The Barnabas Blog

Football in Alabama (I am sorry to say sometimes) is one of the most passionate religions that we have to offer. When I moved to Houston to go to Bible College, I was quite curious as to how the folks in Texas would support their teams. I was able to find some support for the Oilers and Astros but it never reached the passion that I witnessed here for the fans of Auburn and Alabama. Furthermore, I found very little passion for the Longhorns, Aggies, or Baylor’s Bears exhibited by the Texans. This really surprised me coming from the neck of the woods that I hail from. To this day, Alabama fans are still quite focused on the success of the long departed Coach “Bear” Bryant and his group of stars that played for him in the ‘60’s, 70’s, and early ‘80’s. While I am not an Alabama fan, I must confess that more than once I have been inspired by some of the biographies I have read about “The Bear.” From his early Kentucky days to his legendary rise with the Junction Boys at Texas...

I grew up hearing many sermons and Bible studies on Revival through much of the late ‘70’s, ‘80’s, and ‘90’s. Those messages had much impact on me as a young man and then as a young preacher. Chiefly was the fact that when those messages had been preached there were long extended altar services following the messages. The altars would shore up the hunger that I felt for God and a desire to see the Kingdom of God press forward. Far too many times to count now were the times that I knelt at the wooden altars and many tears flowed not just from my eyes but from my soul. In addition to that there were some small rooms on either side of our platform that served as prayer rooms and often I would go there and allow God to add more to my life. As I get older there are moments of great reflection as to how those sorts of things took place in my life. One of the things was I had a pastor, Joe Patterson, who was hungry for our church to have revival and spiritual growth to take pl...

Several months ago, I endeavored to spend a little time writing about the Emerging Church as it has been called by some in this generation. It is somewhat driven by a WASPish crowd of “enlightened” folks who are attempting to soften the Gospel into a socially acceptable “community” that is “inclusive” of every religion that has ever come down the pike. As I revisited some of the points in the earlier blogs ( Part 1 & Part 2 ) I noted their doctrinal indifference, a false sense of humility, and the mockery of those who adhere to a strong message. Their doctrinal indifference completely waters down every major doctrine that is presented in the Bible which very much blurs the line of what it takes to be saved. Their false sense of humility seems to escalate into much sarcasm towards those who hold strong borders with the attitude of “how can you actually say you can proclaim the truth?” and “who are you to say you have the truth ?”. Furthermore this false...