“Who knows the evil that lurks in the hearts of men?” So began a radio program called “The Shadow” in
1930. Over the years it spawned comic books, movies, and even video games. That theme endures to
this day: Evil lurks in human hearts. It manifests itself in so many ways, though. The gut-wrenching
murders of high school kids at a party is the latest example. Innocent lives snuffed out by the decision
of a person, or persons, who let the rage of evil consume them.

A college basketball coach resigned recently because of an uproar about his referring to Bible scripture
to show a young player that he should be receptive to coaching and respectful to authority. The
scripture in question spoke about relationships between fathers and sons and slaves and their masters.
With the ignorance of the heathens of the world concerning the Bible, it wasn’t the wisest of ways to
instruct the player. One of the problems with people with only superficial knowledge of the Bible,

A liberal journalist in England began to see a pattern in many news stories and articles that professional
and political people were, too often, substituting feelings and opinions for actual facts. Following the
evidence led Melanie Phillips to somewhat accidentally stumble into the culture wars. But she has
perceived that it is, in fact, a war—an all-out WAR. She charges that liberals not only dislike traditional
family, but they are actively, intentionally and successfully destroying traditional family!

I try to empty my “spam” email folder every couple of days so that I can look for real emails that may
have been put in that category. I’m amazed at all the stuff that, according to various emails, I have won.
One day I won a Craftsman generator, two Ninja blenders, a $500 gift card, two cell phones, a Dyson
vacuum cleaner, a cookware set, and $1000 in cash. Not too shabby, huh?

I recently read an article by a pastor of an “Independent Baptist” church. In that article he made the
statement that Southern Baptist pastors are told what to preach every Sunday. I re-read the sentence
because I thought I had surely mis-read it. Nope. He believed that the Southern Baptist Convention
provided us pastors with sermons to preach every Sunday. I have no idea why he believed that enough
to make such a definitive statement…which, by the way, is totally untrue.
But I began to wonder what other misconceptions about Southern Baptists are “out there”. Based on
news stories and magazine articles I have discovered a few.

Has the moral pendulum begun to swing back to the right in our nation? It is certainly showing
signs…and that’s good. Movies like “The Chosen” and “The Jesus Revolution” are well attended, the
transgender rhetoric seems to be losing steam, the abortion industry has taken a hit, and even a few
famous people have spoken up for people of faith. I’m encouraged, and I hope that you are, too.

What does it take to be saved? Acts 16:31 says “…believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”. It
really is that simple…yet it’s a little complicated at the same time. The question is what do you believe
about Him. The Mormons, as we have seen, believe that a man name Jesus lived and walked the
earth…and that He was special. Islam recognizes a prophet named Jesus. The Jehovah’s Witnesses also
believe He lived. Are those folks “saved”? No. Good people for the most part, but not saved.
Here is the basics of “believing in the Lord Jesus: He is the Son of God, miraculously conceived by the
Holy Spirit in a virgin

Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and Lent are three terms describing religious activities that we hear a lot
about at this time of year. Have you ever wondered just what they are and why they are
commemorated? First, let me say that they have no real Biblical background but, even though they are
“man-made” they do point toward a very significant event: Easter.

The weather has been kind of wacky this year, hasn’t it? The rain has been especially heavy, I think. I
walked in my back yard on Monday morning, after two days of no rain and the ground is still soaked.
That’s very unusual. But, while it’s messy and not a great time to walk around back there, here’s the
thought I had: God must be preparing us for a beautiful Spring! I’m pretty excited about that. Will there
be more “severe” weather? Highly likely….more rain and some freezing temperatures. But when Spring
comes, it will be awesome!

About 2,800 years ago the writer of Ecclesiastes stated why the Bible doesn’t need to be understood in
light of the modern times or interpreted according to what we know today. He wrote: “What has been
will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes
1:9 NIV). Nothing new under the sun? Really?