I appreciated Diane's sermon on the Power of Prayer as we wrap up our five week sermon series on the Book of James. I agree that prayer is powerful, a lot more powerful than we give it credit for and our prayers, when answered, are answered in several different ways. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes [...]
A Word to theWise
A Word to the Wise (James 3: 13-4, 7-8) I believed that the basic function of my role as an attorney was to counsel people, people who sought me out for advice or whom I had been appointed by the courts to represent in a criminal matter. And, as a prosecutor, I also counseled [...]
A Slip of the Tongue
A Slip of the Tongue (James 3: 1-12) If election cycles are nothing else, they are entertaining, especially in the age of the internet where nothing, NOTHING, is forgotten or goes away. A slip of the tongue, if recorded, lives on in perpetuity. Let’s say that you aspire to run for some sort of [...]
What Cost, Mercy?
What Cost Mercy? (James 2: 1-17) My friend Richard Kennedy was fond of saying that the milk of human kindness was not to be found in the Smith County courthouse. Richard, like me, had at one time been an assistant district attorney for the same elected prosecutor who operated under the belief that if [...]
All Talk, and No Action
All Talk and No Action (James 1: 17-27) One of my most pious Facebook friends just posted a meme on Facebook that said: “We are living in the last days! You aren’t obligated to believe, but I’m obligated to tell you: Jesus is coming back, Amen if you believe.” Well, she got 27 comments [...]
Life Is Precious
Life is Precious Life is precious, it is fragile, and none of us knows how long our life may last. “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time…” Paul is encouraging us to be careful and wise about how we live our life. Hebrews [...]
Easier Said Than Done
Easier Said Than Done (Ephesians 4: 25-5:2) As I’ve mentioned in previous sermons, my time as your Jefferson County Drug Court Prosecutor was probably one of the most impactful and rewarding jobs of my career in the law beginning as a police officer and then transitioning to an attorney who not only represented people [...]
Ethical Christianity
Ethical Christianity (Ephesians 4: 1-16) When I got into law school, we were required to take a class on Professional Responsibility which dealt with the issues of being an ethical lawyer. That was kind of a shock to my system as I naively assumed that all lawyers were ethical. I mean, as a police [...]
A House Divided
A House Divided (Ephesians 2: 11-22) On June 16, 1858, senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln gave his famous House Divided Speech. He had just accepted the nomination of his party to become their candidate for the United States Senate. His address closed the convention and he said, in part: A house divided against itself, cannot [...]