Serious About Scripture

Mentoring and motivating Christ’s people to live his words

In the Loamy Field

I do not walk in the fields around my town often, but when the air was chilled beneath the trees and under the shade of the houses, and when I delighted in morning rays shooting their light and heat at me from behind each house and tree in straight lines on my face and coat, I was lured away for an hour or two of quiet to those gentle fields where the sun was not to be hindered. I laughed…

My Father Said to Me

My father tried to teach each of his children those great lessons he learned in his long life, some from the crucible of failure. Here is one. His mother, an exemplary Christian, had a weakness in the area of worry. She fought it and worked to turn her worries into prayer. It was a besetting sin, often showing up to hassle her. My father fought against worry also. He considered worry to be a true battleground in his life. I…

Childhood Conversion

A woman came to humorist Will Rogers, saying, “I struggle with this problem. Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I’m proud.” He said, “Ma’am, that’s not pride, that’s a mistake!” Now I know that you are proud of your children, but you have never been as proud of a child as a woman I met who claimed that her five year old daughter had never sinned! She was serious. I realize that this woman was not doctrinally…

The Cupcake Transgression

After we moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where my father would become the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church (1952-60), I began my school career. Kindergarten to MDiv degree took 17 years. At the beginning of that first year I was chosen, along with JoAnn, my classmate, to pull the wagon full of sleeping mats leading the way for the rest of the class into the brand new kindergarten addition. Miss Taylor, one of my favorites, was our teacher. My years…