I know, that sounds like a loaded question and it is. But let me ask you again. Which holiday is more important? Christmas or Easter? Obviously Christmas is very important because it is through the birth of Christ that we have received the greatest gift of all. God's only Son. Introduced by the Old Testament prophets. Born of a virgin. Announced by the angels. Sought after by the wise men from the east. But what if we only had Christmas but no Easter? Jesus would still be the

Can you still run like you did when you were young? Physically, my body says "No" but what about spiritually? Not running from God but running to Him. Today, I want to show you some passages featuring the word "flee" . 1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (ESV) — 18 Flee from sexual immorality . Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom

Suppose your friend asked you what people were saying about whether or not he would be the right person for the promotion? You might answer something like "Most people agree that you are ready" or "you may face some serious opposition from some of the other people in the office". Either way, you have answered the question based upon how you think other people will respond but what if your friend asked you "Do you think that I am the right person for the promotion?", now you a

Every January, I have seen new ideas about how to read the whole Bible in a year and many of these reading programs have you reading at least one chapter a day from three different areas of the Bible such as Genesis, Psalms and Matthew. If these reading plans work for you, then keep going but for many people, they feel overwhelmed or that this approach is not effective for them. I recommend that you "read small" meaning instead of reading multiple chapters and having no clue

Our grandson spent the night with us this weekend and before he went to bed, he asked if we could watch a video together. I told him that it was fine and then asked him what he wanted to watch. What did he pick? Kindly Keyin. For those of you who do not know who this man is, he plays video games on youtube. So if you are watching his videos, you are not playing the video games... he is. You are watching him play the games. Do you see where I am going with this? How many peopl

How many times have you heard someone ask "Is it a sin to drink" or "Is it a sin to ___________ (you fill in the blank)"? Often, when people ask that question, they already know the answer but want someone to tell them that it is ok if they do that. Today, I want to show you why "Is it a sin?" is not the right question. Romans 14:13Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brothe

I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me in the last two decades. Sometimes when I tell someone that I am the pastor of Rolling Fork Baptist Church in Boston, Kentucky, they will say something like "Oh yeah, I am a member of your church." And then that statement is followed up with something like "You must be the new pastor there." But I have been there since January of 1999. Sometimes one of the local funeral homes will call me and tell me that they have a mem

Matthew 19:13–15 (ESV) — 13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away. Recently, I mentioned that having your children with you in the worship services was important and I read someone's comment on Facebook that said the same thing. Child

Here is the verse that we will be discussing today. Romans 8:28 (ESV) — 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose . Notice that this verse does not say "all things will BE good", he said " all things work together for good" . Some people will say that Christians should never have a problem or face adversity because God loves us. If that is the case, then Paul must not have been a Christian b

When our grandson, Nolan, was 2-years old, we had a game that we would play with the blocks shown in this photo. We called them "Oh No Blocks" because Nolan would help us stack up all 10 of the blocks and then with a big smile or the cutest laugh ever, he would knock our stack and we would do it all over again. Today, I want to share with you three important truths about the church as illustrated with these blocks. When the blocks are scattered around the room, you cannot see

January 10, 1999 was the day that the congregation of Rolling Fork Baptist Church voted to make me their pastor. Soon after I started preaching there each Sunday, I told them that I would like to offer our Sunday morning messages on cassette tapes to give away to anyone who missed that Sunday or that just wanted to hear that message. I mentioned it and our congregation took action. The funds needed to begin that ministry were donated that day and we began to record our sermon

Nora Kate Simpson. Senior. KABC 5th Region Girls Basketball Player of the Year and a candidate for Miss Kentucky Basketball. The most lovable person you can meet and yet, she has a target on her back. Every team she has played has tried to stop her... even if it meant putting three people on her to defend against her. In the first photo, you see a photo of her before the game... all joy and love. In the second photo, you see her surrounded by all five defensive players and ye

I am writing this today to encourage anyone who is going through a difficult time in your life. I hope that this story will bring you a laugh as well as a new source of hope. The man pictured above is my dad with his Fiat. In the mid-90's, my dad went to the hospital because he thought he was having heart problems. They discovered that his heart was fine but he had cancer developing in his lungs. During this time, I was working in a music store in Bowling Green with Kent Holl

I had someone tell me that the reason that she and her family stopped going to the church that they used to attend was because everything was all about money. "Money, money, money... that is all they talked about." And I am sure that there are some churches that would sound like this but that is not why I am writing this post today. I keep seeing various articles online saying that we as pastors have lied to our congregations by saying that they are supposed to give their tit

Rylee Reynolds has been so strong on the court and off the court. When this season started, Rylee was one of the players that I was excited to see on the court because of what happened last year. During the '24-25 season, Rylee, only an 8th-grader at the time, was playing really well and then suffered a knee injury that required surgery and the end of her basketball season. When she was about to have surgery, I told her that my favorite Bible verse was Psalm 46:10 (ESV) — 10

Coach Jordan Gilbert drawing up the next play Last night's game against Hart County was much closer than it should have been. Nelson County was leading on the scoreboard for much of the game until it happened. The Cardinals started missing some shots at point-blank range which is very unusual for this group of young men. Hart County won by one point by scoring in the final six seconds. Pictured above is Coach Jordan Gilbert who has brought incredible leadership to this team.

Today, I am going to show you two perspectives from this idea and both of them are wrong. The first perspective will be from someone who is truly born again and is genuinely concerned about pleasing God. We know that we will sin from time to time because we were not paying attention or were unwilling to fight against the temptation. This person may think "I don't want to sin but if I do, it's ok because God will forgive me." The reason that I say that this is wrong is because

How many times have you heard someone say "God told me..." or "Jesus told me..."? Any time I hear that, a red flag goes up in the air. Especially when they say that Jesus told them something that is not biblical. Am I saying that God or Jesus does not talk to us? No but I am saying that God and Jesus speak to us in the following ways and when They do speak, it always matches up with what the Bible says. Hebrews 1:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spo

I have seen several examples this week that prove "Warning! Not All "Christians" Are Christians" is an accurate title for this post. You may think that I am being judgmental but I point you to the scriptures. In Matthew 7:16, Jesus, when describing the false prophets, said " You will recognize them by their fruits ." Then He said verses in 17-20 " So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a d

Last night, Chris Godbey was leading us through a passage in Proverbs and there was a section in that passage that really stood out to me. I hope that you will take the time to read this and see if you are guilty of it as well. Here is the good news of that section... Proverbs 1:23 (ESV) — 23 If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you . God was telling the Israelites to repent of their sins and turn back to God and i