Tag: Preacher

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 27TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 31, Edition 431
“Military Service”

I follow a few Facebook pages for Pastors. I generally don’t get involved in the discussions, as they occasionally get heated. In fact – at times – some of those discussions are good examples of how not to act as a Pastor. Yes – even Pastors can become keyboard warriors online where they type things out on their computer, tablet, or smart phone that they would never say to another person in public or from the pulpit.

A post on military service recently caught my eye on one of those Pastor Facebook pages. A guy asked if a military Veteran should not be a Pastor. He was wondering because his service was used against him. He was told that he could not be a Pastor because he was a Veteran and that disqualified him. I did comment on that post. I wrote – “I would not belong to a church body that believed such utter nonsense. I’ve actually never heard of anything like that before in my nearly 20 years serving inside 3 different churches. It’s never been used against me either.”

Virtually all of the comments were similar to mine. I actually didn’t read any of them until after I had posted my own comment.

I have no idea why military service would prevent someone from being a Pastor. It’s certainly not supported in Scripture. I think that most churches of most denominations believe that prior military experience is good leadership preparation whether you led personnel, equipment, finances, or any combination. Serving your country is treated as an honorable civic duty. That’s been my experience at my 3 main home churches that I’ve served in over the past nearly 20 years.

To my fellow Veterans who are currently serving as a leader in your local home church – I Thank You for your service. Let’s pray:

Thank You Lord for blessing my fellow Veterans who now serve as leaders, elders, teachers, and servants within their local home churches. Thank You for guiding and directing their steps through seasons of military service. Thank You for molding their character, discipline, and commitment to something greater than themselves. Thank You for Your wisdom, strength, and protection as they lead Your flock closer to You. Just as they served their nation with honor – help them to shepherd Your people with Christlike compassion, patience, and love – leading by example in all things. May their past service yield fruit in their current service within Your spiritual kingdom – bringing glory to Your name and building up the body of Christ. And it is in your powerful name that we pray. AMEN and AMEN.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday, Yom Kippur

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Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 20TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 30, Edition 430
“Yom Kippur”

The Day of Atonement

Then the LORD said to Moses – “Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month – nine days after the Festival of Trumpets. You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly – a day to deny yourselves, and present special gifts to the LORD. Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement – when offerings of purification are made for you – making you right with the LORD your God. All who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people. And I will destroy anyone among you who does any work on that day. You must not do any work at all ! This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live. This will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and on that day you must deny yourselves. This day of rest will begin at sundown on the ninth day of the month and extend until sundown on the tenth day.” (Leviticus 23:26-32 NLT)

Yom Kippur begins shortly before sundown tonight, and it continues for 25 hours until full nightfall tomorrow night.

Yom Kippur is connected to Jesus Christ when He completely fulfilled the rituals of the Day of Atonement. (Hebrews 9:7,11-12,24-26,28 & 10:3-4,11-12)

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday, Yom Kippur

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Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 13TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 29, Edition 429
“20 Years Of Salvation – Part 5”

Let’s continue my story:

You know – for many of our neighbors out there – they love God, but they don’t care too much for His followers – because of past encounters – because of past experiences – sometimes from inside the church.

It’s up to us – those of us who know God and are close to Him – to share what we know about Him to others – when asked – when opportunities present themselves. And if someone comes up to us, and wants to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord + Savior, and they want to know how to do so – then we must be ready to explain it. We must always be ready to lead our neighbor to Jesus Christ.

Here’s one thing you can do for your neighbor at any place – at any time. Have him or her say this out loud:

“Oh God. I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask that You forgive me for my sins. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins, and that you rose again so that I may live. I receive You Jesus as my Lord and as my Savior. From this moment on I want to believe in You. I want to follow You. I want to trust You. I want to serve You in the fellowship of Your church. I want to love You more than any one and more than any thing in this world. In Your loving name I pray this to You Lord Jesus. AMEN.”

That’s the salvation prayer – or the sinners’ prayer. That’s my version of it. I encourage you to write that down or take a picture of it and keep it handy – so that you can share it with someone when you need to. Anyone can say it – at any time. You can reaffirm your faith in Christ by saying it. Just make sure that when you say it – you mean it – in your heart.

If you share it with a family member, or a friend, or a coworker, or a neighbor – then be there for him or her. Be a witness for him or her. Know that you may have led him or her to our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. It’s another life saved. It’s another miracle from our God. And our God – He must always get all of the Glory.

And that’s my salvation story. Thank You for reading it over these past 5 weeks. I hope that you’ll find the time to talk to our God often – up on the hilltops and down in the valleys – when the going is great – and when it’s not so great. Know that our God is always with you in everything you do and everywhere you go. Talk to Him, and thank Him for everything that He has done for you. For the best is yet to come.

This may be the end of a 5-week arc here on #SundayScripture, but it’s certainly not the end of my salvation story. It continues on eternally.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 06TH 2026, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Volume 9, Number 28, Edition 428
“20 Years Of Salvation – Part 4”

No 20TH anniversary celebration of this fantastic journey would’ve been complete without a trip back to where it all started – Homestead Florida. I spent 3 days and 2 nights there last weekend.

On Friday I enjoyed both lunch and dinner at Longhorn and Outback respectively. At each place I reminisced about the past and shared the current and future with a different former coworker friend. In-between the two meals I visited the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center inside Everglades National Park – a place where I volunteered as a museum docent for the very first time a decade earlier (2015-2017). I also visited (for the very first time) the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum in downtown Homestead. I thoroughly enjoyed my docent-led guided tour of the place, as well as our friendly conversation about our respective museums and lives in Homestead.

On Saturday I visited my longtime traditional shopping mall of 35 years (Southland Mall in Cutler Bay), and then that evening I enjoyed a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in the fellowship hall at my longtime second church (2015-2024).

On Sunday I watched as my former Pastor preached one of his classic topical long-winded 65-minute sermons. (I preached differently than him, and he appreciated that.) Afterwards 6 of us (including Pastor and his wife) enjoyed lunch together at Texas Roadhouse.

It was a wonderful weekend back in Homestead. I got to drive through torrential downpours, flooded roadways, and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams in-between all of the fun.

Last #SundayScripture I wrote about my current church here in Sebring Florida – Highlands Community Church. Today is my 3RD anniversary there. I’ll be leading Communion this morning.

Let’s continue my story:

I was rescued and saved by God during the week of August 20TH 2006. Gradually – as I got closer to Christ and I learned more about Him and His ways – and I matured on my journey – I realized that salvation was not that single event that happened on that day when I turned that radio dial and started hearing songs about God. Salvation is not a single event. Salvation is an ongoing event. My salvation started back then on that otherwise mundane morning during my drive to work. And salvation continues to this day. And salvation will continue tomorrow. The salvation that we know now will continue until the ultimate salvation on the last day.

You know lives are being saved all around the world – one life at a time. When one of God’s children turns from the darkness – and moves towards the light – that’s another miracle. He or she was facing the devil, but now – he or she is facing the Savior of the world.

Sometimes it happens solitary – with nobody else assisting. God intervenes, and He reaches out to the lost soul in the pit of despair – out of the mud and the mire.

But I think that most of the time a life is saved because one of God’s Messengers – one of His royal priests – evangelized. When you evangelize – you spread or preach the Gospel that you know. You bring God’s Good News. And God commands all of us to do just that.

(I’ll continue this story – next #SundayScripture.)