It has been said that every good story borrows from the gospel. If you have ever found yourself in tears at the close of a book or witnessed an eruption of applause in a movie theater, you have tasted gospel seasoning in the drama. The self-sacrificing hero, victory from the clutches of defeat, or the sudden reappearance of a character thought to be dead all borrow their glory from the greatest story ever told. These tales are often woven around central characters who give of themselves for the good of others. Mr. Darcy, Frodo Baggins, Atticus Finch, and Penny Baxter are endearing precisely because they look a little something like Jesus. But nothing compares to the real thing. Our favorite stories only are pencil sketches of the gospel diamond. The true gem glints and glitters with the...

Why Southern Baptists Fight Southern Baptists don’t like to fight. That might sound surprising if you think they fight a lot. But it’s true. Fights only happen in the SBC when convention leaders forget who Southern Baptists are. Southern Baptists are a group of theologically conservative churches cooperating together to announce to the world that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin. The brilliance of the SBC is that churches of all sizes and in all locations understand we can do more together than we ever could alone. They trust each other to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the Great Commission. That trust has made them the largest mission-sending entity in world history. If leaders would remember that, we would never have any fights. Certainly not any big ones. But...

There is something spectacular about sitting outside on a brisk, dark evening and staring at a fire. I’m not sure what it is about fire that is so amazing, but many of my favorite memories involve late-night conversations and s’mores around the fire pit in my backyard. If the experience of sitting around a fire is spectacular, the way fire is produced is shocking, almost miraculous. Fire comes when three elements are combined: oxygen, heat, and fuel– you probably remember this from your middle school science class. The combination of these commonplace things produces something amazing. Love and care in relationships are similar. It is a spectacular thing when God fills our hearts with ever-increasing love. In order for this to happen, we need God to work a few commonplace things in our hearts...

They get to the core of us, evoking tears of admiration, shouts of praise, or swelling pride that grips the heart and takes us to the very center of being human. Few among us have not been moved to tears when hearing Tom Hank’s character, Captain John Miller, say to Private James Ryan with his last breath…“earn this,” or hearing Rocky Balboa cry out from the boxing ring, “Adrian, yo, Adrian, I did it!”; or hearing Samwise Gamgee say to Frodo Baggins “I can’t carry it (the ring) for you, but I can carry you,” then lifts Frodo onto his shoulders and proceeds to carry him up Mount Doom. These, and a thousand other heroic acts of love (fictional or real), greatly inspire us. Why do they? What about them affects us so? Jesus gives some insight. He said, “Greater love has no one than this,...

An Impossible Decision I was still in first grade when I mastered the art of recognizing an impossible decision. Way back then, long before my mom became a Christian late in her life, she was a drunk and violently abusive. On one occasion, she tossed me through a glass coffee table, leaving the table smashed and my face and arms covered with cuts. When I showed up at school, some anonymous teacher did what my teachers always did and called social services. I don’t remember all the social workers that we met when I was a kid, but I do remember the one who came by after my mom threw me through the table. She got me alone and asked me all sorts of questions, including what had happened to my face. I told her the truth. Then she went and talked to my mom. I couldn’t hear their conversation,...

What is a real friend? If you Google that question, you will find several common answers: They listen. They are loyal. They are accepting. They are supportive. They are interested in similar things. They stick with you. They want what’s best. These lists all contain nice traits that have their place, but they all neglect the most important ingredient in relationships – the foundation, the root that produces the fruit of fellowship: The Bible. Are your relationships orbiting around the Bible? If they aren’t, you are missing out on one of the most important ingredients in the types of relationships that glorify God and bind people together for decades. Why do you need the Bible in relationships? Because You Need Friends Who Watch You Do you remember the first days of quarantine during...