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 [...]
Lifting the Veil (2 Corinthians 3-4:2) I love those conversations that start with: “You know what it says in the Bible” because I know they’re about to go all Old Testament on me. And if they do go all Old Testament on me, it’s because they want to justify some opinion, belief, or talking [...]
What Aboutism (Luke 6: 27-38) One of the challenges of practicing criminal law, whether as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, was responding to a client’s plea of: What about this or what about that? With my criminal defendant clients, who were usually in jail, they would come up with all kinds of excuses [...]
If You’re Happy and You Know It (Luke 6: 17-26) Many of you, like me, grew up in church and as a small child learned what I guess we can call Children’s Praise Songs. When Teresa and I went to her home church in Coldspring, Texas, I left my Sunday School Class to help [...]
Let’s Go Fishing! (Luke 5: 1-11) It was many years ago when I was a young police officer when I mentioned to one of my training officers that my in-laws lived on Lake Livingston and liked to fish. I didn’t know that fishing was his passion, and he immediately asked if he could be [...]
Speaking Truth to Power (Luke 4: 21-30) A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the District Superintendent asked me to consider being the Puget Sound Missional District representative on the Conference Board of Church and Society. He gave me a brief description of what all it entailed, and I agreed to have my [...]
Part-time is Plenty (1 Corinthians 12: 12-31) I recently finished reading a book that the District Superintendent recommended to me entitled: Part-time is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy, written by part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald. He says that churches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a [...]
It’s A Gift (1 Corinthians 12: 1-11) I remember that time period in between when I was told I was going to be appointed as the certified Lay Minister for Community United Methodist Church how excited I was to begin a new chapter in my life. And I remembered how nervous I was as [...]
Jesus is for Everybody (Acts 8: 1-17) Back in the Spring of 2008 when I found out I had been offered a position as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Jefferson County I broke the news to the Sunday School Class at First Baptist, Tyler, that I had been teaching that Teresa and I would [...]