So I came home this morning to pick something up. I wasn't in the house for five minutes. But when I got back into the car, it wouldn't start. I went back inside and waited a few minutes (as if that would do anything). But it still didn't start. So I called AAA (#1) to come out. The AAA guy came a gave me a jump. I let the car run for 20 or so minutes. And then I headed for the office again. I decided to go to a local bookstore to pick up a book that I wanted....

Yesterday, I continued my exposition of Ephesians with a message on 1:3, entitled, "Count Your Blessings." I didn't sleep Saturday night. I was restless because I was very nervous about preaching Sunday morning. I'm not sure why, though. I was very excited about the message. And I was eager to be in worship. But I was very uptight about my message. I had worked hard on it. I even had an extra week to work on it. But I still struggled in preparing it. In fact, about 5:00 AM Sunday morning, it went from a four-point outline to a three-point...

Last night, I preached the eleventh stanza of Psalm 119. I am now halfway up this Mt. Everest of the Psalms. I have been richly blessed by my personal study of this passage over the past several months. And even though it has been difficult preparing some of the messages, I have really enjoyed the sermon preparation process, as well. It has kept me on my toes to wrestle through the theme of each of these eight verse sections, while maintain the main thrust of the psalm. And I have enjoyed preaching these messages to Mt. Sinai on Wednesday nights....

I have found it absolutely impossible not to think about my father today. H.B. Charles Sr. was my father, my pastor, my hero, my mentor, and my friend. I succeeded my father as pastor of the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, which he served for better than 40 years. The Lord took my father home to glory in June, 1989. I was only 17-years-old at the time. And I cannot begin to explain how devastating that was to me. However, over the years, I have been able to recognize the invisible hand of divine providence at work in this. And...

Do you ever have times in your life when you feel like you just need a fresh start or a new beginning? That's how I feel in this season of my life. I am not sure why I have been feeling like this. And I am sure that these feelings are right, which is why I really haven't responded to them. Yet, I must admit, that these feelings for me real, and they have been pretty hard to shake. My life has been richly blessed by God. And I really don't have any legitimate reasons to complain. But there is...

Preachers are human beings! This may seem to be an unnecessary statement of the obvious. But it's not. It's something that need to be remembered by both people in the pew and people in the pulpit. Preachers are only human beings. They are not super-saints, preaching machines, or holy angels (By the way, I do not think the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3 are grounds for calling pastors "angels."). We are just plain old men. Or plain young men, in my case. (And, by the way, I am being intentionally gender specific). We are men. This is something...

I preached in Tyler, Texas, last Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning, my wife called me while on I was on my way to DFW airport to catch my flight home. When she told me what was going on, I called on my coworkers to the house to take her to the hospital. A few hours I landed to bad news. I don't feel comfortable going into detail. But the good news is that Crystal is doing better. She has been home resting and recuperating. And she is feeling much better today. Thank you to all of your who have called,...

I am in Tyler, Texas. Tonight, I will preach the the second of two sermons at the Liberty Baptist Church, where Mark Hood is the pastor. God willing, I will fly home in the morning to be with Mt. Sinai for our midweek service. I am working on a message from Psalm 119:65-72 entitled, "How Has the Lord Dealt With You?"It has bee more than a week since my last post. And boy, what a week. First of all, my wife had received news that her father was sick. So she went to check on him in Midland, TX. It...

There is electrical work being done on our church facilities. And the electricity was shut down today. So I couldn't go into the office. I call this providence! I desperately needed a day off. And the office being shut down became an excellent excuse... er... reason for me to rest. And that's exactly what I did today. I took my children to school. I had breakfast with Crystal. I took a nap. I had lunch with George. I came home and took another nap. I went to pick up the kids from school. Then we hung out all afternoon -...

I am going to do something here that I don't really intend to do again. I am going to respond to comments that were posted anonymously. When I first read these comments this morning, I was a little taken aback. I don't think the questions themselves bothered me. I love questions. But I don't think I was able to make out the the tone or spirit of the questions. And the fact that the questions were submitted anonymously made it all the more difficult for me to discern whether or not this is a person I should ignore. So in...

Tuesday night, I preached my final message at Phillips Temple CME in Dayton. And I did something I have only done two other times in all my pastoral ministry: I preached something away from MSMBC that I had not already preached to MSMBC. I had been working on my midweek message on Psalm 119:57-64 ("The Lord is My Portion"), and it was really in my system. So I took a shot at it Tuesday night, even though I didn't have much more than an extended outline. I mentioned the fact that it was an "unfinished sermon" before I started preaching....

It is just past 2 AM here in Dayton. I am tired, lonely, and homesick. And I cannot sleep. I flew all day Saturday to get here (It was morning when I left LAX; evening when I arrived in Dayton). I got something to eat and basically went straight to bed. My day started pretty early this morning. I had to preach twice at the Phillip's Temple CME Church, for their 9 and 11 AM worship services. Pastor James Washington is a kind and gracious host. In fact, his kindness to me has been somewhat embarrassing. He really goes out...