Like everyone from my generation, I remember where I was sixty years ago next week. This year it comes the day before Thanksgiving. As a charter member of the Baby Boomers, I was sitting in the school auditorium with a hundred or so classmates in our history class. Televisions were placed throughout the auditorium for a class with a public educational broadcast. As the TV host was talking about the violent nature of mankind, the camera focused on a model of a caveman with a club. Then the narrator stopped mid-sentence. The camera did not move. After a long pause he announced that a bulletin had just reported that the President had been shot. Immediately one of our teachers turned the channel to hear the report. We sat in disbelief. Finally the class bell rang and I went to last period, Latin. We talked about what was unfolding and waited together. Later the principal’s voice announced that President John F. Kennedy had died in an assassination in Dallas. Class ended and we all went home to a very surreal weekend. We wept through the night.

Like the generation before me who knew where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor, or the generation after me of students watching with great expectancy the launch of the space shuttle Challenger carrying a school teacher into space, or this generation’s horror we call 9.11, we can close our eyes and still see the events unfold as if they were yesterday. This week I have been rummaging around in my memories of November 22, 1963. I have been reflecting on the unanswered questions of that day and the “what if’s” of shattered lives. Walter Cronkite, wiping his eyes with the telling of the news, mirrors our own grief in the retelling of these kind of events.

Now Thanksgiving Day is before us. The holiday season is already in full swing. For too many there is another empty chair at the table where once there was a loved one. We remember our own turning points of shattered dreams and anniversaries of pain that time really has not taken away. Dying is a part of living, but our stories do not stop with the tears. Living is hard on us, yet we are a people of hope and faith. We are loved with an everlasting love. No matter what has come, or what may come, God sees us through it!

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today.  Joy comes in the morning. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

America’s Princess charmed the world and alarmed her more famous father. She was so popular the press could not write enough stories. She was Teddy Roosevelt’s firstborn and 17 years old when he became president. “Princess Alice” led the largest diplomatic congressional delegation ever to southeast Asia in 1905. It was estimated more than a thousand people tried to get a glimpse of her on her wedding day in 1906. She married a much older congressman who became Speaker of the House a few years later. She dined with the kings and queens of Europe as if she was the head of the United States.  She was beautiful, scandalous, and bitter. She rose to the top of Washington D.C.’s high society, where she spent the rest of her life hosting dinner parties and wielding her power.  Alice Roosevelt Longworth famously said, “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.” Gossip was her weapon of choice and she used it with fierceness. She delighted and decimated the most powerful until her death in 1980.

Gossip is still the weapon of choice for many. The old days of the newspaper Gossip Columnists have been replaced by the relentless quest on every form of media to find the dirt, the unfortunate phrase, and the hypocritical dealings of anyone, anywhere. Gossip is rooted in bitterness and anger. (I am treading lightly here, not wanting to over psychoanalyze.) Princess Alice lost her mother at 2-days-old. She was sent away to be raised by relatives. She returned “home” to a stepmother and the birth of other children. A brother was killed in WWI, her father died shortly after her brother. And the sadness of her life goes on and on. All of us have a bitter root of sin and pain lurking within us. Gossip is a way of rejoicing in others’ miseries. Gossip is a way to make other people pay for our own sins and disappointments. A bitter life, even with the trappings of success and influence, can lead to a habit of gossip, or other destructive addictions, to distract us from ourselves. There is a better way to live.

The bitter, or poisonous, root that is within us is the pain of unforgiven sin. The author of Hebrews 12:15 admonishes us to accept the grace of God’s merciful forgiveness; to confess our anger and pain to God for not fixing our life like we wanted it; and embrace the love of Jesus who has already paid for our sins with His death on the Cross. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Beware the bitter root. And let’s continue to experience the love and power of God together.

A most unexpected event in my ministry occurred when I was asked to speak in the middle of a 2019 Leon Russell tribute concert where some of the great band members and recording artists from his earliest days performed together. I was asked to lead the dedication ceremony of the Will Rogers High School’s original 1938 Baldwin piano, refurbished by privately raised money from the high school’s community foundation. I am an enthusiastic supporter of public education, and a founding director of the WRHS Community Foundation. 

In my remarks that day I spoke of the possibilities of our public schools:

The guiding promise of public education is for every student, from any life circumstance, to learn—to learn from the wisdom of the ages and develop the full-rounded skills needed to build a better future for themselves and our world. We are still striving to live up to that ideal. Never underestimate the power of a student’s dream, or the reach of an inspired and fully-funded teacher. While many graduates of this school are worthy of this kind of honor, Claude Russell Bridges—Leon Russell, Class of ‘59—was chosen as an example of the power of educational dreams. As a boy exploring the fine arts, he discovered his passion. Overcoming his lifelong challenge of a form of cerebral palsy, and gaining world-wide recognition for his talents, Leon Russell entertained his classmates daily during the lunch hour on this very piano on this very stage… May this instrument be used in all its many ways to fan the flames of creativity; May it ignite inspiration, insight, and passion; May it be a symbol of self-discipline, perseverance and the reward of hard work; and, May it transform generations of students as they discover their future.

Christians bring salt and light into our schools as active parents and volunteers. Taking state education funds out of the public schools to promote religious and other private schools punishes our children and their teachers. In light of our discussions on Baptist principles of faith, the current push to fund a Roman Catholic Church Virtual School System for Oklahoma with public education monies not only violates the state constitution, but it also violates our religious freedom by favoring one faith over every other. If a church cannot raise enough money from its own faithful for its on-going projects without taxpayer assistance, it should reconsider the scope of its mission.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today.  Stay free. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

What we know as the Baptist church has been at worship and ministry for over 400 years.   This past week I began a brief series on the fundamental teachings and in our afterward discussions it was felt appropriate that I present a brief overview of our founding as a distinct religious movement in 1609. With funds provided by a wealthy believer named Thomas Helwys (1550-1616?), pastor John Smyth (1554-1612)and other believers traveled to the Netherlands to seek out spiritual counsel. Out of their discussions a statement of beliefs was formulated, and the small band participated in a Believer’s Baptism ceremony. They quickly moved back to England and established a Baptist church. The earliest Baptist leaders, along with Roman Catholics, Separatists and Puritans, were severely persecuted as heretics and imprisoned by King James 1, of King James Bible fame. Thomas Helwys was sent to Newgate Prison in 1616, where he wrote a short book on religious persecution. He was never released from prison and may have been executed.

  The founding Baptists declared five core values: Biblical Authority—the Bible is the infallible word of God. Priesthood of all Believers (also known as Soul Competency)—people are free to act and live according to their own conscience before God. Each believer has full access to God without any human mediator. Believer’s Baptism—opposing infant baptism; baptism is to follow a person’s confession of sins and faith in Jesus Christ as the risen Lord. Church Autonomy—each congregation is to follow its own understanding of Scripture and God’s direction without coercion from other religious leaders or groups. Religious Liberty—the king (governmental authorities) should not direct the affairs of any religion, favor any particular religion, or tax people to support or punish any religious person or group. It is the right of every individual to worship God, or not, as his or her conscience allows. The theme of soul freedom permeates all that Baptists cherish. 

  My concern centers on the fading knowledge of Baptist history in our churches. When the core values of our traditions are forgotten, the name Baptist is hollowed out and creedalism and secularism fill the void. Pastoral authority replaces Biblical authority and soul competency. Conforming to the latest doctrinal mandates and marketing strategies edges out church autonomy. And believer’s baptism becomes an option for some or necessary to salvation for others.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Examine your faith. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I stood with a few other Tulsa pastors in the parking lot of a monastery built in the 1200’s on Mt. Carmel at the traditional site where Elijah sought shelter after facing down the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18-19.) The view from the mountain top was spectacular. Looking east we could see just below the horizon the silver ribbon of the Jordan River that separates Israel from the nation of Jordan. Below us were the rich valley farmlands—the valley of Jezreel and the region of Megiddo. Countless battles from biblical days onward have been fought in this region; the last was in September 1918 as part of World War 1. We walked uphill a few yards, crossed the road, and looked westward. There we could see between the mountain ridges the glimmering blues of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is a very small nation. With the Hamas War in Israel growing more tense each day, some are asking, Is the long foretold final Battle of Armageddon about to take place? 

I have a few responses to that question. The Book of the Revelation of John chapters 19 and 20 reveals that battle and its aftermath. Armageddon is over before it begins. All the personifications of evil, literal and figurative, are defeated and cast into a fiery imprisonment for a thousand years followed by the Great White Throne Judgement. With this understanding, the battle of Armageddon is not ours to worry about. In my perspective of last days, a destruction of the modern nation/state of Israel would be a marker that we have entered a great tribulation period where all the redeemed people would experience severe persecution or physical death for our faith, until the final shout, “Come!” All of the redeemed of all the ages will be present at the Lord’s Second Coming.

Last Sunday morning I asked the congregation to read Jesus’ teachings on the signs of His coming found in Matthew chapters 24 and 25. His continued teaching is—be ready for the day of His return. Bring hope and comfort to those you love who are anxious about tomorrow and what the future may hold. Tell them of the good news of God’s salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross. Tell them that even death itself is not the end of life’s story, with Jesus as their Lord. And do not wait for a better time. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Be ready for the Lord. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.