“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) Many of my North Carolina readers remembered that I was fired from my position as county manager where I lived in 2004. The 3 to 2 vote that resulted in my dismissal came as quite a surprise. I had committed no offense. In fact, the local county commission chairman characterized it as a “hatchet job”. In the days that followed, I was […]

“‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call Me good?’ Jesus answered.” (Mark 10:17-18) I stumbled across a great book when I was surfing the Internet the other day by the title “Questioning Evangelism.” It provides a practical framework for winning souls to Christ. People seem to forget the Great Commission, but that’s our challenge from the Lord. Why? So others can understand what words like joy, peace, grace, and mercy really mean! The author, Randy Newman, points out the […]

“The end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8) I was listening to a friend recently who came very close to winning a promotion. His disappointment was understandable. As he shared his frustration, however, he also read some verses from the Book of Romans that comforted him. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith unto […]

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” (Matthew 3:1-2) The immortal words of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” had a great deal to do with my own salvation. I heard those words just a few days before I was saved in 1991, proclaimed from the back of pickup truck by a couple of teenagers running down an old country road near Charlotte, North Carolina. […]