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We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic in our world. It is severe enough that earlier this year, the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, released an Advisory to call attention to it as a public health crisis. Countries such as Japan and the UK have gone so far as to appoint Ministers of Loneliness in their government. Our isolation and lack of connection to one another creates myriad physical problems that are worthy of…

Last week, we considered a question many people have asked over the years: will we know each other in heaven? While Scripture does not address this directly, it seems clear that the answer to that is affirmative, both from the great principles of the Bible as well as implications of passages found in both the Old and New Testaments. But there are some objections that have been raised to that idea before; let’s consider those here. Sometimes it’s suggested we…

A lot of folks walk around with guilt and insecurity for things they’ve done in the past. In a world that tells us to love ourselves and embrace who we are, many of us immediately run into a conundrum: why should I “love myself” when I’m guilty of (fill in the blank)? The world’s response to that? “Forgive yourself.” I hate this term. By definition, it doesn’t work. Among the definitions given by dictionary.com we find “to grant pardon for…

The following article is by Carroll Ellis and appeared in the Gospel Advocate January 1960. I have printed it in this space before, back in May of 2019; that was BC, “Before COVID.” It not only remains relevant, but is perhaps even more pressing now than it ever has been in living memory. I strongly encourage you to really consider it. -BP A man has just received a kind invitation. It was not an all-expense paid, deep sea fishing trip,…

We are considering going back to passing trays when we take the Lord’s Supper in the near future. In conjunction with that, I was thinking about our practice more generally this week and ran across this article from Wes McAdams. You have likely heard me say similar things to all 3 of these suggestions on occasion; I not only endorse them, but thought they might be helpful for you, too, because sometimes hearing another voice make the same point drives…

Do you remember what it felt like to be young? For some reading this, that was a long time ago. For others, it was a really long time ago. One of the things I remember is that it seemed like it took forever to grow up; you can probably relate to that. Most of the time, as children, we are ready to be older and bigger than we are; it’s why when we are really little, we put that “and…

Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter. Ecclesiastes 10:20 Have you ever wondered how people find out things? Statements we made and actions we took which we thought would never be known suddenly become public knowledge; what we thought was a secret is published abroad. We have an expression for that mysterious process that…

In our Wednesday evening study of Proverbs, we encountered 14:31 this week: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” There was discussion over what it means for a nation to be righteous, because it is hard to define. It made me think of this recent article by Wes McAdams on Radically Christian for a good perspective related to the issue. It has been slightly modified in format, but not content. -BP Should Christians rule the…

1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will…

My friend Bruce Ligon passed away this week. Some of you might recognize that name; he has been on our prayer list on Facebook in the past. I have known Bruce basically my entire life, at least as long as I can remember. His first job out of Freed-Hardeman University was as the Youth Minister at Eastern Hills in Marshall, where I grew up, in 1986. Afterward, he preached at several congregations across Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. For the last…

Sometimes we reprint articles in this space; normally, I go a few years without doing that. But we are about to kickoff our small groups program again for 2023-24 next week, and this relates so directly to what they are all about, that I felt it was worth it to revisit it again already—plus, the article itself was reprinted by the author after only a few months because it proved so popular, so I figure what’s sauce for the goose…

Over the last few weeks, we have explored why we should have more confidence in our salvation. We examined what the overarching narrative of Scripture reveals about God’s nature and purpose, that he takes the initiative to restore the relationship with humanity that has been broken by sin; he is reaching out to us, earnestly desiring us to be reconciled to him. He has achieved that reconciliation through Jesus; if we are incorporated into Christ through faith, repentance, and baptism,…