May you have safe and enjoyable holiday and weekend. God bless. hbc2

Prayerless people cut themselves off from God’s prevailing power, and the frequent result is the familiar feeling of being overwhelmed, overrun, beaten down, pushed around, defeated. Surprising numbers of people are willing to settle for lives like that. Don’t be one of them. Nobody has to live like that. Prayer is the key to unlocking God’s prevailing power in your life. – Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not To Pray, p. 16 Last night, I began a new summer small-group. We will spend the next eight weeks reading and discussing Too Busy Not To Pray by Bill Hybels. Our Sunday School...

Peacemakers release tension, they don’t intensify it. Peacemakers seek solutions and find no delight in arguments. Peacemakers calm the waters, they don’t trouble them. Peacemakers work hard to keep an offense from occurring. And if it has occurred, they strive for resolution. Peacemakers lower their voices rather than raise them. Peacemakers generate more light than heat. Blessed are such great-hearted souls! We need more of them in the ranks of faith. We have more than enough fighters, more than enough who are ready to pounce. – Charles Swindoll, Simple Faith, p. 34This past Sunday, I continued out series on the...

Saturday, MSMBC hosted a community day in which we prepared food, games, and information for our neighbors. I was a good time of meeting guests and fellowship with one another. Hat's off to our Transition Team for your hard and faithful work! Yesterday, was a long, good day. To be sure, it was full of adventure. But the Lord was gracious to me and helped me fulfill my assignments all day. I led the corporate singing portion of our service yesterday. I don't sing that often anymore. But I love to sing the praises of God. It is a wonderful...

Last night, I spoke at Calvary Baptist Church of Los Angeles for the final night of their youth and young adult revival. This is the congregation that was once led by the late Dr. Manual Scott Sr. The congregation is now led by the able Rev. Virgil Jones. And under his leadership, this historic congregation is growing and bearing fruit. This is the fourth or fifth year that I have done the closing night of this meeting. And services have been a blessing each year. This year was no exception. The participation of the youth in the service was very...

Matthew 5:3-12 records the “Beatitudes” of Jesus Christ, which introduce the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). These eight declarations pronounce divine blessings on those who possess the characteristics of citizens of the kingdom of God. Specifically, Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. These eight brief but potent statements describe what it means to right with God. They teach what it means to be righteous, rather than merely being religious. In...

I preached the 11 AM service at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church on August 5, 1990. My Father, who had led the church for more than forty years, had died fourteen months earlier. And the congregation was deep into its pastoral search. I was not a part of this process. In fact, the pulpit committee met with me the next day to make it plain to me that I would not be a candidate. I had not sought the church. I was just a seventeen-years-old high school senior. But apparently there had been some requests from some of the members...

My father used to tell of a conversation he had with a man outside of MSMBC one day. The man had overheard the services as he passed by and he said that he would have come in, but he didn’t have any nice church clothes to wear, like the other people he saw. This conversation deeply impacted my father. And it resulted in him designating the month of June as “Old Clothes Month” at Mt. Sinai. When I was a boy, it was actually “old clothes” month. For instance, the men would wear overalls (or, are they called “coveralls”?). It...

Have you noticed how people refer to the singing in church as "worship time," as if the other parts of the service are not part of our worship? This is troubling, because Christians should recognize that prayer, saying the creeds, giving, and especially the sermon, are all part of our worship of God. But I wonder if one of the reasons why people do not know this is that preachers have forgotten to worship God when they preach. We may deliver carefully crafted sermons, but if we ourselves are worshiping God when we do, then that element will be lost...

I took an overnight trip Houston this week. Saturday afternoon, I flew into Houston to preach for Pastor Dennis Jones and the Gethsemane Baptist Church. It was the their Micah Ministry's (Young Adults) emphasis, with various events taking place over the weekend. And the young adults led the services on Sunday morning. This is my second time preaching at Gethsemane. And I was again blessed and encouraged by the worship and fellowship. Pastor Jones has proven to be a true friend to me since we met. And it is an honor to be invited to minister the word to his...

I was introduced to the subject of “generational curses” some years ago in a strange way. I was sitting in the pulpit of the church I serve, listening to an encouraging sermon by an out-of-town friend. He ended the message with a personal testimony of divine healing. He had been very sick. And the only explanation for his recovery was that God had healed him, for which I rejoiced. I had no problem with his testimony of healing. But I did have a problem with his explanation of how he received the life-threatening disease. He claimed that it was a...