I saw this reminder recently. I think every believer at some point feels overwhelmed by their sins and failures. Sometimes, it’s hard to see anything but your own shortcomings and weaknesses.

The very name Satan can be translated as accuser. He’s the one reminding you of all the times you’ve screwed up. He’s the one who makes you feel alone in your sin.

Not God. God is the one who removes your sin as far as the east is from the west. He’s the one who remembers your sins no more.

Satan knows your name but prefers to call you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name. Never forget that.

“Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’

‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them’ (Revelation 14:13, NIV).

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Mrs. Barbara Glenn, mother of Mike Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church.

I confess that I didn’t know her well. I regret that I never took the time to talk with her and hear her stories. From what I know from people who did know her well, she was quite the lady. She was from a generation made of sterner stuff than is found nowadays. I will miss seeing her on Tuesday nights at Kairos.

Whenever I pass through Hudson Hall, I remember people who seemingly were always there, ministering and counseling and speaking life into others– Tim Holcomb, Royce Harrell, and Gerald Stowe.

What all of these people have in common is that they leave behind a legacy of love demonstrated and lives changed. I know for a fact that there will be people in heaven due to the faithfulness of these followers of Jesus.

My prayer is that by the grace of God I will leave a legacy of my own one day, not that people will remember my name and make much of me but that they will have come to know and cherish Jesus and make much of Him.

Blessed are those who have gone before and seen the goodness of the Lord and followed after Jesus. They do indeed rest from all the hardships of this world, and their legacy lives on for generation after generation.

Yes, they are, aren’t they?

Taken at Radnor Lake State Park in Nashville, TN.

“The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that is what the words ‘one flesh’ would be in modern English. And the Christians believe that when He said this He was not expressing a sentiment but stating a fact—just as one is stating a fact when one says that a lock and its key are one mechanism, or that a violin and a bow are one musical instrument. The inventor of the human machine was telling us that its two halves, the male and the female, were made to be combined together in pairs, not simply on the sexual level, but totally combined. The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again” (C. S. Lewis).

With a couple of friends getting married in just over a week, this seemed appropriate. The Bible does say that the two become one. The Bible also says that human marriage done right is a testimony to and picture of how Christ loves his own Bride, The Church, and gave Himself up for her.

I believe that a good marriage happens when two people, called by God, find out they can serve together better than they could apart and make their home a mission and their marriage a ministry.

Recently, I saw the spitting image of a car I used to drive before the Jeep era began. Back in the day, i.e. before 2003, I drove a 1993 Ford Taurus very similar to this one pictured above. It had a maroon interior with bucket seats, but otherwise, it was identical.

Flashbacks like this one are fun. It doesn’t make me want to go back and buy another Taurus, but it’s a reminder of where I’ve been. It was a great car (except for the A/C which never worked right and left me a sweaty mess in the middle of summer).

But I’ve since upgraded to the Jeep, so I feel like my cool factor has gone way up.

I’m posting something that I found on Facebook 5 years ago. I can’t think of anything to add to it, so I’ll just let it speak:

“Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport as the daughter’s departure had been announced. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said: