Serious About Scripture

Mentoring and motivating Christ’s people to live his words

The Hole to Hell

Some time between 1950 and 1952 I saw the hole to hell. I was three or four years of age. We were living in Fordyce, Arkansas where my father pastored the First Baptist Church. The hole to hell could be seen on the main road leading through the residential area by the flag pole in front of the High School. The hole was otherwise known as a concrete planter, or, as I could see years later, a concrete bench that…

The New Year Starts: Making Plans?

You may have reason to fear the year now upon us. What is on the other side of the door? Every person has their allotment of trouble, even among believers. Will there be loss, illness, death, aggravation, perplexity? Will those you love come to distrust you? Will you sin badly, ruining your reputation? Will there be economic trials and anxiety over money? Will you lose your job, or worse, your mind? Will you be hurt deeply? Will you be in…

What they Did Before TV

My mother was the youngest of fourteen children growing up on a farm in the first part of the last century. The old home place burned down when she was a girl. It was a typical Southern house divided into a boys’ room, a girls’ room, a kitchen (they ate in the open breezeway during the summer), and the parents’ room. A porch surrounded the entire home. “Mom and Dad’s” room was the gathering place at night. The fireplace blazed…

Peace, or Division, on Earth?

Relationship conflict is stressful. I don’t like it at all. But according to Jesus, his followers are not always going to be at peace with others. This is how he put it. Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against…