Happy Birthday, Amanda! With every passing year, you grow in grace and beauty. You stole my heart when I was 16, and yet you somehow manage to take more of it day by day. I often say to others that I “outkicked my coverage” when I married you. I am simply way out of my league. And one day, you …
If you have ever had someone you look up to fall from grace, you know the accompanying pain with their fall. Whether it was a moral failure or skeletons emerging from a closet, the news is shocking and devastating. It seems all the more regular that I hear of someone’s role model being exposed for living a hidden life. While we …
Without a doubt, God still calls people today just as sure as He called Moses. In fact, He still calls them to do the same things that He called Moses to do. This service will hopefully help us to recognize that call and respond appropriately. We started our time together by singing “New Doxology” and “Never Seen the Righteous Forsaken” in …
We are introducing “Almighty” at North Side this Sunday. I first heard this song at Passion 2014. Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, and Jared Anderson wrote the song. It is such a powerful anthem. I actually was worshiping to this song today on the iPod as some Jehovah’s Witnesses came up. Great timing! Musically, it’s different from all the other worship …
The last couple of weeks have been super busy. As I am leading a group of folks through our 100 Day Bible Reading Plan, I have to confess something: I got behind. A few days behind. During ministry, early morning camp schedules, family stuff going on, I got more and more behind in my Bible reading plan. I also got …
After swim lessons tonight, the boys loaded up in the truck to head home. Reviewing the day, we discussed swimming, funerals, and eternity. Speaking concerning the gloriousness of heaven, I tried to engage their minds with the greatest thoughts possible. Eli said, “If heaven is that great, does that mean we won’t have to do dishes there?” “Well, that’s not …
So excited to share that I will be working again with Fuge Camps in the Summer of 2015! It’s been a few years since I worked with Fuge, but these camps have always held such a dear place to my heart. As a camper, I grew tremendously in my walk with Christ at Centribreak and Centrifuge camps. As a college student, …
Today’s services examined the perfect timing of God, the people who God uses, and the preparation that God often puts people through before He uses them. All of these things can be rather curious at times when viewed from a human perspective, but rather rewarding when seen through the eyes of faith (Exodus 1-2). It was great to be back. It …
Around 4:15 PM today, Judy Smith went to glory. My words will never do justice to express how much I love this dear saint and her family, but I will try. Judy is the wife of Scott Smith who has now served Lander University as the BCM Director and Campus Minister for 30 years. The first time I really got …
I am getting ready to wrap up a busy yet great week in Columbia, SC with the great folks of Child Evangelism Fellowship. This international ministry puts Good News Clubs in schools and other locations to reach children with the gospel. CYIA camp is the training week for students and adults who serve as missionaries during the summer and throughout the …
It is not unusual for life to turn bleak and dark, if not even bitter, in a matter of moments. Blessings that God gives, and we are thankful for, can disappear without a moment’s notice. Such times call for a mature faith. This message examines what such a faith look like (Exodus 1:1-14). I hated to be away from North …
I remember the first thought that I woke up with ten years ago today. After only actually sleeping for a few hours in my doublewide trailer, I awoke with the sunrise and thought to myself: “Am I ready to get married today? I still like to play video games.” Amanda, you must understand that the person was never in question. …
One of the most frequented questions I am asked focuses on the issue of election (or predestination). For the record, I believe in biblical election. For the record, I also believe in free will. Why? Because they are both in the Bible. I’m a biblicist. I am putting all I have on the truths of God’s Word. So even if my brain …
Today, I got the privilege to speak at RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). Housed at Erskine College, high school students from around SC are selected for a week of training in servant leadership. I have gotten to speak the last few years and have been asked to talk about the role of one’s relationships as it relates to leadership. OG, …
We started today’s services by singing “Overcome,” and “Forever.” I love how God gets certain things across. I had a plan for today’s services a long time ago, but some circumstances caused me to change some songs. It wasn’t even until in the middle of the first service how God had woven all these songs and elements together (overcome, perseverance, …
The Bible is not a collection of individual stories and treasured sayings. It is the one overarching narrative of how Jesus is reconciling a people unto himself.
I’ve had some great followup conversations and messages from Sunday’s sermon. One came in the form of an email regarding something I said concerning PKs (preacher’s kids). In the application section of the message, I stated: Don’t expect pastors to care for your family at such a level that they cannot care for their own family. Scripture is clear that …
I’ve been so encouraged by the messages, texts, and conversations I have received from yesterday’s message. It seems to have struck a nerve for sure. It is so encouraging to know that people want to step up and reach their families for Christ. I shared concerning a lot of camps and events that are happening this summer, but I wanted to …
Many people say that one’s family is the most difficult group of people to impact for Christ. Throughout the pages of Scripture, we see a different dynamic as God used family members time and time again to evangelize and disciple other family members. In this last message of our “Between Sundays” series, we focused on ways that you can impact …
We started the service with a great intro video focusing on Psalm 103. After that, our worship team led us in some dependence on God songs as we focused on the family – “Everlasting God” and “Lord, I Need You.” After that, we got to see a pretty sweet video of the upcoming VBS week. You can register your children …
I am so excited that we will be singing a new song at North Side this Sunday called “Christ Be All Around Me.” The song was written by Leeland and All Sons and Daughters. In addition to their recordings, Michael W. Smith also recorded the song. The video below shows him and Leeland Morring leading this song. When I first …
The following is a message I sent to a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness. We have had a couple of conversations about faith and the Word, and our time together has caused me to do some further study. As a resource to you, I wanted to post some of my findings. I want to thank you again for …
There is nothing like a Saturday. Utilizing sidewalk chalk to draw Creation. Creating makeshift trailers to haul things around the yard. Sitting in the shade discussing Michael the Archangel, the Deity of Christ, and Greek manuscripts. Ah, life. That’s how Saturdays have been for us lately. I was approached one Saturday by some Jehovah’s Witnesses as my children and I ran …
This edition of bad church sign states: MAURY IS NOT THE ONLY PLACE TO FIND YOUR FATHER So many things come to my mind when I read this sign: Isn’t it a sad thing that the best hope for most of our culture to find their fathers is Maury Povich? Isn’t it a funny thing when churches try to market? …
Our mission is to make disciples. Making disciples is simply intentional friendships that are saturated with the word of God and Christ-centered. This 4th week in our “Between Sundays” series was such a great reminder for me personally about our call to go and make disciples. We started our services with a great video on Memorial Day. After that, the …
It’s always an exciting time of the year when students get their yearbooks. Anticipation rises for so many as they hope to receive endearing messages that they can keep forever. When you receive a yearbook, you know where to turn first – the back. By flipping to the index, you feverishly search for one word on a particular page – your …
It’s hard to imagine that it has been six years since you were born. While I wasn’t physically by your side at that moment, God was, and he had been preparing your forever family for a long time. This morning I tried to imagine the setting of your birthdate. I tried to visualize the rough conditions and the unsure health status of …
My wife went with some friends to see the movie, Moms’ Night Out. She enjoyed the movie, but as a stay-at-home mom, I think she simply enjoyed the night out more. This is the synopsis of the movie: All Allyson and her friends want is a peaceful, grown-up evening of dinner and fun – a long-needed moms’ night out. But in order …
All of us as followers of Christ have been called to make the gospel known through the everyday course of our lives. Today’s service examined the motive, the message, and the method involved in fulfilling such a call. We started our time together by singing “Wherever He Leads I’ll Go.” I used a loop pedal to shape the song. From there, …
This edition of Short Sermon Saturday features a clip of Greg Laurie at the Resurgence 2013 conference. In under 4 minutes, Laurie does a great job talking about how we should be as a church. He asks the question: are you creating consumers instead of disciples?
This edition of bad church sign reads: SAVAGE BAPTIST CHURCH COME GROW WITH US Ummm…no. I would rather not grow with you because that’s just when you would eat me! I do imagine it’s near impossible for this church to do a covered-dish meal. I wouldn’t trust any platter no matter how good it smelled!
A few weeks ago, our family had just wrapped up a wonderful dinner at Mig’s when our night changed dramatically. As we were traveling back home, we witnessed a bad wreck at the intersection of Hwy 72 and Cokesbury Rd. One car had pulled out in front of another and the initial impact was pretty bad. As in most crises, …
Today was our second week in the series “Between Sundays,” and this week, we focused on worship. In the same way church is not limited to space and time, so is worship. Worship is what we do because of what we value. We worship every day. What we worship is always value driven. We began our time by celebrating family dedications. …
Ever feel like you are stuck in a temptation trap and can’t get out? Francis Chan offers great insight and advice in this edition of “Short Sermon Saturday” in the clip below entitled “God Is Better.”
“Knowing Jesus” this year was a very special night. While we have had the opportunity to lead this night of worship at North Side, other churches, North Greenville University, prisons, etc., this was a very special night. We kept to the script from the DVD that we did last year, but we did make some special changes to the night …
I made an announcement at “Knowing Jesus” this year from which I got a lot of feedback. I told everyone that next Good Friday, we would not do the same program we have done the last 2 years. Instead of doing a night of worship and teaching from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we were going to do a worship …
“With the Time I Have Left” is one of my favorite songs from the “Stand Firm” project. The song started with 1 Peter 4:1-11 as we studied through 1 Peter. The Scripture 1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live …
We were so grateful to be able to play at the Abbeville Spring Festival on Thursday night. It is always a special endeavor to play outside the walls of a church building and engage some new folks. Concentrating was a little difficult as I smelled the alligator-on-a-stick stand a little ways from us and heard the screams of those on …
We started a series today entitled “Between Sundays.” During the month of May, we are going to look at what it means to be the church during the week. We are not called to go to church, we are called to be the church. What does that look like? We got to start our services with baptism today which is …
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