Happy birthday! It’s your special day. A party is thrown in your honor. Your family and friends are all there. The music is playing. The food is delicious. The atmosphere is festive. But wait! If this is such a wonderful party, why are you sitting in the corner by yourself? Why is your countenance so sad? Why are you not enjoying yourself? Oh, I get it. It’s your party. But no one is paying you any attention. No one brought you a card or gift. There is no birthday cake. The music is playing, but there is no birthday song....

What should I preach this Christmas? Pastors wrestle with this question every year. Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter celebrate the main events of the Christian faith. These holidays spotlight historical facts that establish the foundation of Christian truth. It is often claimed that the major religions of the world essential teach the same thing. That claim is categorically false. And you do not need to be a scholar in theology or an expect apology to explain the uniqueness of the Christian message. You only need to have a biblical understanding of what happened on Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter! Considering...

A great, big birthday shout-out to my wife Crystal! We first met in Coach William's World History Claus at Los Angeles High School. We have now been together for more than 20 years. And it has been  an indescribable privilege to watch Crystal grow as a Christian, wife, mother, leader, and friend over these years. I am getting older! She is getting better! But being with Crystal makes me want to be better, too. I love you, Sunshine! Happy Birthday! Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement for the Shiloh Church Choir Live CD recording. It was a great night...

O Source of all good, What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts, Thine own dear Son, begotten, not createdMy Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute, His self-emptying incomprehensible, His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp. Herein is wonder of wonders: he came below to raise me above, was born like me that I might become like him. Herein is love; when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace, to raise me to himself. Herein is power; when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart he united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and...

Tonight at 7 PM, the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church of Jacksonville will host our music department's annual Christmas Concert. Our Worship and Arts Department is under the capable hands of Dr. Roger Sears. Our Mass Choir, Forgiven Ensemble, Children and Youth Choir, and Praise Dance Team will all be performing tonight. It will be a great celebration of the miraculous birth and redemptive work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you live in the Jacksonville area - and your local church does not have a meeting scheduled - joins us for this special time of worship. Or watch...

My first Christmas in Jacksonville was very close to what would have taken place if I was still in Los Angeles. Most likely. I was up quite late on Christmas Eve, editing my sermon. I only got a couple of hours sleep. And I was back up, continuing my preparations for my Christmas morning message. H.B. woke up before everyone else. Typical. Once we woke up the women, we prayed, opened a couple of gifts, and then prepared for worship. Our Christmas morning service at Shiloh Church was great. I was surprised by the attendance. And I was really looking...

As a Christian, I believe that we live in parallel worlds. One world consists of hills and lakes and barns and politicians and shepherds watching their flocks by night. The other consists of angels and sinister forces and somewhere out there places called heaven and hell. One night in the cold, in the dark, among the wrinkled hills of Bethlehem, those two worlds came together at a dramatic point of intersection. God, who knows no before or after, entered time and space. God, who knows no boundaries took on the shocking confines of a baby's skin, the ominous restraints of...