What goes through your mind when you read about the fake news story in the Bible? This might be a good time to turn in your Bible to Matthew 28:11-15 and read it for yourself. I will wait before I go further with this reflection. You do need to read it first.

What are the hallmarks of fake news? According to this passage, the point is to devise a story to cover-up something. It is to set-forth an alternate account of what really took place as a distraction. Powerful and influential people are involved. It includes witness tampering and bribery. It indicates an inconvenient truth is the first casualty of pride. 

In our day, fake news is also used as a smear against a known truth.  It is designed to provide alternate talking points as a smokescreen to change the subject. It can become the ultimate he said, she said, adeadlock of ideas. The goal is to provide a plausible denial of reality. 

Why is this story even in the Bible at all? Because the fake news story was still being talked about when the gospel of Matthew was being written, some thirty or so years after Jesus. It was written as a warning to us all. It shows us the way to counter the fake story: seek out verifiable facts, eyewitness accounts, and those directly impacted by the results of the account. Fake news is a lie, a coverup, and a distraction. It is an effective form of gossip. It is a kind of dishonesty many of us have resorted to.

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

W. E. Sangster (1900-1960) was a Methodist minister centered in London for the last twenty years of his life. In preparation for the Nazi Blitz of the second world war, Rev. Sangster, had the church basement fortified outside and in. His family moved into a room in that basement and invited anyone to find refuge in the basement who needed a place of safety. His wife began cooking evening meals for everyone for the five years of the war. He preached sermons as he could on Sundays in the much-damaged church, but what the people asked was that he lead evening prayers and give a word of hope from the Bible each night. In the encyclopedia, 20 Centuries of Great Preaching, by Pinson and Fant, W. E. Sangster’s life story is told, and five full sermon manuscripts are included, revealing the pastoral heart of this man who had himself served in World War 1, and several small churches as pastor.

You may have noticed that he died when he was not quite 60 years old. Following the war, he coordinated efforts of evangelism and home missions for the Methodist Church across Great Britain. He was diagnosed in his mid-fifties with an aggressive muscular atrophy. His daughter wrote a tribute to her father shortly after his death. In her tribute she included this written note from his last Easter day, when he could no longer walk or talk. He wrote: It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning to have no voice with which to shout, ‘He Is Risen!’— but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout. 

Easter is this Sunday. How will you be spending this Resurrection Day? They say it may rain or even storm, or possibly not. Come celebrate Jesus and shout, ‘He Is Risen!’

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. He Is Risen Indeed! And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I’ve been thinking about childishness today, and not in the good way. I was watching the news. My definition of negative childishness includes adults acting in immature, selfish and petulant manners in order to get their way. It is a form of bullying. These are the grownups who pout or take offense at any perceived slight. They run to the spotlight when it focuses on someone else. They expect excessive praise and need constant reassurance that they are the most special person in the room, or maybe even the whole world. I can be childish if I’m not careful. It’s an easy habit to form. 

You’ve probably read of The Toddler Rules. My favorite version goes like this:

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If it’s in your hand, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If it looks like mine, it’s mine.
6. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
7. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

Toddler Rules seem almost built into our DNA, just like sin. In the famous chapter on loving relationships, the Apostle Paul talks about putting away childish things (1 Corinthians 13).   He writes how maturing relationships focus on the unselfishness of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and faith, hope and love. Jesus calls us to a life of complete devotion to God and others when He encourages us to have faith like a child.  Child-like or childish, it’s our choice.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. It all belongs to Him. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Today’s news (3/25/2025) reported the state Department of Health measles update: There are 9 cases in Oklahoma, with seven confirmed and two more deemed probable among unvaccinated people in northeastern Oklahoma.  I grew up in the age of the miracle of vaccines. I remember lining up to get the smallpox vaccination. I still have the scar on my arm from that. Then came the series of polio shots, and the oral vaccine. There were long lines of us children shuffling along to take the shots that would keep us from being crippled, in an iron lung, or even dying.

As a boy, I managed to win the trifecta of childhood diseases—measles, mumps and chicken pox. I became very ill with the mumps when I was in first grade. It was a double case of the mumps, on both sides. I remember being miserable and spending my time in bed unable to do anything. I missed at least two weeks of school and had home visits from the school nurse and a teacher. The following summer I came down with measles. The measles (rubeola) was more manageable for me than the mumps. At least that’s how I remember it. Then came the chicken pox. I got it, my sisters got it, and then my mother got it. My father was not certain he wanted to come home from work that night. He couldn’t remember if he had ever had chicken pox. Fortunately, he did not come down with it. The following summer I came down with the other form of measles, rubella.

Rubeola measles is the one in the news. It is the one with the most life-threatening complications. These illnesses are preventable and stoppable.  Smallpox and iron lungs are no more. Neither is diphtheria, whooping cough, or typhoid fever in the vaccinated. God is the author of all healing, but He encourages our participation in the process.

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

I never understood why they officially removed the Do Not Drive into Smoke signs on the highways of Oklahoma unless maybe they scared the tourists. Controlled burns for the farmlands are a routine chore of crop management. Appropriate drought and wind warnings and precautions from meteorologists are widely broadcast. There were days of national warnings of the dangers anticipated for past Friday’s multi-state cyclone. Yet the magnitude of damage from fallen trees and power lines, fed by gale force winds and flying ashes, continued past Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, across the nation turning into thunderstorms and tornadic destruction. The Oklahoma statistics of 170,000 acres burned, countless structures destroyed, and 4 fatalities, with more than 200 people injured, leaves all of us shaken, saddened, and grieving. Rebuilding and recovery will take months, if not years. One cry was reported often, we had no insurance. 

The state of Oklahoma has averaged about four multi-million-dollar disasters each year for the last five years. Insurance companies are reluctant to provide affordable coverage. Our church insurance package proclaims wind, hail, fire, and water damage to be in a special category, requiring a 2% deductible based on their unrealistic value of our property, which at $8 million dollars, gives us a deductible of $160,000.  The property insurance crisis in Oklahoma is not being addressed by our elected officials. A lot of petty personal pet peeves seem to take priority over the true needs of our citizens. When the government expects the generosity of neighbors to make up the deductibles and losses without legislative action, pain and poverty deepens in the hearts of Oklahomans. Our church will continue to do its part in ministry and service to those in need, regardless of corporate and political neglect.  

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

I enjoy looking at the baby pictures of friends and loved ones.  I especially like to view the albums that show the ever-growing and physically changing young life becoming a future adult. Sometimes we see these kinds of pictures as part of the celebration of a life at the time of the funeral. I am struck by how much of the adult is visible in even some of the earliest pictures. We recognize family characteristics and similarities across generations. In some pictures we spot our younger selves. It is often more fun to look at the old photos than in the mirror, although pictures of anyone in junior high rarely get rave reviews.  

For each of their high school graduations, my mother created scrapbooks for her grandchildren, including our daughters. She intended these scrapbooks to be starter albums. They included most of the pictures she had received over the years in chronological order, and included a few of the girls’ handwritten letters, cards and drawings. The scrapbooks ended with their senior picture, and many blank pages for the rest of the story.

While there were no cameras in biblical times, the psalmist must have been thinking of his earliest days when he wrote, “Lord, you are my hope. Lord, I have trusted you since I was young. I have depended on you since I was born; you helped me even on the day of my birth. I will always praise your name.” (Psalm 71:5-6) The psalmist goes on to reflect on the rest of his life and voice concern to God about growing old. If you ever find yourself feeling melancholy or down, get out a baby album, or better yet, go visit the newborn nursery at a hospital. You will smile, reflect and remember whose child you are—of the God who knows your name.

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

Tell me about your first car, the one you bought with your own money or that was given to you as a hand-me-down. How careful were you with it? How long did it take for you to get a ticket, or a warning? Were you sad to let it go? Do you wish you still had that old car? My first car was a white, two-door 1960 Simca Aronde. My uncle sold it to me for $25, because they were moving out of state. It had a stick-shift with an extra 5th gear. Its other fun feature as a French-made car was its dual horn. The driver could use either the town or country horn to alert people or animals. I owned it most of my college years. After the clutch gave out driving around the mountains of Birmingham, I sold it to the owner of a gas station for $35, quite the tidy little profit! I bought my next car, a Plymouth, from my father for $150, a week before I moved to Texas. They were  moving to Atlanta the next week. 

Do you remember the excitement of getting your driver’s license? First car, first job, first kiss, first house all rank near the top of special memories. Yet life gets complicated and cars break, jobs change, kisses fade, and before we know it we are in a different place. The Apostle John reminded the church at Ephesus, where he had once been pastor, that the church was in spiritual danger because they had neglected their first priority as believers. While working so hard to root out wickedness in others, they had forsaken their first love: loving others in Jesus’ name. Do you remember the first time Jesus became more than a Bible story to you? 

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

I read every day, whether it is current event articles, devotionals, nonfiction, or sermon materials. During the recent holiday season I began reading a few who-done-it novels for relaxation. Fiction, biographies and memoirs are really portraits of people’s character. I like to make deep dives into selected topics, chasing down ideas that may develop into something useful one day. I have discovered that sometimes even the boring or dead-end materials can spark an idea that may lead to an insight about myself, or church life, or personal relationships.

I seek to look for the trends and patterns, the challenges and the frustrations facing us each day. People are living on the edge and finding the times unsettling.  Most folks want to depend on a decent income, live with meaning and purpose in relative peace and safety, and enjoy a good meal with a friend occasionally. While there is always a segment of people who enjoy picking a fight, most of us have enough troubles of our own. That’s why I find books and reading so helpful. Reading is story-finding.

We are a people of stories.  Tell me a story pleads every child. We are storytellers at heart. When we find a story, we step into its world. A story will place us amid any time, in any place, in any person or creature, in any circumstance in or out of this world.  C. S. Lewis once wrote of how the power of reading opens our perspectives: We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own. Stories teach us how to love our neighbors as ourselves. They may even teach us how to love ourselves with respect and compassion. Of course, I also read a very good book of stories that provides meaning, hope and redemption. It has real stories, some are cautionary tales of the pain and struggles of real people in complicated families. Step into the stories of Jesus. People who read the Bible find their own story interwoven with God’s love and grace. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Be a story-finder. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Remember back to the good old days around February 7, 2025, when the temperature rose to 84˚ here in Tulsa? It seems a little mean of nature to trick us like that. In fact, there has been too much mean weather across the land these past few months. Last Wednesday evening’s activities were cancelled because of cold and icy conditions. Last Sunday morning’s service was cancelled because of snow and ice. This week’s Wednesday activities are cancelled because of predicted heavy snow on Tuesday and a high temperature of 9˚ on Wednesday.  Nine degrees for the high for the whole day (or not).

Most years I write something about harsh weather—preparing for it, recovering from it, or what to do in the middle of it. Hot or cold, wet or dry, all of us talk about the weather almost every day, especially to strangers when we don’t know what to say. We have favorite meteorologists. We constantly check on the temperature outside, even if we are not going outdoors. I used to have a weather rock that helped me check the weather before there were cell phones. And we had to call on the kitchen telephone to find out the time and the temperature. How did we ever manage?

We had “thunder sleet” one March Sunday in 2014. That winter we had to cancel one service each month for four months in a row because of the bitter weather. As I have said before, if I were the one in control, the weather would always be beautiful on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights. God and I have had this discussion for years now. Mostly I talk. God doesn’t say much about it. All I ever get is, “It rains on the just and the unjust alike.”  You would think that God would make it as easy as possible for people to go to church on Sunday mornings!  God does not micromanage the weather at all. It’s probably more about strengthening our character, stretching our faith, and learning to depend on God through whatever comes our way. We have been here before. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Jesus will see you through. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Have you ever had anything break at just the right time? Neither have I. Sometimes you have a little warning that things are not doing well – a funny noise, a strange smell, a flashing light. Other times things just quit or fall apart while using them. Take my car, for instance—please. I had an unusual warning light come on my dashboard, so I got out the user’s manual. I learned the light meant there was a major engine problem: take the car immediately to the dealership right now, do not wait. Go! So I did. That was on August 30, 2024. It would take a long time to fix my car.

The engine had a broken head gasket. Eventually the necessary parts completed their tour of the world and arrived in early November. Then some of the parts got lost for a time. The tool used to install the vital parts broke. Two more weeks for the service department to get the new tool to fix my car. I was unhappy. It was New Year’s Eve when I confronted the owner of the dealership. He seemed eager to help. When they tested the repaired engine, it made a “funny noise, skipped and popped.” It took a couple more weeks to find someone brave enough to look and see what was wrong. Then a brand-new engine was ordered. Finally on February 6, 2025, I drove my car off the lot, then circled back for them to rotate and air-up the tires, which they had promised to do, because the car had been sitting in one place for five months and seven days! What was I writing about? Things break. The boiler broke at church.* Some breaks are harder than others and some broken things are harder to repair. Hearts, reputations, bones, and relationships, for instance, need patient understanding and healing grace.

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

* The Boiler Broke in the Education Building

Solutions are being explored for replacing the boiler in the furnace room of the education building which had an unrepairable break last week. This unit was installed in 1965. Parts are no longer available. In the meantime, there is no heat in that part of the building.