“Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only,...
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I don’t know when I first heard that word, or who said it. It sounded bold and strong. In reflection, my hunch is that whomever coined that singsong wisdom was probably in some dark corner alone,...
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12, NIV) In his introduction to Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ, Douglas Steere wrote,...
Our city, Memphis, is known for a lot of things in a lot of different ways; one big way: our music. It’s difficult to argue against the fact that we are the homeplace of “the birth of blues.” Our most famous person among a huge cast of well known musicians is Elvis...
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel...
In my last blog I talked about the light of Christmas, reflecting on a text of Scripture that has been a source of my Christmas meditation and reflection for over fifty years; For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to...
“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and...
I am sure I had read the particular passage of Scripture before, but it never hit me as it did that day over fifty years ago. It penetrated to the deepest core of my being, enveloped my soul, and has been a part of me since. Every year, during the Advent/Christmas...