All Fired Up (Luke 24: 44-53 and Acts 1: 1-11) I loved Little League baseball, looking forward every year to a new season full of new possibilities. The anticipation of the umpire yelling “Play Ball” on opening day was thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. I had done everything I could imagine [...]
Conflict Resolution (John 14: 23-29) For a person who desires to get along with most people, who goes out of his way to avoid personal conflict, I’ve made a pretty good living in the art of conflict resolution. As a police officer I would respond to all sorts of calls, many of which involved [...]
Expecting a Miracle (Acts 9: 32-43) You’ve heard it said by someone who was in a desperate state facing a difficult situation not knowing where to turn for help or relief say something along the lines of “I’m praying for a miracle” or maybe you’ve been in such a situation yourself. Being forced to [...]
Protect and Serve (John 21: 1-19) In order to become a Houston Police Officer, you first had to apply, pass a background check, and a polygraph examination. Then, if you were lucky, you were accepted into a sixteen-week academy where trained and experienced instructors taught you the various aspects of policing on such topics [...]
Believing Without Seeing (John 20: 19-31) Back when I was one of the sergeants over the DWI Task Force of the Houston Police Department, we had some of the best and most dedicated drunk hunters you could assemble. Charlie Green was one of my road warriors and he was easily at the top of [...]
A Good Question (Luke 24: 1-12) Over the course of the past several years you have heard me speak fondly of my grandfather, the Rev. Clyde Rosekrans, who was a Methodist minister before the Methodists became united towards the end of the 1960s. He baptized me and I grew up in the small Methodist [...]
The Bigger Picture (John 12: 1-8) Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve had jobs that had a bigger picture mission that could often times get lost in the minutia of day-to-day business. Jobs where you can become so overwhelmed with what’s going on around you that you forget what your main objective was, [...]
A Way Out (1 Corinthians 10: 1-13) First, let me begin by offering an apology to my mother just in case she is watching. I was born to teenagers, and I don’t think either of them were ready for a strong-willed and rebellious first child. It’s not that I was inherently bad, but when [...]
Model Behavior (Philippians 3: 17-4:1) Back when I was a Houston Police Officer, I worked undercover which gave me an excellent opportunity to watch people when they thought no one was watching. Some of those people were on-duty uniformed police officers. One time my younger brother was riding with me and as we turned [...]
The Message of Faith (Romans 10: 8-13) I know I’ve used this story in at least one sermon in the past, but it was so impactful for me as it showed what faith could do for a person facing an uncertain future, so bear with me. It was back when I was a court-appointed [...]