My last night in Grand Prairie was cool. I was quite nervous, as I sat in the service. Quite a few pastors and preachers were present to hear me preach - from one of my father's old friends to one of my new friends to a bunch a young pastors and preachers who had come to "scope me over." And I was preaching a message that I did not intend to preach. It was a bit unnerving. I have preached before a lot of of preachers before, so I really don't know why I was so nervous. Before the message,...

Tonight, I will preach my final message of this meeting at Morning Star Baptist Church in Grand Prairie. Pastor Christopher Taylor has been a very gracious host, as usual. And the Morning Star family has been a warm and encouraging place to preach, as usual. Likewise, there have been quite a few young ministers who have come to support the meeting, most of whom I am meeting for the first time. I really do appreciate these young men attending the services and showing such kindness to me. I feel a little out of my league, being around some of them...

This week is only two days old. But it has been a pretty busy one, nonetheless. I have a plane to catch in the morning to Grand Prarie. So I have been trying to get a lot done over the past day or so. God has been faithful. I have been pretty busy. But I am blessed. God is good. I am so grateful to God for all that he is doing in and through me during this season of my life. Even the challenges are blessing me to grow up spiritually. I praise the Lord for it all!This past...

Last night, during our National Day of Prayer Service, I resumed my exposition of Psalm 119. I was scheduled to preach this message last Wednesday night, but both physical fatigue and mental distractions resulted in me going home to get in the bed hours before the service. Praise God I had another opportunity to present this message. And after having a week to let it "marinate," I didn't have some of the typical anxieties I have when I am preaching a new message. Likewise, this has been a really tough week for me. I am now going in the different...

Praise God! The Lord blessed me to get home safely from San Diego this morning. The final service at Bayview Church was good. I shifted away from what I had been preaching on all week, to preach a message that was on my heart. I think it was a clear presentation, even though I was somewhat nervous about preaching it. As always, Pastor Winters was kind and generous to me. I appreciate the time he takes with me. In fact, I was so anxious to spend time with him that I followed him to eat different kinds of foods that...

I have one more message to preach tonight at Bayview Baptist Church in San Diego. Then I will be on my way home. Yippee!!! I am so homesick; I don't know what to do. I woke up this morning and began packing my bags, even though I am not scheduled to leave until tomorrow morning. Usually, I pack an hour before it is time for be to leave. But I am really anxious to get home. Now, this is not a statement about Bayview Church in any way. I have had a good week here, ministering to this great congregation....

One of the hardest things in the world to do is to say that you are wrong when you really believe in your heart that you are right.

I have two more messages to preach at Bayview Church before I go home. I have preached three so far. Sunday was kind of tough. I really don't think I "connected" with the congregation in either of the morning services. But I was still blessed to be there. Pastor Winters is such a joy to be around. A for a young pastor to be able to sit with him and watch him lead his congregation is an enriching experience. Sunday evening, Crystal and the kids headed home so that the kids wouldn't miss school. That was difficult. I didn't want...

Yesterday, a brother asked me, "What do you think are the biggest problems facing the church today?" For the record, I don't like these kinds of questions. And I really don't like being on the receiving end of one of them. It seems kind of presumptuous to me to try to answer for the spiritual condition of large sections of Christians in the world. I have a hard enough time monitoring my own heart, not to mention my own congregation. So it seems to that I should be pontificating about the larger body of Christ. Yet, we talk like this...

It is late (or early, depending on how you view it). I am in San Diego to preach for Pastor Timothy Winters and the Bayview Baptist Church through Wednesday evening. Crystal and the kids came down with me for the weekend. San Diego is a special place for me and Crystal. So we don't need to have much of an excuse to drive down to San Diego. And the kids just like going somewhere... anywhere. So they were also excited about coming down with me. We got here this afternoon and spent a slow, quiet, and leisurely evening together. We...

I have just finished reading a book entitled, Preaching Evangelistically (Broadman & Holman Publisher). It is written by Al Fasol, Roy Fish, Steve Gaines, and Ralph Douglas West. I saw an add for this book in a magazine a few weeks ago. And when I saw it in a store somewhere, I immediately picked it up. I wanted to read it for several reasons. First, Al Fasol is in it, writing about preaching. Fasol's book, Essentials for Biblical Preaching, which I have read several times, is a really helpful book on preaching. And his work on sermon delivery, A Complete...

The Lord really helped me through a long weekend. I continued my series on the "One Another" commands in Sunday School. Yesterday's lesson was on "Serving One Another." I was not able to finish the lesson, so I will have to do a part 2. In our worship service, I concluded our preaching series on the Ten Commandments with a message entitled, "Overcoming Covetousness" (Exodus 20:17). I was not really tired at all, even though I should have been. In fact, after I gave the benediction, you could have easily convinced me to preach again. But that all changed about...