Mental Musings

Have you ever heard a devotional that sticks with you forever? I had that experience, but it wasn’t until years later that the actual devotional continued to come to my mind. I can even remember the day that the devotional started to really impact me: September 15, 1999. The devotional was given by Sydney Browning during one of our Youth Choir rehearsals. Sydney and I both attended the same church while I was going to seminary. Sydney was involved in the Single’s choir that I led. She was also involved in the Single’s Counsel and helped in the Youth Choir with me. She was solid in her faith in Christ, but Sydney was not comfortable talking in front of a group. I remember watching her as she shared her devotional. Her hands were trembling, her lips quivered and her voice was cracking. She had brought a bucket out for her devotional and started to share her testimony. She lifted a bottle of Budweiser out of the bucket and said she used to be a lot like this bottle. While in the bucke...

What kind of music will we hear in heaven? With so many personal preferences when it comes to music, I have often wondered this. As far as we know, the Disciple John and the Apostle Paul are the only two people who have seen heaven. In 2 Corinthians 12:2 (NIV) we read that Paul “was caught up to the third heaven 1 .” In the book of Revelations we can read about the visions of John concerning the new heaven 2 and the new earth. But neither of these men took the time to describe the style of music that they heard in heaven. Most theologians agree that humans are the only creations of God that sing. Many people assume that the angels sing because Handel’s Messiah and carols which indicate that the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest.” But what does the Bible say? The angels spoke the greeting, they did not sing it. “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor...

May the Lord give us the discernment to avoid such people as these in our daily lives. 17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. (Rom 16:17-18, NIV)

Communion: The Lord’s Supper. Along with baptism, it is one of the two ordinances of the Southern Baptist Church. Our own church observes the Lord’s Supper once per month, some churches observe it once per quarter and some churches observe it every week. But what exactly is communion and how should we observe it? 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 gives us the basics. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Jesus took the occasion of a special feast, the Passover, to share His last meal with His inner circle group. Sometime during this meal, Jesus took an o...

Our cat is scared to death of plastic bags and snow pants, yet he loves boxes and paper bags. I think this is the first time that I have captured a "red-eye" effect on a reflection, yet not on the actual subject. I came home to find Wendy practicing her piano in footy pajamas and sitting on phone books. Why footy pajamas? because it is only 39 degrees outside even though it is the second day of Spring. Why phone books? Because she has been preparing for a school musical (You're a Good Man Charlie Brown) and has been noticing soar muscles from sitting too low.

Watch this FoxNews video with Shepard Smith explaining with facts what really happened.

We often hear people in church say that we are to look our best in church, wear our best to church and even act our best in church. But is any of that Biblical? Many of us have learned church traditions that have no Biblical basis. In fact, only one is actually partly Biblical. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV) In other words, act your best. But God does not expect us to only do this when we come to church. We are not to act differently in church than we do elsewhere. God expects us to act our best every day in every way. So why have we had generations of people telling us that we are to look our best for Jesus. Why have we created a tradition of “Cleanliness is next to godliness” in our churches? Many believe that to be from the Bible, but it is actually an ancient Hebrew proverb from 2nd Century AD. This could have come from the Biblical teachings that...

One sign that we are nearing the end times is the increasing number of reports that we hear about pastors (priests, clergy, ministers, etc.) that abuse their positions and harm the church and church members. Their actions are called spiritual abuse because they are in spiritual leadership over those they are hurting. This was the scripture passage for my devotional this morning: 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds...

Every time I asked my wife to call the insurance company to find out if we needed to get a pre-authorization before seeing a specialist under our plan. They actually act annoyed when she calls. So what happens the one time she doesn't call? We get a EOB (Explanation of Benefits) saying that they are not paying due to failure to preauthorize. Can you hear me screaming? aaarrrgh!

I realize that this is a little behind the times, but we just saw Fireproof for the first time. It was an incredible movie. Yes, many of the actors were obviously not professionals, but I thought much of the acting was better than what you would see on Lifetime movies. I was extremely impressed with Kirk Cameron's acting-perhaps the best he has ever done. The thing that really impressed me was how this movie intertwined Christianity with the story line and it was not done in a cheesy manner. The scene where Kirk Cameron's character is asked by his father why he gets upset with his wife was sheer genius. They are in the middle of an old church campfire site. As Kirk's character is railing about how he has done everything to get his wife's love and she continually ignores him, his father slowly walks around the circle until he is leaning against a large wooden cross in the ground. Kirk looks up to see his dad there and immediately realizes that he has been doing the same ...

I explained to my 10 year old that Obama's budget would be spending his tax dollars from when he starts working someday. He replied, "Obama's a Cheapskate" and then added "Hey, he won't even be president then." Hearing how well a 10 year old understands what 60 million voting Americans cannot gives me some hope for the future of this country.

Great devotional that was shared by our Young Adult pastor this morning. Christians experience and witness a lot that gets us discouraged. I want to encourage us by some of Paul's words to the Corinthians. Remember the context: this was a messed up church. Their list of flaws included sexual immorality of every sort, lawsuits, drunkenness during communion, abuse of spiritual gifts, pride and rejection of spiritual authority. But listen to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9: "I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way-- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge--because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ o...

This new Dennis Jernigan song is powerful. It brought tears to my eyes to think of how relentless God is in His pursuit of us. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Wow! If this avowed atheist can understand why Christians should be witnessing about Jesus, then why is it so many Christians have trouble understanding that. You must see this video. About 5 minutes long.

Thanks to my friends at Kempke's Music my church was able to make scrim screens. What are they and what are they used for? They can actually be any size or shape, but they are used to catch lights so that you can enhance the worship service with visual worship. We used spandex material for the screens. We had the polished aluminum sanded to give it a rough texture so that the light will not reflect off of the metal. My friend Jim Drake uses visual worship in his church and has some great examples of these on his blog . Here are some photos that Kempke's sent to us. Hope they help others as they move to more visual worship.

I am starting to believe that we need to spend some time teaching some logic skills in our churches. What has brought this thought to my mind? I guess it is the number of people who continue to make confusing decisions and choices that are just mind boggling to me. Today I heard that one of our Family Bible Study classes plans to do a study by Max Lucado. Now, there is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. The problem is that this same class has been upset about our current church wide study because many believe it is based on the teachings of Rick Warren. When I hear this, I have to shake my head to try and make some sense out of their reasoning. You see, Rick Warren is a Southern Baptist pastor. Our church is Southern Baptist. Max Lucado is a Church of Christ pastor. Rick Warren teaches solid Southern Baptist principles. Max Lucado teaches solid Church of Christ principles. Again, nothing is wrong with Max Lucado or his denomination. After all, the Church of Christ came about as ...