By Stewart Holloway Face it. As a leader, you are going to to get frustrated . . . aggravated . . . and just plain out mad. Some preachers might say, "I am so grieved in my spirit", but they're just trying to cover the fact that they are ticked off! Things aren't going to go as you had hoped. People are going to disappoint. Nay sayers are going to say. Complainers are going to complain. "Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." (Thank you, Taylor Swift). It happens to all of us. Preachers have "preacher Mondays." That's when we want to quit because Sunday didn't go quite like we had hoped. Maybe bankers have banker blues, and lawyers have lawyer lulls. I don't know what you call it when you've had enough, but you have those times. And, guess what? It's o.k. Really? Yes! On Wednesday nights at our church, I've been teaching through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. These books of the Old Testament cover the story of God, with the assistance of Moses, leading the Israelites out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. I've been interested to notice how many times Moses got ticked at the Israelites. I mean, sling some spit, kick a cat, scream in a pillow mad! A couple of times he even tells God, … [Read more...]

By Waylon Bailey Jesus taught revolutionary ideas. Because of this, even His own disciples had to ask what His parables and teaching meant. They also seemed to be bothered that the Pharisees had been offended by the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 15:1-21). What did Jesus teach that seemed to turn everything upside down? Jesus defined religion differently from the Jews of His day. They saw religion as rules and regulations to be followed. They wanted everyone to conform to their teachings–even those which did not come from Holy Scripture. For example, they were disturbed and agitated that the disciples of Jesus did not wash before they ate. It’s important to note that this was not a cleanliness requirement. They didn’t know about disease and germs. What bothered them was that the disciples of Jesus did not follow the decrees of man! Jesus instead pointed out the decrees of God. The Pharisees were much better at keeping man’s laws than God’s laws. In fact, the teaching of Jesus made that clear. They also seemed to want to keep man’s laws more than God’s. For that reason, Jesus called them out for their hypocrisy. Jesus reminded His own disciples that it is not the outward but the inward that is most important. It … [Read more...]