I am in Los Angeles.I flew in to attend the annual Prayer Bowl, hosted by Pastor Melvin Wade and the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church of Los Angeles. The Prayer Bowl is a daylong service of preaching – one sermon after another that Mt. Moriah has hosted at the beginning of the year for almost 30 years. I have attended it since I was a boy. And I preached in it every year until I moved to Jacksonville.I am not here to preach. I just want to attend and be preached to. But Pastor Wade warned me that I need to...

In his book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, R. KENT HUGHES tells of a dark night of the soul that he went through and how the Lord brought him out. Kent Hughes had been groomed for success. It was no surprise that he was chosen to plant a new church. Expectations were so high that there were whispers that his new church would soon outgrow the mother church. But several years later, there were very few signs of life, growth, or fruit. In a moment of weakness, Kent said to his wife Barbara, “God has called me to do...

Acts 2 records the birthday of the church, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the 120 believers who were assembled in the Upper Room. It also records the growth process of the infant church. On the Day of Pentecost, about 3000 people believed the gospel, repented of their sins, and were baptized as followers of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:42 says: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” And the last sentence of Acts 2:47 reports, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being...

Dr. Ralph Douglas West of the The Church Without Walls of Houston (TX) was scheduled to be the guest speaker for the closing night of Wednesdays in the Word revival here at the Shiloh Church of Jacksonville. Unfortunately, Dr. West will not be able to be with us tonight. There were other matters that he needed to give his attention to. And he asked that we would remember him in our prayers. Of course, we do and will continue to cover in believing prayer. And we look forward to him being with us at some later day in the future,...