With the baccalaureate service tonight, here are my sermons:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
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Tomorrow night I will give the sermon for my school’s baccalaureate service. This church service is for the graduating seniors, the Class of 2026. After hearing a sermon based on Romans 12:9-21 this past Sunday, I thought the passage could prove fruitful as a “blueprint,” of sorts, for graduating seniors (and all others in attendance). Here is the text of the sermon I’ll deliver tomorrow:
Good evening families, faculty, staff, and graduates of the Class of 2026. You are sitting here this evening at a threshold, a moment in your lives when you will soon pass from the world you know into a different one. As you cross this threshold of graduation, a great deal is going to change: your surroundings, your friends, your goals. It is an exciting and even scary process, as you are experiencing both a world in flux and flux in yourself.
The temptation will be great, therefore, to cast aside those things that are most essential, the “first things” that are always steadfast, in favor of the siren song of fleeting experiences and pleasures. The world will tell you, “do this thing and it will make you happy and bring you fulfillment”—and then it will sell some other “thing” next month, and the month after that. That road leads to emptiness and wasted potential.
So what should we do? How do we take this moment, lingering at the threshold, to prepare our hearts and minds for the changes ahead? The answer is love, love reflected through Christ’s Love for us.
Romans 12:9-21 (NKJV) offers some insights:
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things [or, “Do not be proud,” GNB], but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The Word of the Lord—Thanks Be to God. Let us pray.
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Any churchgoing Christian will understand that feeling that sometimes hits on Sunday mornings—even though you typically want to go to church, you just don’t want to that Sunday. The week is long and hard; the weekend is short (and usually full of the stuff you couldn’t get done during the week).
My brothers and I used to joke with our dad—a man who was borderline giddy as he’d wake us up for a marathon session of church (we were Pentecostal in the 1990s and early 2000s, so church was pretty much an all-day affair)—that we would “worship God in our own way” by staying home and playing Nintendo. Thank goodness he had a sense of humor and understood we were lampooning the milquetoast cultural “Christians” and New Age spiritualists who framed staying home and washing their cars as an act of piety.
But the struggle is real. I sincerely believe that Satan and his minions attack us the hardest right before church. Like most things, the justifications are reasonable: “I really need the rest”; “I have a crazy week ahead and need to get prepared for it.” Sometimes those things are legitimate concerns; more often, though, they’re just lame rationalizations, and we know it.
I’m preaching to myself here. I know from experience that missing one week of church makes it that much harder to return the following week; missing two weeks in a row or more is lethal to regular attendance. Due to our current living situation and Dr. Wife finishing up residency, we often find ourselves out of town on Sundays, but we try to attend one of our churches. Indeed, there have been times I’ve proposed staying home so we can “rest,” and she’ll insist we go to church. She’s a good woman.
Again, I understand there are exceptions. Some people—even here in the South—work on Sundays. People travel. Family events and the like sometimes interfere. Look, I’m not a Catholic—I don’t believe your salvation is contingent upon checking off the “I attended Mass so I’m good for another week” box. I do, however, believe that Scripture Instructs us to be part of a body of believers.
Going to church is beneficial spiritually first and foremost, but it’s also an opportunity to build Christian community. In an age of economic isolation and social atomization, folks are desperate to be part of something bigger than themselves. What’s bigger and better than the Bride of Christ?
Here in the South, there a sometimes more churches per square mile than people. I know other parts of the country are not so fortunate, but churches are not hard to find. Find a good one and start going!
With that, here is 17 April 2025’s “TBT^4: Go to Church“:
He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!
Happy Easter to my readers. I hope today will be a day of both rest and merriment, a time spent with your families celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Enjoy this wonderful day, my friends.
God Bless,
TPP
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On Wednesday, 4 March 2026 I led the men’s devotional, Master’s Men, at my church. Master’s Men meets the first Wednesday of each month, and men in the congregation take turns leading.
I wasn’t sure what to discuss, so I turned to a devotional my late paternal grandmother gave me many years ago. I flipped to the verses for 4 March, and it prominently featured James 5:10. The other verses emphasized how Christ Will Bear our burdens. Given that my wife and I are in the midst of moving while she’s finishing her residency and I’m entering the busiest part of the school year, that seemed like the natural direction to take.
However, as I dove deeper into James 5 itself, I realized there was so much more to discuss. I came away with a very different message (although it does, of course, touch upon how Christ Bears our burdens). The result is included below. —TPP
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Let us pray.
The Book of James is, perhaps, one of the most challenging books of the New Testament. James does not pull any punches, but exhorts believers to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers of it in James 1:22—and to take joy in our strife and suffering in James 1:2.
Indeed, each chapter of this short book offers up warnings for the reader. James 2:20 tells us that “faith without works is dead.” James 3:1-8 always convicts me; I have set far too much ablaze with an unruly tongue in my life. James 4 cautions against pride and encourages humility, reminding us that we cannot boast about tomorrow because God Controls and Numbers our days.
I think part of the appeal of James, particularly for men, is that it calls us to action—that our faith, if it is true faith at all, will show itself through our actions. If the faith we claim we have is true, then our deeds will reflect our faith. We are not saved by works, but works are evidence of our faith. As Christ Says in Matthew 7:16a: “You will know them by their fruits.”
So it is that we come to James 5, the final chapter in this useful little book. This chapter strikes me as a culmination of everything before it. So much of James is a reminder of our own limitations as fallen, sinful humans, and how dependent we are upon Christ’s Grace. James 5 demonstrates this dependence upon Christ by emphasizing God’s Judgment, God’s Timing, and God’s Provision.
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It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! And it’s a Thursday, so yours portly is TBT’ing to a classic of yesterchristmas.
Back in 2019, I wrote this piece about Napoleon. It took off because it gained some traction on WhatFinger News, which came along after Matthew Drudge inexplicably went woke. The name of this alternative news aggregator always strikes me as vaguely inappropriate, but they ran my link and it got tons of views at a time when I was getting discouraged with the blog (a perennial issue, it seems—perseverance is a virtue for a reason).
Napoleon is a complex and intriguing figure. Whatever his personal and professional attributes, he indelibly changed Europe and the world. It’s hard for us to understand today, fixated as we are on the failed Austrian painter with the Charlie Chaplin mustache, but Napoleon’s impact was still being discussed actively in the early twentieth century. He totally upended the gameboard of Europe—for good or for ill—and the fear and/or hope of another Napoleon endured for quite awhile.
YouTube philosopher Agora made a great video linking the two figures—and warning about why those links miss some key differences:
The important thing to remember, however, is that humanity’s conception of “greatness” is false. Remember, Christ Was Born today as a simple baby in the most humble of circumstances—literally bedding down in a feeding trough for barnyard animals. He Died a humiliating Death on the Cross. He Rose from the dead and Conquered Death, and Will Return again!
No Napoleon could ever achieve what He Did.
With that, here is 26 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Napoleonic Christmas“:
Way back in January I featured the missionary hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” as part of “Open Mic Adventures CXV: ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains’” as a jingoistic tribute to the then-recent inauguration of President Trump, who had designs on annexing Greenland. Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.
There this obscure piece of music sat until my September, when my pastor had the idea to pull out some lesser-known hymns for our church to sing during our fall revival services. My pastor shares something of my absurdist sense of humor, so when he stumbled upon “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” he half-jokingly proposed we sing it one night as our congregational piece. I enthusiastically agreed to play it, and so it became reality.
I took the opportunity to record a little bit of it and upload it to YouTube. Below is the church’s valiant attempt at singing a song that virtually no one in the congregation knew:
Last year, when Dr. Wife was still Dr. Girlfriend, we sat down and watched an incredible movie exploring demonic possession and spiritual warfare.
That film was 2023’s Nefarious (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you). It’s one of the best films I’ve seen in years, and it’s an overtly Christian film (without making it feel like it’s overtly Christian). It’s an excellent example of how Christians can make compelling art that espouses our beliefs culturally.
With that, here is 2 December 2024’s “Monday Morning Movie Review: Nefarious (2023)“:
The online historian Rudyard Lynch, also known by his channel name, Whatifalthist, put up an interesting video earlier this week about the influence of alchemy and alchemical modes of thinking on the development of Western civilization. It’s worth watching and considering, especially as an example of the crosspollination of ideas between philosophical, ethical, and religious systems.
Lynch makes the point of differentiating alchemy from Gnosticism, the latter of which he clearly views as a demonic heresy (it is). I suspect he lets alchemy off the hook a little too easily from a Christian perspective, but apparently it’s a topic that many churches have studied and even endorsed.
I’m not willing to go that far. It smacks too much of the appeal of secret knowledge that is at the root of Gnosticism. For nerdy men, especially, there is a pull to these kinds of mystical interpretations because, like computer programming, they offer up an alleged deeper understanding of the “code” behind existence.
Ultimately, Jesus Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We must always be on guard against potential heresies.
With that, here is 20 September 2022’s “Gnostic Mysteries“:
We’re living in heretical times. All sorts of New Age nonsense is afoot.
The thing is, all the “New Age nonsense” is just Old World paganism and Gnosticism wrapped in therapeutic language. People are looking for answers—the easier the better. I’ve been reading the classic, authoritative book on the subject, The Kingdom of the Cults (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, as are several others links in this post; I receive a portion of any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you), by theologian Walter Martin, and it is wild how many of these cults share the same basic qualities—claiming to be “Christian” while perverting and distorting the very heart of the Gospels.
With that, here is 14 October 2024’s “Rooting Out Heresy: The Cathars“:
