DEEP // WIDE // LIGHT

God blew me away recently (in several ways, but I will only bore you with one today). After our church's recent excellent Easter worship, I ran across a news article with some disturbing and yet not surprising statistics. Apparently, 9 out of 10 American homes have a Bible in them. However, only 16 percent of American churchgoers read the Bible daily and 25 percent of churchgoers don't read the Bible at all. The mental picture of the dusty Bible on the shelves of most American homes is not surprising in the least to me. It is, however, a grave concern of mine. It is most especially disconcerting when I notice that elsewhere on planet Earth, believers are using their Bible to stand up for their right to worship. Hundreds of believers were arrested in China on Easter Sunday (this link is working as of 04/29/2011) during a government crackdown on an unregistered church. The pastor's response is straight from God's Word. Read this for yourself, and be amazed. While we in t

Read Matthew chapter 16, starting in verse 13 and going through the rest of the chapter. Go ahead and read it. I'll wait. No really. Read it real quick. Take your time. I'll be here when you get done. You back yet? You took a little while! But that's okay. Jesus is trying to explain to his precious followers that he is going to have to march into Jerusalem and get murdered. Peter is not okay with this, and Jesus has some strong words to say to him. "There is a plan of God Himself at work here, and you had better not get in the way, Peter." And then he tells Peter, "You, too, will have to throw yourself away and pick up your electric chair and come on if you want to follow me." Whoa. Those are such strong words. Christians quote this verse of denying self and picking up a cross frequently without thinking about what it means. See, saying "deny yourself" is easy. But ignoring what you want is hard. Saying "pick up your cross" is easy.

The following is a tribute to one of the greatest women I have ever known - my mamaw, Geraldine Tucker. She went home to be with the Lord on Sunday evening, April 3, 2011. She was 83 years old. But that is not why she was great. The world will not do much more than blink with her passing. The world will stop spinning for some of us for a time, but planet earth will continue moving around us at lightning speeds, and eventually we will go back to our lives with only memories left. She gave us wonderful memories. But those are not why she was great. She married Papaw in 1943, and a day or two later, he left with his Army unit for training, and for eventual deployment for Normandy. By the time he had returned, she had purchased for them a house and 50 acres. They built a life together, and raised a large family. They worked so very hard, but her hard work is not why she was great. She fulfilled God's purpose for her here on Earth. He tasked her with creating and raising a family in the