My wife and I served as evangelical, protestant missionaries in France for eleven and a half years, after which I became the pastor and director of a Christian school in a French-speaking evangelical church, L'Eglise Evangelique de Saint Jerome, in Quebec, Canada. After serving in Quebec for five years, we then moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where I became the pastor of the First Evangelical Church of Greenville. In 1995, we moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where I eventually assumed the management of the family business, and remained there until 2012, when our family moved to Meridian, Idaho. My wife and I have six children. These short devotionals are born out of the loss of one of these children in particular, with the hope and prayer that they will serve to encourage and inspire those who read them in their walk with Christ. God bless you all, and may we finish well the race set before us.
Dear Ones: We are all apt to think that the calling of God is to a work, mission, or occupation. These are outward aspects of the calling. The unchanging, undiminished calling of God is for us to fellowship with the Father and the Son, by the Spirit. John, in his first letter, writes: “That which…
Dear Ones: We have all heard the phrase, “Seeing is believing.” Spiritually speaking, this is also true. Most folk who do not believe in Christ today are not looking, not seeking. They, for the most part, do not want to “see.” And yet, Scripture is so clear: “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me,…
Dear Ones: One of the countless ways that we see the inspiration of Scripture is recognizing the continuity of the message. It is the same, from the beginning pages of Genesis until the last pages of Revelation. One of the great themes of the Bible is that of the perfect, personal, eternal work of God…
Dear Ones: Sometimes we forget that God is the God of all circumstances. This is particularly hard to grasp and remember when difficult and trying times come, especially on the individual level. But to believe that he is sovereign, and that in the “narrowness” of circumstances, and feeling cornered at times, there is this realty: …
Dear Ones: A witness is a person who sees and hears…observes something or someone. On the day of Pentecost, there was a mighty rushing wind. The disciples HEARD. Then there were the “cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” (Acts 2:2-3) The disciples SAW. But what made the disciples…
Dear Ones: There are many things that are true, but are not “realities” to us, because they are not “real” to our senses, minds, and hearts. God has made provision for this with regard to our knowing Him. Think of this…He makes the world, and us. He then comes to live by His Spirit in…
Dear Ones: After the resurrection of Christ, before His ascension, He instructed “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” to tell his disciples to go into Galilee. There was a promise associated with this simple command: “…THERE shall they see Me.” (Matt. 28:10) The Lord at one point spoke to Ezekiel and said: “…Arise, go forth…
Dear Ones: A secret is something that is hidden, unknown, kept privately in the heart and mind. With regard to men, we think it may be great or small, good or bad, long-lasting or short-term. But if we enter the realm of the eternal, and we consider the “secret of the Lord,” (Ps. 25:14), the…
Dear Ones: The clarion is a “shrill, narrow-tubed war trumpet,” which gives a “loud and clear” sound. Why? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:8, “…For it the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” What is the clarion message throughout Scripture which reveals to us the unchanging ways of God,…
Dear Ones: In the book of Joshua, where we read concerning his old age, and soon departure to be with the Lord, he writes: “…Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15) The context of such a declaration to Israel is the…