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The good and bad of pretending
We’re gearing up for Trunk or Treat. This year, I will be a dog. Our team’s theme is D.O.G. – Depend on God. Last year, I was Shadrach – one of the Hebrew boys in the fire. The back of my car was filled with fake flames made from bulletin board paper. A real fire…
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The Pastor’s Pen: We’ll stay out of the way
The call to Worship had just been pronounced starting Easter Sunday morning service in an East Texas church. The choir started its processional, singing “Up from the Grave He Arose” as they marched in perfect step down the center aisle to the front of the church. The last lady was wearing shoes with very slender…
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Telling the Story: Using your gifts and talents
I was the worst piano student EVER. I was lazy, never wanting to practice, and to make it worse…I lied. Every week I told my piano teacher it had sounded better at home. It hadn’t. On the other hand, my sister thrived. We had the same lessons each week. She played wonderfully while my notes…
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Jesus: The I AM
BY GREG CRUM “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” Colossians 1:17-18 These are a couple of my all-time favorite Scriptures from…
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Notes from Calvary: Has He made an impression?
BY GREG CRUM “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:” Matthew 7:28 “And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?” Matthew 12:23 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue,…
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The Pastor’s Pen: The pearl of the greatest price
A Christian missionary in India had befriended a devoted Hindu and had explained that salvation is a gift. Then one day the Hindu told the missionary he was going to crawl many miles on his knees to Delhi as a means of earning salvation. But before he left he gave the missionary a small, heavy…
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Telling the Story: On the struggle bus
The struggle was real on Sunday morning. It was my turn to teach at the jail. We have been going to a prison or jail every week since 2006. It was not a new place or crowd. Teaching is one of my favorite things! Yet butterflies skittered in my stomach. I had read the Bible…
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Notes from Calvary: Ridiculous Faith Part 2
BY GREG CRUM “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and…
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The Pastor’s Pen: Who am I?
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant used to love to take long walks on a summer evening, meditating and thinking. On one occasion he was seated in a park when a suspicious policeman noticed that he had been there for several hours. The policeman came up to him and said, “What are you doing?” The philosopher…
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Telling the Story: Can’t be trusted
We can’t trust Dixie out of our sight. (Dixie is the eight-month-old puppy my beloved rescued a month ago.) The first week she was with us, Dixie got out of her crate twice while we were gone and set off the security alarm. In call No. 1, the dispatcher informed my beloved that an officer…
Category: Devotionals
