Between Monday and Sunday

Most of these pictures were taken by my wife, Barbara. She has an artists' eye. We had some friends who invited us to visit them in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. We are very thankful to God for providing this brief time of relaxation and refreshment as a family.

I was blessed by this passage and wanted to share it with you today... Moses said to the Lord, “Look, You have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.” Then He replied, “My presence will go [with you] , and I will give you rest.” “If Your presence does not go,” Moses responded to Him, “don’t make us go up from here. How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us? I and Your people will be distinguished [by this] from all the other people on the face of the earth.” The Lord answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Please, let me see Your glory.” He sa...

In case you don't get my e-newsletter, this was the feature and is on my heart today. Pastor, as I prepared to preach a sermon on prayer last week, I got out two resources that have shaped my prayer life. The first was T.W. Hunt's Disciple's Prayer Life . This in-depth 13-week study would be the perfect daily study and prayer guide for you personally for the next three months. I am going through it for the fourth time and am amazed at how fresh it is. I got permission to post a 22-page sample including the introduction, first complete week of daily studies, and one of the twelve prayer guides. The other study shaped how I pray with others. It is T.W. Hunt and Claude King's "In God's Presence." The cool thing is that this study has been revised and is now part of our "Growing Disciples Series." The new study called Pray in Faith just released this month and I've posted a 17-page sample including the introduction and week one. I personall...

I had some fun in a sermon I preached recently. I used the theme from the TV program "Antiques Roadshow" to teach truths from Ephesians 2 about our value to God. I compared the four ways that an antique is valued (Rarity, Provenance, Quality, and Condition) to what the Bible says about our value in God's eyes. I have included the simple PowerPoint presentation and handout I used so you can get a feel for what we did and adapt this for your church family. Access the model sermon and complimentary downloads now... Listen to the sermon as I preached it...

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...