First Baptist Church

Vance Havner was an evangelist and Bible conference speaker, who was also sort of the “Will Rogers” of the evangelical world.  He died in 1986, but there are so many wonderful quotes from this old preacher still circulating. I think my favorite is this: “I’ve never heard a sermon where God didn’t speak to me…but I’ve had some very close calls!”

Most people think the word sermon is synonymous with boring. Too often their opinion is based on sad experience. It is a tragic thing when a preacher takes the world’s most amazing book – the Bible – and makes the world’s most wonderful truth – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – seem boring.

Sometimes it’s because the preacher doesn’t really preach from the Bible. I’ve always wondered how liberal preachers-those who do not believe the bible is God’s Word-can get up to preach, Sunday after Sunday. I mean, what do they have to say? They will usually read a portion of Scripture, but then embark on a series of remarks that have little or nothing to do with the text they just read.Read More

I used to have a book titled How to Spend an Hour in Prayer. I think it was by a man named Dick Eastman. Over the years I’ve lost the book, but I still have the notes to a lesson I wrote, based on that book. So I thought I’d pass on the gist of the lesson (and the book) to you.

Don’t be intimidated by the title. It doesn’t have to be an hour. Mr. Eastman pointed out that the clock-face was divided into 12 five-minute segments. (That’s on the old analog-style clocks…for you youngsters, clocks used to have faces, not just digital readouts.) A different way of praying was assigned to each segment. If praying for an hour makes you balk, try praying for 12 minutes, using a different way of praying for every minute. Or pray for 24 minutes, and change the way you pray every two minutes. You get the idea.Read More