The Sixth Commandment

“Thou shalt not kill.”  Exodus 20:13 is often cited as a prohibition of homicide in all circumstances, which is patently absurd given the multiple crimes with mandatory death penalties under the Law of Moses.  In fact, this is sometimes pointed to by skeptics as a “contradiction” in the Bible.  So what does this passage actually mean?  What is being prohibited, why is it wrong, and what broader principles are there here for us to learn?

As we have previously noted, this passage may not be read as a prohibition of the taking of human life in all cases, because…

The Best is Yet to Come

There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. So, as she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, which scriptures she would like read, and which outfit she wanted to be buried in. Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important…

    In Kenya, it is not uncommon for children to walk many miles to school. However, some do not lollygag around—they run! Why? Well, a reporter at the Sydney Olympics may have inadvertently stumbled upon the answer as he questioned Kenyan Kip Lagat. He wanted to know how Kenya kept producing so many great distance runners. Did it have something to do with their training? Lagat replied with a tongue-in-cheek laugh, “It’s the road signs: ‘Beware of lions!’” 

    My mom used to warn me about strangers. Do you think a Kenyan mother tells her children, as she hands them their…

    Have you been to the funeral home? Does your car break down? Has anything ever been stolen from you? Do you ever get sick? Have you had the frustration of buying something, and it quit working the day after the warranty expired?

    All of these questions illustrate one truth: this world is a decaying, rotting, disintegrating place in which to live. No matter how hard one tries, things still break, robbers continue stealing, and people still die. This world is, quite literally, going down the drain.

    Amazingly, mankind chooses to ignore the obvious. What many people seek the most,…

The Bride of Christ

Marriage is universal and timeless. The ancient world knew marriage just as modern man does, and even in cultures foreign to us the ceremony may look strange, but marriage itself remains a constant.

It is no wonder, then, that Jesus uses marriage as an example of the relationship between himself and the church. Since marriage is so timeless, all generations can understand how we relate to Christ and how Christ relates to us in a very tangible way.

The Holy Spirit, through Paul, draws a parallel between marriage and the relationship between Christ and the church in Ephesians 5:22-33.

The…

When Comfort Becomes a Master

Sometimes it’s dangerous to find ourselves being too comfortable in our life. May sound strange because most of us spend a great deal of life trying to become more comfortable. We want financial stability, peaceful homes, easier schedules, fewer problems, better health, and less stress. None of those things are wrong by themselves. In fact, many of them are blessings. But blessings can quietly become our masters. Comfort becomes dangerous when it starts deciding what we will obey, what we will sacrifice, what we will avoid, and how far we are willing to follow God. It…

    “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15, ESV).

    Imagine what a comfort that was to Paul. According to 1 Timothy 1:13, he had been a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. According to Romans 7:8, his major downfall was covetousness of every kind. According to Exodus 20:17, the kinds of covetousness include coveting your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s servants, your neighbor’s goods, even your neighbor’s wife. Despite being a Pharisee and even blameless (Phil. 3:6), Paul knew his own…

Is God Dead?  An Answer in Song Form!

One of my personal favorite hymns we sing at church is “Our God He Is Alive.” I like this hymn for many reasons. The message reminds us that God exists and He plays an active part in our lives, while also being a good summary of the story of the whole Bible. But when I learned the background behind it, I appreciated it even more. “Our God He Is Alive” was written by Aaron Wesley Dicus in 1966, the same year Time magazine published a cover story titled, “Is God Dead?” In the…

    What Jesus is, is what we need. If we need anything at all in our lives, we need someone to lead us. We need a guide, a shepherd to show us where we ought to go and how to get there. Jesus affirmed that He is that guide, when He said, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).

    To understand the context wherein Jesus made this statement, we must drop back to the previous chapter, where we are introduced to a blind man. Two notable things happened to the blind man in John 9. First, he received his sight…

Tax Collector or Pharisee

In Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee:

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would…

    The weather is warming up.  Memorial Day is next Monday.  School is about to be out.  You know what that means?  The Southside Lectures are fast approaching!

    Five weeks away, to be exact.  That’s just hard for me to fathom.  This whole year has been a series of statements beginning with “I can’t believe it’s already ______.”  But it is.  And we can’t let the lectures sneak up on us or we’ll be unprepared for what is sure to be a spiritual feast.

    The dates this year are June 22-25, Monday through Thursday.  We have morning lectures (9:30, 10:30)…

    It’s hard losing your parents. You labor under the strain of not having told them more often that you love them. You remember all the things they did for you, and sit and wonder if you did much for them.

    I was home in Lubbock for the holidays a few years ago. Mom had insisted on making my favorite breakfast—biscuits and sawmill gravy. We had a fine time. As we drove away, she was still standing on the porch, waving. I somehow thought it might be the last time I would see her. She died the next month. She…

    God, after creating man in His own image, wanted to have a relationship with   him. Yet, for man to have a relationship with a holy God, he must first deny himself and come up to the level of God, and not try to bring God down to his level.  Only a holy and sinless God can set the terms of such a relationship. There are no negotiations!  Failing to sanctify God, both in our heart and actions, will always result in God being profaned! 

    The word profane means “Common, not sanctified or set apart.”  If I profane God by disobeying…