Before He Speaks

My dad sent this video to me as an email link and as a warning! It is a music video parody of Carrie Underwood's song "Before he Cheats." Only this version features three preacher wives and is their protest of their preacher husbands using them as sermon illustrations!



Now in my own defense, I don't think I have used a story about my wife as a sermon illustration before, but maybe I should ask her first! ;-)

Me A Star?

I have always found Jib Jab's political satire to be extremely funny. Their current take on the presidential race is no exception. And I even have a cameo appearance! Can you find me?

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Fishing With Daddy

Late last week, I went fishing with a friend. Ever since then, my almost three year old daughter has asked to go. So last night I took her to a local park with a fishing lake to go fishing.


I was really impressed with how well she did. We were there for 90 minutes and she never seemed bored. I chose this lake because it had a high perch population, and they didn't disappointment. We caught several fish. And when I ask her if she would like to do it again, she says "yes."


Enough with the words, here are some pictures.

Janae eating her sucker and fishing.

I got one daddy!

After catching her fish, Janae didn't want to even touch the pole! So I took this picture with her standing about 5 feet away. It makes it look like a monster perch!

In the Name of Love

Early morning, April 4

Shot rings out in the Memphis sky

Free at last, they took your life

They could not take your pride

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love

In the name of love

What more in the name of love...

from U2's song Pride (In the Name of Love)

Granted I have been busy taking care of my daughter this morning and so I have only casually seen the news today, but I would think as historical as today is in modern U.S. history even a casual scanning of the news should have mentioned this. But I am disappointed because I didn't hear this in the news today: forty years ago today Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN.

Two Years Ago Today

It was two years ago today that my life became more blessed than I ever thought it could. It was two years ago today that officials in the People's Republic of China placed in my wife's arms for the first time our daughter Janae. The last two years have gone by so fast and yet it seems like Janae has always been apart of our lives together.

We celebrated by going out to eat at P.F. Chang's with my parents. It was a great time of family and food.

For My Sis

This entry is for my sister who has been on me to write on my blog. After all, in her thinking a blog is meant to be updated from time to time. So this one is for you sis! ;-)

Actually the past 48 hours I have been attending the Bishop's retreat that my Annual Conference has every year for pastors like me to get some continuing education credit. I always dread coming to these things because of all the work it means I leave behind, but I am always glad I came once I am here.

This year's topic is on preaching and our presenter has been William Bobby McClain who is the Mary Elizabeth Joyce Professor of Preaching at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. I have enjoyed this conference because Professor McClain has taken us back to the basics of preaching – not unlike what Vince Lombardi did with the Green Bay Packers after a humiliating defeat by the Chicago Bears when Lombardi held up a football and said to the team, "Gentlemen, this is a football." It has been good to feel like a seminary student again in preaching class.

I have also enjoyed this conference because Professor McClain is from the Black Church tradition. In fact, he is the last elder actively serving in the United Methodist Church that was ordained through the Central Conference of the Methodist Church.

For those who aren't familiar with American Methodist history, in 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Protestant Methodist Church joined together to form the Methodist Church. As part of the agreement for merger, the Methodist Episcopal Church South inisted that black preachers and black congregations not be apart of white annual conferences. Therefore, the majority white denomination placed all the black congregations into one conference that encompassed most of the nation known as the Central Conference.

In 1968, when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethen merged to from today's United Methodist Church, the Central Conference was eliminated and the black churches were incorporated into the annual conference in which they were geographically located.

Anyway, being from the Black Church tradition, Professor McClain has introduced us to some great gospel hymns and spirituals. I am sad to admit how ignorant I have been about some of the music found within the United Methodist Hymnal. But after this retreat I have a new favorite hymn. It's number 522 in the UMH and it's titled, "Leave It There." Maybe sometime in the future I will write a hymn story, but for now you can find the words here.

And the singing has been awesome as well! Now I don't know what it's like when pastors from other denominations gather, but my experience has been that when pastors in the United Methodist Church gather, the singing is tremendous! I guess it's in our blood, because we Methodist love to sing.

And another great surprise at this retreat has been the number of pastors who brought musical instruments. We have violin/fiddle, guitar, piano, and banjo. In other words, we have had in impromptu bluegrass band. So the music and singing as well as the instruction have made this a great retreat.

The Rise and Fall of King Saul

Sorry it has been awhile since I posted anything, but I actually started working on this entry about 3 weeks ago! It's just taken me a while to find the time to finish it.

So in January, I started leading a Bible study on the life of David. Now I have read these stories before, but only in a casual way. So it really has been rewarding to take a closer look at the Life of King David. Since Saul the first king of Israel plays such an important part in David's story, it only seemed right to start by taking a quick look at him.

And what we see is that Saul started out as a good king. After his anointing as king in 1 Samuel 10, we read about Saul's first challenge to his authority and subsequent victory. In 1 Samuel 11, Nahash the Ammonite lays seige to Jabesh Gilead. When Saul hears of this, he rallies his army and defeats the Ammonites.

Now two things stand out to me about this event. The first is what Saul was doing when he received the word of the attack on Jabesh Gilead. 1 Samuel 11:5 tells us that Saul was returning home with his oxen after working in his field. Wow! The King of Israel doing the work of a common laborer. At this point Saul was still grounded with his people.

The second is Saul's response in victory. 1 Samuel 11:12-15 some of the people wanted to kill those who had opposed Saul in becoming king. And with his popularity due to his military victory, Saul could have easily ordered this. Instead, Saul told them, "No one shall be put to death today, for this day the LORD has rescued Israel." And then Samuel taking Saul's lead, leads the people in the worship of the LORD.

But what a drastic comparision can be made between the Saul of chapter 11 and chapter 15.

Of course by chapter 15, we already know things are not going to end well for Saul. In 1 Samuel 13, his impatients in waitning on Samuel and preforming a sacrifice on his own has already led to the foretelling that the kingdom will not remain with his family. And in 1 Samuel 14 we see that Saul is not a man who can keep an oath before God (even though if he had, it would have meant the death of Jonathan).

However I believe the greatest break from God occurs in 1 Samuel 15. Here we see that Saul is given strick instructions on how to fight the Amalekites, but doesn't follow them. Instead, he spares the king's life and he takes plunder in livestock.

But notice that when Samuel hears of what Saul has done, where is Saul to be found? Verse 12 says that Saul has gone to Carmel to set up a monument (do we dare say idol?) to himself because of his victory! Where is the man that insisted of giving God the credit for victory in chapter 13?

And then to make his rebellion against God complete, he lies twice about why he allowed livestock to be taken. First in verse 21 he says the best were kept in order to sacrafice them to God. To which Samuel gives the famous line, "to obey is better than sacrafice." The second lie occurs in verse 24 when he says he allowed his men to take the animals as plunder because he was afraid of them. Saul, a man who stood literally a head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel, is more afriad of his own men than he is of God? Now you see why I call this the second lie.

So is it any wonder that in the next chapter, God has Samuel select the sheperd boy David as a new anointed one. It will be another 40 years before Saul's rebellion against God leads to his own suicide in 1 Samuel 31 and David takes the throne, but the seperation is complete here in chapter 15.

The story of Saul is the story of a man who started off right with the Lord, but allowed the power of his position to lead him astray.