They promised you they would come to the meeting. They never showed up. They agreed to study the Bible with you. They backed out at the last minute when some “emergency” suddenly arose. Such repeated rejection can quickly extinguish the fires of evangelism, the very fires that gave us the courage to ask and invite them in the first place. What’s worse, when we see no immediate results from our initial efforts, we develop an attitude of “nobody cares anymore” or “why even bother?”

After the first lecture Wednesday morning, when Brother Moody had adjourned the audience for a short break, Morgan looked up at me and asked, “is it over?” It is now. The 25th Southside Lectures is over. All that remains are the memories of our wonderful week together.

The 25th lectureship was special to me in another way. They were the 1st lectures for my little David, the first of many more, Lord willing. I realize that a six-week-old won’t remember anything about them, but one day he will ask. Here’s what I will tell him about this year’s lectures.

The Southside Lectures were patterned—with some alterations—after the Fairview Lectures in Garden Grove, California. That series was first initiated by the Elders at Fairview at the suggestion of Brent Lewis and with the cooperation of Brother Floyd Thompson. The first speakers were scheduled to be Ed Harrell and Homer Hailey. Brother Harrell was called to be part of the American Cultural Center at Hyderbad, India that year and had to cancel his agreement to participate in the first Fairview Lectures. I was subsequently called in to take his place. The Fa

Life is what life is all about. Sound strange? Maybe, but it’s so. Life is what life is all about. Life is union; it’s having the whole man together in functional order. Life is the physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute one’s existence. Notice that there are actually three things involved in life. There is the physical part of man--his body, his physical existence. There is the mental part of man--his mind and all his mental faculties viewed together. And there is a spiritual part of man--that part of man that relates to his eternal nature, the part that

It doesn’t seem possible that an entire year has passed since R.J. Stevens lead the final song of the 24th Southside Lectures. I remember thinking on that Thursday night, a night when over 750 souls gathered to hear Sewell Hall and Robert Jackson preach the gospel of God, “it can’t get any better than this.” But it can. And it will. How do I know? Because I’ve said that at the end of every lecture program since I’ve been here. Each year is filled with its own special memories of sermons and songs that bring us closer to the Lord and closer to one anothe

It was just a little tree when we put it out. We had just moved in and the lawn was still just patches of grass planted here and there and expected to grow into a lush lawn. The little tree was right in the middle of the front yard. It was a Sweet Gum. It was sort of cute, but very small.

We are at war. I’m not talking about the conflict in Iraq or our battle against terrorism. I mean a different kind of war, a spiritual fight, one where the stakes are much higher. Because this war involves the most dreadful of human casualties, not lives lost but souls. It’s not about being stationed away from your family for a few months but eternal separation from God. The enemy is not a nation or a confederation of men but a whole company of other-worldly beings. Imagine what weapons of mass destruction must be at the disposal of these forces of evil, these dem

Some of the proverbial expressions not found in the Bible are nonetheless true. Truth will always plumb with all other truth; it cannot contradict itself. Take the expression “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” That ‘s not in the scriptures, but I fear it’s true nonetheless. Nobody that I’ve ever heard of really wants to go to hell; and everybody I know intends to do something about not making that trip. But when? That’s the question.

Tim King and Mike Geddes called last week. They’ve been at Spring Training for a couple of weeks now and just wanted to check in and let everyone know that they miss them. They’re both pitching well. But, more importantly, they’re both living well.

I should have known how it was going to be by how it started. I dropped the shampoo in the shower. Then when I got through shaving and doing all the other stuff you do to get ready, I caught my foot in my pants and did a St. Vita’s Day dance all over the bathroom floor.

I have to take several pills every morning. I dropped the little plastic cup I had them in and they went all over the floor. Even after I found my glasses, I couldn’t locate them all.