When Pete spoke these words to Ulysses and Delmar in the movie theater in O Brother Where Art Thou?, he had given them up to Sheriff Cooley. If they went after the treasure as they were planning, it would be at the cost of their lives. Since Ulysses and Delmar were not the most discerning of individuals (We thought you was a toad!), they went after the treasure anyway, with Pete tagging along for good measure. And if not for a timely intervention, it would have cost them their lives.

During the recent World Cup soccer matches, I don't think I watched any of the games.  But what I did watch was various clips on social media of the goings on of the World Cup.  Clips of the various fans and clips by the various fans.  These scenes of thousands of people having a truly joyful time here to watch their national team - you cannot watch them without being affected by them in some way.

God is so good. Have you ever tried to think about just how good God is? (Note I say tried, I don't believe we can actually comprehend his complete goodness) I know when we think of God's goodness Christ and the redemption he offers is the pinnacle and what we correctly first think of but the area of his goodness I often find myself thinking about is the detail He added to his creation.

There is an interesting passage of Scripture found in Matthew 19, when Jesus encounters the rich young man.  As you may recall, the man was unwilling to leave everything behind to follow Jesus.  During the discussion Peter said, “See, we have left everything and followed you.  What then will we have?” (Matthew 19:27; ESV)

It was several years ago that the BBC ran a piece about a bumper spaghetti crop in Switzerland. There had been a confluence of ideal conditions for the Swiss farmers:  a mild winter, the nefarious spaghetti weevil was practically non-existent that particular year, and the Swiss, long known for their precision, had developed a strain of spaghetti that was just the right length so it didn’t have to be trimmed after it was harvested from the trees.

In 1960, Kirk Douglas starred in a movie titled "Spartacus." In the movie, Spartacus was the leader of a slave revolt during the Roman Republic of the First Century. When the rebel slave army is finally captured, they are asked to identify their leader, Spartacus, for special punishment. The man who would identify Spartacus would be given a pardon. Every surviving man responds by shouting "I'm Spartacus!" As a result, all men are sentenced to death by crucifixion.

Although lupus took her life at the age of thirty-nine, Flannery O'Connor wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories that garnered several awards and honors. She was a Roman Catholic and made no secret about it or apologies for it (“I write the way I do because I am a Catholic”). Due to her illness (and perhaps her personality), she lived an isolated life with her mother on the family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was something of a literary John the Baptist.

A familiar passage from Psalms is 119:105.  "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."  The psalmist takes delight in the words of God.  But there’s more to the words of God than simply knowing them or hearing about them.  You’ve got to do the law, live by the law, perform the law.  This was Paul’s comments regarding Israel in Romans 2.  In verse 17 the Jews were bragging about their relationship with God.  Verse 18, they knew his will.  In verse 19, they considered themselves guides for the blind.  N.T. Wright says Israel thought they were good simply because they had the law, but they did not keep the law.  That’s why Paul says in Romans 2:24 that “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”  Israel, the Jews, were not keeping the law, even though they knew it and had possession of it.

This year the United States of America celebrates her 250th birthday as a nation. Some have called the founding of the USA an "experiment" because of the uncertainty of whether a democratic republic would endure the test of time (heritage.org). A quarter-millennium is a decent track record for determining the success of an experiment, but that is still young when compared to other civilizations. For example, China and Egypt trace their roots thousands of years before Christ.

Our series on First Things reminds me that occasionally believers may find ourselves checking off a list of church obligations, speaking the vocabulary of the Christian community, returning to the performance of devotion that we may have dutifully practiced for decades – but without the same delight it once gave us. It feels useful in those times to go back – far back – to recall who Christ is.

In his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr raises the idea that with the deepening influence of the internet on our lives, we risk becoming “pancake people.” By this he means our intake of knowledge is “wide and thin,” as we have such vast repositories of knowledge at our fingertips. However, the temptation will be to skim the surface of all sorts of knowledge, but never to dive deep. Furthermore, the internal spaces we have traditionally relied upon for quietude and self-reflection may be too easily filled with the trivia and noise of the world. What will we become as we lose those quiet spaces of contemplation? Carr wrote his essay in 2008. As we hurtle through 2026, perhaps we’re seeing the consequences Carr suggested we might face.

In the Old Testament, there are a number of laws about purity; and being clean or unclean.  The laws pertain to foods the Israelite could eat, skin infections or sores on the skin, coming in contact with blood, coming in contact with a dead body, mold in a house, and other various situations.  There are a number of reasons for these laws, and I do not have a thorough list for those reasons.  In one of these regulations regarding going to the bathroom in your camp, in Deuteronomy 23:14, the people are told that God walks through the camp, and it must be kept holy.  Otherwise, God will see something unclean and turn away from the camp.  Perhaps one of the reasons for the cleanliness laws is that an uncleanness or something impure will be the reason God leaves the camp.

Long ago, at many times and in may ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. One of these prophets was Isaiah. In Isaiah 6, the prophet has a vision where he receives his commission:

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.””

Several years ago, our family vacationed at a state park near Warm Springs, Georgia, where FDR’s Little White House is located. Roosevelt had the house built just before he took office in 1933. He had initially visited the springs almost a decade earlier, like so many others, looking for a cure for the polio that ravaged his body. Although he never found healing, he did experience relief, and the site remained a favorite getaway. He was at Warm Springs when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945.

In the Lord’s prayer, one of the things Jesus asks for is that God’s kingdom would come, and his will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Jesus is asking for God’s kingdom to reign on earth.  As this prayer is a model prayer that we should base our prayers on, then we too should be asking for God’s kingdom to come to reign on earth.  I think it is Jesus’ intention that as we pray this prayer, implied in this request is that WE be the agents through whom the kingdom comes on earth.

Sunday is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is an opportunity to offer a special of word of blessing for the mothers who raised us, the wives who raise children with us, the daughters who have provided grandchildren, the foster parents who make a forever difference in the lives of children, and the volunteers in a variety of ways who offer motherly love to children not their own but who come to them for care. Faithful women who biologically, or through adoption, or through volunteerism, choose to invest in the next generation. There is no better example of woman power than women who empower.

In the book of 2 Kings, there was a man named Naaman who had leprosy. Naturally he was looking to be cured so when he heard about the prophet, Elisha, in Israel, Naaman went to see him. When he arrived at Elisha’s house, Elisha merely sent out his servant to tell Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.

Nancy Wilson sang a beautiful song that came out in 1964. She was expressing her love for her lover, telling him the height and depth of it. It is my hope that you take the time to listen to the song before you read the rest of this little essay.

For nearly a century, Teas Nursery occupied five acres of property in the Bellaire section of Houston. The family business began in Indiana in 1843, moved to Texas in 1910, and closed in 2009 with the death of John Teas. 

Teas made quite an impact upon the city. It was not only the first business in the Bellaire district—they were actually brought in by Bellaire developer William Wright Baldwin to landscape and beautify the area as it was being built. They did such a good job that in 1912 they were hired by Rice University (then known as Rice Institute). From there the business took off. Patsy Teas said that over the years the nursery was involved in planting over a million trees in the Houston area.