What a great day of worship today at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church of Jacksonville!I had a good time teaching my new members class today. I have “ditched” teaching the past few weeks. It was great to get back into the saddle. It was our privilege to deliberately remember the Lord Jesus Christ through the celebration of the Lord’s Table today. I led the corporate singing in our services today. We sung “Glory to His Name” and “There is a Fountain.” Two of my favorite Communion hymns! As always, grateful for all of our guests who joined us in worship...

Several weeks ago, I completed a verse-by-verse exposition of the Epistle of James for my congregation at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church. My faith was enriched by this personal study. And I trust my congregation was built up in their faith, as a result of hearing these messages. I have been thinking about this series over the past several days - not necessarily the spiritual experience of studying James, but the practicalities of preaching through it. Here are some of my reflections. Why James? I love the Epistle of James. I think it is James’ “in your face” style of...

Saturday morning, I taught a seminar at our church on “How to Study the Bible for Yourself.” It was well attended. And it was great to see the enthusiasm of the members about study the word of God. In typical H.B. fashion, we did not complete half of the twenty pages of notes I prepared. So we will plan a follow session for sometime soon. My family returned home from Los Angeles Saturday afternoon. Yes! The suicide watch is over. Thanks for your prayers. We had a great day of worship at Shiloh yesterday. Our Men’s Chorus led the music...

It was a long week. Followed by a long weekend. I preach for our district association Friday afternoon, which met at our church for its Congress of Christian Education. And I preached Saturday afternoon for the national convention of the Church of the Living God that was meeting in Jacksonville this past week. Have sermon, will travel. It was a great day of worship at the Shiloh Church today. Our ensemble, “Forgiven,” led the music in both of our services. They did a good job, as usual. Grateful for the guests who were in our worship services today. Several pastors...

The E.K. Bailey International Conference of Expository Preaching is taking place this week in Dallas (July 11-14). It is a great week of study, fellowship, and good preaching! The conference is named after its founder, the late Dr. E.K. Bailey, founding pastor of the Concord Church in Dallas. Dr. Bailey was a noted African-American expositor. And God used his ministry and this conference to introduce many to the principles, tools, and disciplines needed to preach what the text means by what it says. I was drawn to expository preaching by divine conspiracy. I was hearing preachers, reading books, and having...

What a great day of worship at Shiloh today! We began the service this morning with several praise choruses that I really like to sing. One of them had I had been singing to myself all week. It was great to sing it together in worship with the saints. As always, I am grateful for all of our guests in worship today. As I sat in our second service today, I began to give thanks to God for all of the volunteers who serve in our congregation. The service of so many others make what I do possible. And I...

I had a great time teaching on the good news of Jesus Christ in my new members class. We had many guests in worship yesterday. Grateful for it. We had several families, celebrating their family reunions, in worship with us yesterday. It was good to host these guests. Hope they were blessed by the service. Dr. William Lawson, founding pastor of the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston (where Dr. Marcus Cosby now serves as pastor) was in worship with us yesterday. His family was one of our special guests. It was an honor to have him worship with us....

The Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church family will meet together for its Midyear Tune-Up Service tonight at 7 PM. We will praise God together for all that he is done for us – personally and corporately – during the first half of 2011. And we will pray for God’s guidance, strength, and favor for the second half of the year. Our guest speaker will be Dr. A.B. Sutton, Jr., who is the Pastor-Teacher of the Living Stones Temple in Birmingham, Alabama. If you do not have a commitment at your church, please join us for this for this special time of...

Last week, I participated in the National Baptist Convention USA Inc.’s Congress of Christian Education in Indianapolis. It was the first time I have participated in the meeting for the full week. I had the opportunity to teach in the Laymen’s Department each day and to speak in the general session Wednesday afternoon. I was an exhausting but enriching week. Grateful to Harold Simmons, president of the Laymen, for all his kindness. Our new Car Care Ministry began this past Saturday! More than twenty men will volunteer their services to do free basic car repairs for seniors and single mothers...

The Bible has always been a central part of my life. And the translation of my youth was the King James Version. My home church was not “King James Only.” But the KJV was the only translation we were exposed to. I had a children’s story Bible that I loved. But I knew it was not THE Bible. The KJV was. I assumed it was the Bible Jesus and the apostles read. My father – who was my pastor – studied and preached from the KJV. But he often read devotionally from the Moffat Translation, I later discovered. It was...

Friday night, a large group of us traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to worship with Pastor Matthew Odom and the Temple of Glory Community Church. It was great bus ride with our members. Our choir really showed out! And I finally got to preach a sermon that has been on my heart for several weeks now. Note: Whenever someone reads a long bio about me before I preach, I feel like at sitting in my own funeral as someone is readying my obituary. I am just waiting for them to say, “He lives behind to mourn his passing… and a host...

It has been a long weekend for me. And I am not just talking about my hectic schedule over the past several days. I am referring to my consuming thoughts about my father. My father was funeralized Father’s Day weekend, 1989 – twenty-two years ago. I trust I will see my father again in glory. This is a comforting assurance for me. Yet there are still times when I still grieve his passing. It happened to me again this weekend. I think being at my grandmother’s funeral this week did it to me. There was a slide show at the...