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               A few weeks ago on July 5th, we passed a milestone for the year 2026. I am sure the first sentence of this article has you thinking about the July 4th celebration of our 250th anniversary of American independence. With perpetual remembrance, I still hear occasional explosions in my neighborhood as adults acting like…

Continue Reading Peacocks and Mariachi

               Perhaps perplexity best describes our reaction to today’s exposition of the Gospel of Mark chapter 14. The scene follows immediately upon the conclusion of the first Lord’s Supper. It also immediately precedes Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. The bookends for Christ’s agony in the few hours between the two leave hardly a…

Continue Reading The Darkness of One Gethsemane Night

Deuteronomy 32:7a                After each vacation, I can heartily say that I am pleased to return to the pulpit of the Berean Baptist Church. The time away induced more reflection than usual. While we always trust the Lord as our strength and sustenance, discouragement happens when longing for seemingly better days in the past. Obviously,…

Continue Reading Remember the Days of Old . . .

               Today’s sermon is one of those times when the nemeses of ability and understanding are the bane of a preacher’s diligent desire to exposit scripture. Take just a moment to digest that sentence before I continue. The scriptures tell us to be careful about what we say and to use wisdom when we say…

Continue Reading The Impact of “Good Never To Be Born…”

               In this week’s study of the Gospel of Mark, we finish the exposition of the Last Supper. Our subject for this sermon is the benediction as our Lord and His apostles ended their fellowship meal with the singing of a hymn. Mark wrote, “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into…

Continue Reading Sing a Hymn With Me

Deuteronomy 32:7a                After each vacation, I can heartily say that I am pleased to return to the pulpit of the Berean Baptist Church. The time away induced more reflection than usual. While we always trust the Lord as our strength and sustenance, discouragement happens when longing for seemingly better days in the past. Obviously,…

Continue Reading Remember the Days of Old…

               Before panicking about my title, consider it may take two weeks to understand it fully. In the past month, I have finished another readthrough of Exodus, the second book of Moses, as he recounts his personal experience of guiding Israel out of Egypt and into their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. During…

Continue Reading Faith With Works Is Dead, Part 1

               Good morning to the Berean Church of Rohnert Park! I am sorry I am personally unable to say these usual words of salutation from the Berean pulpit. I explained my absence in last week’s article, and if all went as expected, the wedding is over and a new family begun. Otherwise, I am probably…

Continue Reading Do Not Pass Go! Straight To Sad

               Today’s sermon is one of those times when the nemeses of ability and understanding are the bane of a preacher’s diligent desire to exposit scripture. Take just a moment to digest that sentence before I continue. The scriptures tell us to be careful about what we say and to use wisdom when we say…

Continue Reading The Impact of “Good Never To Be Born…”

               This week I was struggling with my thoughts for a bulletin article while rapidly approaching my own enforced deadline. I was weary after returning from Kentucky and still wrestling with time changes and getting my body back on schedule. Unexpectedly, I had two ideas and now a struggle deciding between the two. When I…

Continue Reading Was It Scandal on the Threshing Floor?

               As I draft this article today, my heart beats a little faster because of a recent conversation with a local pastor. It is not unusual for me to struggle for hours deciding on a topic but then there are other times when my mind and fingers will not relax until I have banged my…

Continue Reading An Analytical Exercise

               At the beginning of this month, our afternoon class on the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith started the third chapter of the Confession. “God’s Decree” is the fascinating subject. Before my other comments in this article, you may wonder why I chose to study this confession instead of one of the other…

Continue Reading Immutable Decrees

               Every day as I sit at my desk writing sermons and doing various tasks for the church, there is a plaque above my desk that says, “IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL.” This was a gift years ago after I made comments about my love for the song that inspired the plaque. Almost 20…

Continue Reading God’s Conditions and Your Confidence

               I am authoring this article in the middle of February which follows my normal convention of staying ahead to make sure the bulletin is ready to print each week. I do not count on sudden miraculous inspiration with either these articles or my sermons. “Prepare” is my motto which often avoids embarrassment. This early…

Continue Reading Thank You For Sharing!

               Near the end of January, I received a text message from Lino asking if I had seen the new February issue of TableTalk. I often hear from Lino with encouraging messages or scanned images of pages from articles or books he reads. I had received my issue of the magazine, but I only glanced…

Continue Reading Hope In Sorrow

               At the end of January, our church went through its yearly ritual of the Annual Church Membership Meeting. The design is something like the State of the Union address with reports on the past year’s financials, membership, and new challenges we face in the new current year. A major component is the election of…

Continue Reading A Little Latin Leakage

               At the end of January, we began a series of sermons from Mark 13 about Jesus’ conversation with His disciples concerning eschatology. The etymological basis for this word is the Greek eschatos with the simple meaning of “last.” Jesus spoke with them about the last times or commonly called the end times. Since this…

Continue Reading An Ode To Subterfuge

               As I write my bulletin article today, I reflect on my road trip to Canada in January. Upon my return, friends and family asked what I did while I was gone. The answer is nothing more than drive. I had a destination in mind, I drove there, spent the night, and returned. I traveled…

Continue Reading Canadians of Character

(Originally published on Feb. 1, 2026)                Last week after I returned from traveling in Canada, I gave you an introduction to Mark 13 which centered on the importance of studying eschatology. I may have surprised some by saying that eschatology is not my favorite Bible topic while at the same time saying we need…

Continue Reading Serious About the Series

               Just before leaving on a brief vacation last week, I finished reading Isaiah, my favorite Old Testament book. I read the entire Bible systematically each year in addition to my other readings for sermons, and of course, the Sunday scriptures read with the congregation. Perhaps you have noticed I often choose passages from Isaiah…

Continue Reading Traveling With Isaiah