Classic City Rev

I go for a walk around 6:30 every morning as I start my day.  Obviously, getting exercise is one reason for my walk.  Yet, my walk also provides me a time for me to pray.  Some mornings I'm done praying by the time I get to the end of the street on which I live.  Other times I'm still praying when I get back to my house.  It all depends on what is on my heart and on my mind that day.There are days when I preach on my walk.  No, I'm not a street preacher but I do go over my upcoming sermons in my mind as a take my walk.   Now that schools have resumed their normal schedules following their summer break, I've noticed that there is a more routine traffic pattern on my walk. There is a young man on our street who attends Athens Academy.  Each morning he stands at the end of his drive way waiting on the Athens Academy bus.  As I finish my walk the bus is usually turning  down my street. The bus turns around in the cul de sac in front of my house and drives back up the

This week the President mentioned that he felt that it would be a great idea if our country purchased Greenland.  Greenland is a semi-autonomous island near the North Pole that is controlled by Denmark. Needless to say the President's remarks set off a swirl of controversy among people, many of whom had never given any thought to Greenland prior to the President's comment.  Those who love the President now have suddenly became wildly excited about Greenland and those who generally oppose the President probably have found the idea absurd. I certainly will not venture to discuss the pros and cons of purchasing Greenland within the space of the this blog. However, I will offer that such a purchase would probably be one of the largest real estate transactions in the history of the world.   Toni and I just purchased a new home and we had to jump through the hoops of home inspections, offers, counter-offers, title searches, earnest money, and other such steps that were requi

With the scorching temperatures that we have had the past few days, it occurred to me that it is common to equate heat with anger.  We sometimes say that when someone is mad that he or she got a little "hot under the collar."  On other occasions when something makes us angry we might say, "that makes made blood boil."  There are other examples of course but I believe I've made my point. This leads us to a larger discussion of anger.  What roll does anger play in the life of the Christian?  Is it proper for a Christian to become angry?  If so, what type of things should anger a Christian?  How should Christ's followers deal with the anger they feel? In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible the word "anger" appears over 300 times.  Most of those references come from the Old Testament and often speak of the anger of God.  In addition the word "angry" appears in the same version of scripture approximately 100 times again with

I did not preach a special sermon last Sunday morning in light of the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, though I did mention the tragedies prior to the sermon.   I urged my congregants to be in prayer for those affected by the shooting and to pray for those in leadership who would respond to the shooting. I am left wondering should I have said more.   Perhaps not only should I have asked my congregation to pray I should have also asked them to do something. Over thirty years ago, prior to my entering the ministry, I heard a sermon that had a huge impact on my life.   The sermon was preached by the Reverend Ted Bass at the former Lynmore United Methodist Church in Macon.   In that sermon he wondered aloud if at times Christians weren’t guilty of using prayer as a “cop out.”   He proposed that often times Christians were guilty of saying “lets pray about it” when the better response might be “let’s do something about it.” Those words came to mind again as I re