Between Monday and Sunday

MONTREAT, N.C. ( BPNews.net )--Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, died at 5:05 EST June 14, surrounded by her husband and five children at her Montreat, N.C., home. She was 87. "Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Billy Graham said in a statement after her death. "No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support. "I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we've had in the mountains together," Graham added. "We've rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in heaven." For several weeks, Graham had been confined to bed as she suffered from degenerative osteoarthritis of the back...

I just posted the sermon I preached this past Sunday as we kicked off our 2007 Vacation Bible School . The theme this year is a sports theme: "Game Day Central, Where Heroes are Made." The main Bible passage for VBS is Hebrews 12:1-2 so I used that as my scripture and used the daily VBS themes as my five points. (I found these on the VBS Gameday website in the section Daily Overview for Children .) You may download my manuscript, handout, and PowerPoint files free from Proclaim Online. This is the basic outline I used... “Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (HCSB) If you want to be great in God’s eyes … 1....

I mentioned last week in the Pastors Today e-newsletter that I have recently completed studying a book called Made to Stick by brothers Dan and Chip Heath. One element that I've been applying is their recommendation to include " specific details " when telling a story. They say that it helps people to visualize the situation you are describing and makes the story more "credible" or believable. For instance, this past Sunday our worship service used the sports theme "Game Day Central" since we were kicking off our Vacation Bible School . I was sharing a personal illustration during my sermon about a football player that lived next door to us. As I told the story, I purposefully used concrete details in my story. Instead of saying, "Rocky drove up into his driveway," I said, "Rocky drove up in his Blue 1973 Fastback Mustang ." Instead of merely saying he was a football player I added the following details, "Rocky is 6 foot 4 in...

Jott.com is a new free service that uses voice recognition technology to e-mail you the contents of your recorded voice message. Go to Jott.com and set up your phone, e-mail address, etc. and you can do what I do... My son's baseball coach is giving his speech at the end of a game and announces that the next practice is Tuesday at DuPont Tyler at 6:30 pm. I grab my cell phone and call the Jott.com toll-free number 877--568-8486 and hear a perky female voice, "Who do want to Jott?" I answer, "me." She say's "Jott to self," and I hear a beep. I then say, "Casey practice, Tuesday at DuPont Tyler at 6:30 pm." I wait a few seconds to hear her say, "Got it!" I then get an e-mail with my message transcribed into text, "Casie practice, Tuesday at DuPont Tayler at 6:30 pm." It's not exact - but pretty close. I can then copy it into my calendar. You might ask the question, "what if it doesn't understand what you s...

The survey asked SBC pastors, Protestant pastors and laity their beliefs about private prayer language using this wording: "Do you believe that the Holy Spirit gives some people the gift of a special language to pray to God privately? Some people refer to this as a Private Prayer Language or the 'private use of tongues.'" You may view a longer article on lifeway.com here but I was especially interested in the responses from pastors ... Fifty percent of Southern Baptist pastors answered "Yes," 43 percent said "No," and 7 percent responded "Don't know." Non-SBC pastors are more likely to believe that the Holy Spirit gives some people a private prayer language than Southern Baptist pastors. Sixty-six percent of non-SBC pastors responded "Yes," 32 percent responded "No," and 3 percent responded "Don't know." Protestant pastors (Southern Baptists and non-SBC) are more likely to believe the Holy Spirit giv...