Posts from March 2025

Many things change in the 400 years between the close of Malachi and the opening words of Matthew. Baptism is one of those things. It seems to appear from nowhere; suddenly, it is everywhere. John the Baptist emerged, and he was baptizing (Mk 1:4). As an adult, Jesus was baptized by John (Mk 1:9-11). Jesus himself then started preaching baptism, and his disciples baptized people for him (Jn 3:4, 22; 4:2). After his resurrection, Jesus said to make disciples by…

I had a meeting with Liberty County Responds this week, a group of local church and non-profit leaders focused primarily on disaster response as well as now other types of community engagement. We are in the initial stages of trying to form partnerships with the schools here, looking at ways that we can help students and teachers, and there was some lamenting that it is difficult to get more involvement because of differences in doctrine that exist. I pointed out…

From time to time, I think it is good to revisit articles that have been written by others in the past—even if I have printed them in this space before. The following article is by Cleon Lyles and originally appeared in “Just a Moment” in March 1962. Looking at my records, it appears that I published it here back in July of 2018. But there’s a lot of us who either weren’t here at that time or perhaps missed it—and…