RHETT-orical: musing about Faith, Family, and Freedom

Prayer is foundational; prayer is not supplemental. God’s people need to learn to pray. We miss so many things necessary for the spiritual...

November 18, 2011 Dear Ma-Ma, I am thankful today as I reflect that 50 years ago you and Dad were married. I looked on the internet an...

Since last fall, Newt Gingrich has been my choice for the Republican nominee for President. I wonder if he has not been prepared by the Alm...

Don't know where this started, but it is so funny!!! A letter from a Boy Scout at camp to his mother . . . Dear Mom, Our scout master t...

Read it here from the Wall Street Journal.

4 Mistakes I Made as a Dad by Thom Rainer

Many folks believe the lie that pastors are not allowed to endorse or oppose political candidates. Matthew Staver, attorney, writes, "L...

Since the beginning of this year, Newt Gingrich has been my choice for the Republican nominee. Read about his 21st Century Contract with Am...

If when God said "Go," you stayed because you were so concerned about your people at home, you robbed them of the teaching and pre...

Hebrews 6:12; 12:1; 2 Tim. 3:14 We need our spiritual heroes; we need our spiritual examples; we need those who encourage us in the hope t...

For years I have appreciated Pastor Jack Hayford's spiritual and practical teaching and responses to a lot of questions in society. One...

I have so enjoyed the fall weather this week. The colors around Laurens have been beautiful and probably at their peak. Am preaching a mes...

The last 3 years I have been extremely impressed by South Carolina's Senator, Jim Demint . Today I read that Demint scored a 100% in su...

During the liberal-moderate-conservative controversy that engulfed the Southern Baptist Convention in the late 20th-century, Adrian Rogers (...

Truth is a basis for society to survive, relationships to endure, and churches to prosper. In the very beginning, in the third chapter of G...

Timothy Paul Jones coined the term family-equipping ministry to describe the family ministry paradigm that he and Randy Stinson developed fo...

Charles Colson shares a great commentary on our culture - the culture of sloth. Read it here.

I have been enjoying slowly reading Dick Cheney’s autobiography In My Time . It fascinates me to review the lives of those who have shaped ...

I have been enjoying reading a sermon by the great expositor Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his studies on John 4 called Living Water . He writes in ...

The ultimate goal of spiritual leadership is not to achieve numerical results, to accomplish tasks with perfection, or to grow for growth...

Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone in whose heart God has placed a vision. Difficult time. Painful time. Frustrating time. But n...

I have always found that the writing out of a pain makes it at least bearable. - L.M. Montgomery

Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton share in their book Toxic Faith about the five roles that occur in a faith community that has turned unhea...

1. Adopt para-church resourcefulness. 2. Move from scarcity to abundant thinking. 3. Be a pioneer, not just a problem-solver. 4. Don’t get w...

Camping Out in Unexpected Places Exodus 19 Life Lesson: God invites us to prepare to experience Him in unexpected places. I. The Encampm...

Henry and Richard Blackaby share in their updated book Spiritual Leadership why spiritual leaders must pray: 1) Spiritual leaders place thei...

"However hot the blood in the chase and in the fight, Lee remained the Christian solider." - Robert E. Lee on Leadership , H. W. ...

The process of intentionally and persistently realigning a congregation's proclamation and practices so that parents are acknowledged, t...

We have a generation of parents who were not discipled by their parents, so they have had no model for that. Their parents took them to chur...

Insightful fourteen-minute video from leaders of the School of Church Ministries at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary . What's W...

A bell’s not a bell till you ring it. A song’s not a song till you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love isn’t love ...

Every step of faith can be criticized as presumption by someone else. - Henry Blackaby

Union has an application with others but no common bond that makes them one in heart. Uniformity has everyone looking and thinking alike....

Sermon preached on October 2, 2011, at The Spring God’s New Thing Isaiah 43:14-26 Life Lesson: God promises to do a new thing in our lives a...

Do your best and then sleep in peace. God is awake. - Adrian Rogers

The founder of Young Life once commented, "It's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel." In response to this attitude, Mark DeVri...

Family ministry is necessary and significant becuase what we have been doing is ineffective. Today's churches have more youth campes, c...

That discussion is one of the great debates and questions of theologians. Does God cause or allow bad things? People who lean very heavy tow...

John Stott , one of the most famous evangelical preachers of the 20th century, died this summer. His preaching and writing serve as a model ...

In many congregations a false assumption has survived. The false assumption is simply this: Parents are not the primary persons responsible...

Sunday night I preached from Ephesians chapter 4 on the subject What Does a Healthy Church Look Like? We saw that there are four essentials...

Michelle Bachmann speaks at Liberty University's chapel service today. Read about it here.

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, shares about the deep heartache that she and her husband went through several years ago...

There have been three driving convictions for me the past year as to what this church should be about: 1) An emphasis on the Bible basics of...

On my way home from Woodstock yesterday I stopped in Atlanta by Intouch Ministries , the preaching ministry of Charles Stanley . The last se...

Here is a good resource for parents. Robbie Castleman's Parenting in the Pew offers practical advice for parents in training their chi...

It's often better to listen than to speak. When a group has a problem to solve, they usually need to grapple with it for a while. If y...

Started what looks like a great book this week: Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion , by David Barton. He is the fou...

The theological environment today is apt to lean toward the individualistic and therapeutic rather than toward the corporate and historical....

h) Purpose realized The result of this marvelous work of healing and restoration is realized in verse three – “They will be called oaks ...

e) Favor extended Isaiah prophecies that favor will be extended. Often for the person who has experienced abuse, the victim feels tha...