By Scott Brown Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly Focal Passage: Luke 15:20-32  The prodigal son, as you likely already know, had shamed his father and broken that relationship horribly for the sake of getting his inheritance early and living his own way. Such an act as this younger son did would have been absolutely reprehensible to even consider. The father gave him his portion of what would rightfully be his

By Scott Brown Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly Focal Passage: Luke 10:25-37  An expert in the law, testing Jesus, began questioning Him about the law. This wasn’t the inquisitive questioning of a heartfelt seeker but an arrogant questioning seeking only to trap Jesus through cross examination. This lawyer sums up the law rightly with the Great Commandment. He seems to be missing the point, though. A consuming love for God

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 9:18-27  For years in our country, it was fairly easy, if not advantageous to be a Christian. Christians could get by with a “casual” relationship concerning Jesus and there would seem to be no consequences. Being a moral church member was “good enough.” If you owned a local business, you were a “good guy”, went to church

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 7:40-50  Several years ago, I was early in my time as a youth pastor and there was a boy in the children’s department that was a “ring tailed tooter.” Right before I got on staff, he had thrown an unopened coke can in the bonfire. Of course, it exploded, and as a result, a couple of people

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 6:1-11  How do we show that Jesus reigns in our life? “But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Why I am starting our focus of the first eleven verses of Luke 6 with a verse from 1 Corinthians 13? That is a fair question so let’s back up

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 5:17-26   This is one of those Scriptures where I love to picture being there. Imagine that you are in a primitive home with very few windows or doors in the first century. The room would be fairly dark even in the middle of the day. It would be dusty and hot as people were packed in

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 5:4-11, 27-32  As I am writing this article, we are knee deep in football. The national championship game has been played and there are some exciting NFL playoff games ahead this weekend. By the time you receive this it will be time for the Super Bowl. I know many of you could not care less about football

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 4:16-30  Remember how much you loved fast food as a kid and now as an adult the thought of eating it makes you sick. Or how “flybacks” looked great in the 70s but now you can’t imagine having that hairstyle ever again. Do you remember how convenient it was to have a phone in your kitchen with

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 6:27-38  This Scripture is too hard to live out so come back next week for a new set of Scriptures to talk about. Are you still here? Okay, let’s talk about it then. Today’s Scriptures are so challenging and to make matters worse, Jesus is the one who spoke them. They are “red letter” Scriptures. When I

By Russ Wilkins Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville Focal Passage: Luke 3:7-18  Occasionally I’ll try to build or repair something around the house. Inevitably, it will always be harder and take longer than I imagined. Why? Because I am not skilled in this area so I am not as prepared as I should be. I believe this is often true spiritually. We rush into God’s presence to “ask