sweetness. So you took a big bite into one of those long ears, only to find the bunny rabbit was — hollow. Many people around us have been disappointed like that. That’s why the

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Job 42:1-11  You may have heard about the little boy who stood with his dad outside the window of a pet store. His dad had promised a new puppy, and the son was now selecting one. Several pups vied for attention; one of them was not the cutest, but was excitedly wagging his tail. “That’s the one I want,”

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Job 40:1-14  Remember how ‘God’s voice’ sounded in Hollywood films years ago? The Ten Commandments movie portrayed God speaking in a deep and resonate voice, in Shakespearean English, accompanied by rolling thunder and heavenly-sounding music. None of the secular films starring “God” could adequately portray His true voice. But five men from the Book of Job could tell us

By Mike Dawson Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Columbia Focal Passage: Job 36:8-23  “… One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and JUSTICE FOR ALL.” That phrase from our Pledge to the Flag apparently contains ‘fighting words’ for several groups in America today. Many object to the words “one nation under God,” and even “indivisible” and of course “liberty;” but some groups are shouting that “JUSTICE FOR ALL” is especially

By Mike Dawson Retired Baptist pastor Focal Passage: Job 28:12-28  “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.” A great patriarch of the Bible, Job, would say “That’s a lie!”  Job was a man beloved by God and respected by others, yet he suffered loss, grief, brokenness and despair; three friends came to comfort him but ended up in a verbal boxing match with Job,

By Mike Dawson Retired Baptist pastor Focal Passage: Job 19:19-29  “In this corner, wearing a torn robe, with his head shaved, and covered in open sores, is … Job!”  So might a ring announcer introduce the champ in Round One of the ‘boxing match’ featuring Job the Uzzite, pitted against a tag team calling themselves ‘The Three Friends:’ Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.  It’s uncertain

By Mike Dawson Retired Baptist pastor Focal Passage: Job 14:1-14  Who was the smallest man in the Bible? Not Zaccheus, although many of us as children sang “and a wee little man was he.” Not even Nehemiah (“Knee-High-miah.”) No, the Bible’s smallest man was one of Job’s friends, Bildad the Shuhite (“Shoe-height.”)  Those are some awful puns, I admit; but our larger text, Job 2:11-14:22, is heavy; so we needed