Message Series’

Category

Common sense Christianity

For years, decades, perhaps even centuries, common sense has been understood and agreed upon by the majority of people on the planet - despite ideological and even religious differences, people agreed on certain things that seemed illogical to deny. Elders should be respected, children are to be taken care of and valued, its better to be kind to someone than to shame them, things are either true, or false; these things and many more like them were just “known” and…

Reflections at 38

Today is my 38th birthday. As is the case with most people I would assume, there are days that I feel 18, and days that I feel 58. Most of the days I feel 58 are Monday’s, after I play basketball for 2 hours on Sunday nights… but I bring up my birthday for a few reasons.  First, it’s probably been my favorite day of the year for my entire life. Believe it or not, I like attention, and celebrating…

Holding on to hurt

“What if you just let it go?” That’s a question most people can only ask others and not themselves. When a wrong has been done, it seems easy for those looking in from the outside to posit the suggestion that “letting go” would be easier and more productive than “hanging on” to hurt. Let go and let God the religious ones might even say. And you know what, it’s even scriptural it appears;  Philippians 4:5–7 (ESV)Let your reasonableness be known…

Stop feeling sorry

“I’m sorry.” These two words are some of the most powerful in the English language. They have the power to heal, restore hope and bring people together like almost no other combination. Used correctly there’s almost nothing those words can’t do, including undo the past, if only in an emotional or figurative manner. Being sorry is an amazing thing, and in almost every circumstance, it is something I encourage people I counsel and those I love, to do.  So now,…

A persecuted people

If you want to know how much I love Jesus, just know this - a couple weeks ago, I ate lunch with my friend at a vegan restaurant so we could talk about church stuff together. My friend is vegan, so we went where he could eat. There was NO meat. No beef, no chicken, not even the other white meat (pork). There were no eggs, no milk and no cheese. There wasn’t even butter. We had cauliflower “wings” -…

At any cost

If you have ever heard me speak or read my writing before, I think what I am about to say is fairly self-evident. If you haven’t, I invite you to go back and read some of my other stuff, or come hear me as proof that I am indeed telling the truth. What I want to say is this; the truth is ALWAYS the best option. Like always.  I can already hear some of the objections. “Aaron, what if my…

Miracles out of messes

They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, right now it is 2020, and I’ve begun to do a little reflecting. A little over ten years ago, we lost my father-in-law to suicide. It was awful - there’s no other way to say it. It was a complete shock to our family, and rocked our entire world. It was the result of brokenness and hurt - and I don’t for ONE SECOND believe it was God’s fault, or His plan. In fact,…

The ever-changing church

When I was 14, usher wasn’t the name of a famous R&B artist, it was the job title of someone who walked people to their seats at an event and/or greeted people with bulletins (programs) and passed offering plates at churches to help collect the weekly donations. It was a job reserved for adults who knew what they were doing, and could be trusted with the money and responsible for all the things that came with the job. For MANY…

The times & TMZ

I need to start off by saying, I can’t imagine what it would be like to be sitting at a table at my favorite restaurant and have people gawking and snapping pictures on their phones. Worse yet, to have them approach me during a romantic meal with my lovely wife and ask me for an autograph or to take a selfie with them. Perhaps even more annoying, would be to have to navigate throngs of people while driving my car,…

No matter where you’re from

Kiln Mississippi used to be just a little nothing town in the middle of nowhere. I’m betting even the majority of the people reading this might not have ever even heard of it.    The second most famous person to ever be “from” there, is a woman named Deanna Favre. She started an organization that helps fight cancer. The population of Kiln is under 3,000 people. It’s about an hour from New Orleans, and has a rich history in the…