“I cannot be an optimist, but I am a prisoner of hope.” These words spoken by Dr. Cornel West of Harvard Divinity School obviously assume a conceptual difference between optimism and hope. What is the difference? Are Christians called to be optimists or people of hope? Can we be both, or should we choose one over the other?

A religious symposium held Sunday on the Kilgore College campus dealt with a contentious issue in the modern church, at times sparking animated discussions.

People are anxious and tired. They want and need peace and rest. God the Father freely offers both through faith in His Son Jesus Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit.

All of us who claim a faith are theologians. Yes, you, even you, are a theologian! Before I define the word theologian, we must understand the word theology.

In connection with a televised town-hall on LGBTQ+ issues earlier this month, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said that he was in favor of revoking the tax-exempt status of churches that oppose same-sex “marriage”. Aside from the arguments for and against churches’ in general having such tax-exempt status, the federal government’s denying particular churches’ tax-exempt status because of what they teach or do certainly seems to be contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution’s prohibition of “establishing” one religion or permitting another’s free exercise.

I’ve been preaching my way through the Ten Commandments. The first two speak to issues of idolatry; the first commandment prohibits worshiping false gods, while the second prohibits representing the true God in a false way. Allow me to say more about the second commandment.

Recently, two of my Canadian friends attended a Memorial Service for a member of their small community at a United Church (a merger of the Methodist, some Congregationalist, and some Presbyterian churches in Canada). My friends said that the service’s “sermon” shockingly did not even mention Jesus.

We all want success. We all want to be successful students, employees, parents, grandparents, and the list goes on. Those of you who own your small business, you want it to flourish and thrive. In our world, success is usually indicated by measurable outcomes such as good grades, job promotions and raises, and children who go to college to make a nice family. We preacher types are not immune to this world’s way of quantifying success.

God made clear, already in the Old Testament, that the life of flesh was in the blood and that He gave it on the altar in order to make atonement for souls (Leviticus 17:11). So, there should be little surprise that, in the New Testament, Jesus’s blood sacrificed on the cross is said to reconcile us to God (Colossians 1:20). The many bloody sacrifices under the old covenant pointed forward to the single bloody sacrifice under the new covenant in Jesus’s blood (Hebrews 9:12-414; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Rev. Earl W. “Buddy” Duggins has seen many changes at Forest Home Baptist Church over the years. The pastor is marking his thirtieth year at FHBC and took time to reflect on the occasion Friday.

God’s written word never ceases to be relevant. I encountered this truth first-hand while preparing my sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. This passage depicts Christ as both judge and king who separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are placed on the right, signifying their righteousness. The goats are moved to the left, signaling their condemnation.

60 years of food, fun and fellowship.

Although Genesis 6:5 can rightly suggest that in some sense things could not get any worse, our society seems to be sliding more towards lawlessness. Consider first the standoff last month in Philadelphia where six officers were shot by a gunman while crowds of onlookers taunted, shoved, and threw things at the police. Consider second a school curriculum with anti-police rhetoric proposed last month by the California Department of Education (but eventually withdrawn). And, other examples abound.

Aside from whatever other heart trouble any one individual might have, the real heart problem from which we all suffer is a moral evil so great that we ourselves cannot understand but which ultimately only the Lord can diagnose, as expressed in His Word (Jeremiah 17:9-10; confer Luke 16:15; Romans 8:27; Revelation 2:23).

God’s written word never ceases to be relevant. I encountered this truth first-hand while preparing my sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. This passage depicts Christ as both judge and king who separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep are placed on the right, signifying their righteousness. The goats are moved to the left, signaling their condemnation.

A year ago, Jessica Dunnavant struggled to envision today, but she’s seen things happen the past year she’s never thought possible. It’s no leap forward, though: there were many, many steps in-between, guided by Son Shine Lighthouse Ministry. Now, there are many more steps ahead, sure ones: “It’s given me a new outlook on life.”

At the risk of this column’s being mistaken for one by my syndicated Kilgore News Herald colleague Dr. Roach, I encourage everyone to take care for themselves, their families, and their pets in our August East Texas heat! Especially those who work outside should drink extra water and, when they can, take breaks inside air-conditioned spaces. And, after several fatalities nationwide, apparently not to leave either family members or pets in turned-off cars does not go without saying.

As we discussed in a recent Midweek Bible Study, the passage almost sounds like it is meant to be funny. After Jesus heard Martha and Mary’s sending to Him that his friend Lazarus was ill, St. John’s Gospel account essentially tells us that, “since” Jesus loved them, He stayed two days longer where He was before going to Lazarus. We might ask, “Who does that?” In this case, apparently Jesus did!

I am nearing the end of a sermon series on the parables of Jesus. After spending ten weeks preaching them, my favorite has to be the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  This story does not let any of us off the hook, and most importantly, it is one of the best illustrations of our heavenly father’s unconditional love.

The Gospel Reading for many this past Sunday was the historical illustration of a Samaritan who loved as himself a man whom robbers left half-dead on the road in front of him (Luke 10:25-37; confer Leviticus 19:18). Jesus used the illustration to try to get an expert in the law to realize th…

I recently heard my seminary president, Craig Barnes, preach a sermon on the phrase “if only.” Dr. Barnes said that when “if only” surfaces in a conversation it usually focuses either on the past or the future. “If only I had saved better for retirement.” “If only I had taken that other job …

There was a crowd of superheroes dancing to the beat of their own drum in First Christian Church’s gym this week. They came to join the ‘Jesus League,’ to become super-followers of Jesus in the sixth annual Special Needs Vacation Bible School hosted by the Main Street congregation, and they found many sidekicks waiting to celebrate alongside them

“How much poison does it take to kill you?” That was what the title of my presentation at a national youth conference this past week asked attendees. Of course, I was not trying to encourage them to take their own or anyone else’s physical life but to get them to think about how much false teaching it might take to end their spiritual life.

A decades-old tradition in Kilgore continued Thursday as the Danville Cemetery Association held their annual picnic.

Self-help books flood the consumer market. Researchers claim that by the year 2022, the self-improvement industry will have a total market value of 13.2 billion dollars. The titles of these books speak for themselves.

Pope Francis recently approved changes to the wording of the Lord’s Prayer, specifically the petition regarding temptation.

The 86th Texas legislative session ended this past Monday with the House’s passing but the Senate’s not voting on a bill related to decriminalizing some possession of marijuana. My News Herald colleague Rev. Will Wilson argued for the bill in his May 12th column, which teased my different perspective that now follows.

The headline on a Barna Group report out this past April (based on interviews conducted between April and August of 2018) was “1 in 4 Practicing Christians Struggles to Forgive Someone”. The details of that report indicated that 23% of practicing Christians (defined as those Christians who said that their faith is very important in their lives and who had attended a worship service in the preceding month) reported that they could identify someone whom they could not forgive, and of those only 28% said that they wished they could forgive that person.

God spoke the following promise through Isaiah: “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24 ESV). That promised behavior of God contrasts sharply to the prior behavior of the Israelites that a few verses earlier God judged for the following reasons: “because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen” (Isaiah 65:12 ESV).

At time of writing, the Texas legislature is considering a bill that would take steps toward decriminalizing possession of marijuana. If the bill passes, those caught with less than an ounce would have to pay a $500 fine instead of being arrested and incarcerated. I want to express my support for this bill from a theological perspective. In fact, I believe that no one should be criminalized at all for mere possession.

Aside from its being the Third Sunday of Easter and other things, tomorrow also is Cinco de Mayo: not Mexico’s Independence Day from Spain, as that is September 16 (1810), but the 1862 date of the outnumbered Mexican army’s victory over French forces, a victory that arguably affected not onl…

The Easter lilies and chocolate eggs at the grocery store have now gone back to the discount rack. The Easter egg hunt and egg roll will not happen again until next year. Your families have now gone back home. There will be plenty of parking spaces left when you show up to Church tomorrow morning, and the same pews that are usually sparse or empty will be so again, just like most other Sundays. The Sunday after Easter is often called “low” Sunday, the other being the Sunday after Christmas. It’s called “low” because the attendance on this day is usually a fraction of what it was the week before.

First Presbyterian Church’s Rev. Will Wilson and Elder Mike Sechrist drape a black cloth across the cross following the traditional Stripping of the Chancel during Maundy Thursday services. The black draping of the cross ahead of Good Friday represents Jesus Christ’s death for the sins of Hi…

“A blood donor saved my life; you can save lives, too,” that is what is on the front of the T-shirt that the Blood Center of East Texas will be giving away on Saturday, April 27, at the 23rd Quarterly Kilgore Community Blooddrive cosponsored by the Kilgore Rotary Club and our congregation.

I've had my share of doctor's office visits. Back in 2005, I had an over-night heart procedure at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC. My heart has been ticking just fine ever since, and I continue to maintain an active cardio work-out routine. Now, fourteen years later, I am able to live…

As a Presbyterian, I adhere to certain doctrinal confessions and creeds, just as the Southern Baptists might affirm the Baptist Faith and Message. One of the documents to which I am confessionaly bound is called the Scots Confession. This Confession claims that the true Church is known by th…