Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
January 18, 2016
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 7:13-21, 24-27 Robert Frost wrote a poem about two roads converging in the woods. One had been much traveled and the other not so much. He chose the one less traveled and was a better man for it. Several years ago as I […]
January 12, 2016
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 5:17-22, 43-45 We live in a society based on laws. Some laws are very good and protect us. Some laws are silly based on the times in which they were written. Some laws are bad because they focus on a certain segment of […]
January 12, 2016
By Michael Crandall Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg Focal Passage: Psalms 8:1-8 What does it mean to cherish something? The word cherish means that we hold something dear to us. When we think about cherishing something we often think about our children or grandchildren. Sometimes when we refer to childhood memories we think about […]
January 4, 2016
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 6:5-18 If we are ever going to know God then we must pray. It is through prayer that we are able to hear His heart speaking to our heart. In Matthew 6 Jesus challenged the people and religious leaders in regard to the […]
January 4, 2016
By Michael Crandall Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg Focal Passage: I Corinthians: 12:12-16, 21-22; I Peter 4:9-11 Are you ready to go to work? That was a question that I was grateful to hear, from the head of personnel of a local market. I was a broke college student, living on my own, and […]
December 28, 2015
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 5:1-16 Evangelist Jay Strack tells a story about Chippy the smart mouthed Parakeet who was always an embarrassment to his owner. One day Chippy was accidentally sucked into a Wet-Dri Vac. His owner retrieved Chippy, washed him up, blow dried him and sat […]
December 28, 2015
By Michael Crandall Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg Focal Passage: I Corinthians 12:4-11 What are gifts? Are gifts the things we wrapped up in shining paper or placed in a decorative bag or maybe gifts are the things we place beautiful bows on! Maybe gifts are the things we shared with others just a […]
December 21, 2015
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 4:1-10 Temptation is a word that often causes us to shiver because of the connotation attached to it. John McArthur in his New Testament Commentary on I Corinthians says this about the word “temptation” found in I Corinthians 10:13. The basic meaning in […]
December 21, 2015
By Michael Crandall Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg Focal Passage: Ephesians 3:14-21 What is strength? How can we measure strength? What does strength look like? These are all questions that a person could ask. And on the surface these are questions that have simple answers. From a purely secular point of view, strength could […]
December 14, 2015
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 2:1-12 There is a song that is nearly always sung at Christmas time titled “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” The song assumes three kings based on the Scriptural fact that three gifts were presented to the baby Jesus (gold — royalty; frankincense […]
December 14, 2015
By Michael Crandall Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg Focal Passage: John 1:1-5, 9-14 Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you never married the person of your dreams or if you never had your children or grandchildren? At times when we think about things such as this, we wonder what […]
December 7, 2015
By Ray Luck Pastor, Oak Grove Baptist Church, Athens Focal Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 If you watch television any at all you most likely have seen the commercial advertising ancestry.com. The company specializes in helping people trace their ancestors in order to discover their roots. The gospel according to Matthew leaves no doubt as to the […]