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The late Dr. J. Vernon McGee's Sunday sermon broadcast for today, 1/18/2015. Thru the Bible Ministries. ttb.org

I was flipping channels and came across Dr. Charles Stanley preaching a sermon. I am, in general, suspicious of TV preachers. But Stanley came across as the real deal. Anyone care to offer opionions on his ministry?

January 18, 2015Second Sunday of Ordinary Time    Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19 Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORDwhere the ark of God was.The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”“I did not call you, “ Eli said. “Go back to sleep.”So he went back to sleep.Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli.“Here I am, “ he said. “You called me.”But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel...

VATICAN CITY – Michael Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay player, got engaged to boyfriend Vito Cammisano last week while on vacation in Italy. Popular entertainment and gossip site TMZ mentioned the news on January 8, but Michael Sam kept silent on social media until January 16, when he tweeted out the following photo: Sam popped the question atop St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

January 17, 2015Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbot    Reading 1 Heb 4:12-16 The word of God is living and effective,sharper than any two-edged sword,penetrating even between soul and spirit,joints and marrow,and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.No creature is concealed from him,but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of himto whom we must render an account. Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,let us hold fast to our confession.For we do not have a high priestwho is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,but...

Indiana University professor Fran Quigley urges, in the progressive Catholic magazine Commonweal, an end to deductibility of charitable contributions against federal income taxes. His argument rests primarily upon the twin beliefs that the U.S. social safety net is too thin and that lost revenues from charitable contribution deductibility would be better spent on governmental social welfare programs. His arguments, while couched in Catholic social justice language, pay virtually no attention to a key principle of Catholic social teaching: the principle of subsidiarity. Furthermore, he has a proclivity to regard as matters of “justice” programs that can also arguably be deemed...

I should like to call your attention to the prophet Nehemiah. We may gain some help from that distinguished man who accomplished a great work. He was one of the last of the prophets, was supposed to be contemporary with Malachi, and perhaps his book was one of the last of the Old Testament books that was written. He might have known Daniel, for he was a young man in the declining years of that very eminent and godly statesman. We are sure of one thing at least--he was a man of sterling worth. Although he was brought up in...

It's January - and you know what that means! Hundreds of thousands of our nation's pro-life heroes will descend upon Washington, D.C. for the 42nd Annual March for Life. As always, EWTN will be there - and this year, we're inviting you to be online and on-air with us in a new way! The theme for this year's March for Life is "Every Life is A Gift." We're inviting you to send us a short video that illustrates this theme in your own life. Did you go through with a pregnancy after a difficult diagnosis? Did you or a loved...

CLASSIFICATION IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT of all tasks. Even in the realm of religion there are enough lights and shades to make it injudicious to draw too fine a line between men and men. If the religious world were composed of squares of solid black and solid white classification would be easy; but unfortunately it is not. It is a grave error for us evangelicals to assume that the children of God are all in our communion and that all who are not associated with us are ipso facto enemies of the Lord. The Pharisees made that mistake...

O taste and see.-Psa. 34:8 It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man's faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual. "He must be," they say, "therefore we believe He is." Others do not go even so far as this; they know of Him only by hearsay. They have never bothered to think the matter out for themselves, but have heard about Him...

January 16, 2015Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Heb 4:1-5, 11 Let us be on our guardwhile the promise of entering into his rest remains,that none of you seem to have failed.For in fact we have received the Good News just as our ancestors did.But the word that they heard did not profit them,for they were not united in faith with those who listened.For we who believed enter into that rest,just as he has said: As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter into my rest,” and yet his works were accomplishedat...

The Psalmist asked the question: “If the Lord marks iniquity, who should stand?” This query is obviously rhetorical. The only answer, indeed the obvious answer is no one.The question is stated in a conditional form. It merely considers the dire consequences that follow if the Lord marks iniquity. We breathe a sigh of relief saying, “Thank heavens the Lord does not mark iniquity!”Such is a false hope. We have been led to believe by an endless series of lies that we have nothing to fear from God’s scorecard. We can be confident that if He is capable of judgment at all, His...

January 15, 2015»Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Heb 3:7-14 The Holy Spirit says:Oh, that today you would hear his voice,“Harden not your hearts as at the rebellionin the day of testing in the desert,where your ancestors tested and tried meand saw my works for forty years.Because of this I was provoked with that generationand I said, ‘They have always been of erring heart,and they do not know my ways.’As I swore in my wrath,‘They shall not enter into my rest.’”Take care, brothers and sisters,that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful...

Now here is an entertaining news story. It's actually a couple of years old but new to me today: Missing Woman Unwittingly Joins Search Party Looking for Herself.Really. It happened. A woman who was on a bus tour in through Iceland decided to go back to the bus and freshen up while they were near the Eldgja Canyon. Apparently, when she returned, none of her bus mates recognized the cleaned up version of their fellow tourist. But the old version of herself was memorable enough for them to think they had a missing passenger. Even more perplexing, this woman did...

...would it help the Church here more, or hurt it?

Everyone who knows the Bible knows that King David was a great man. And yet everyone familiar with the Bible also recognizes that David did a lot of not-so-great things. Of course, there was the sin with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband Uriah, and the subsequent cover-up. That was not exactly delighting in the law of the Lord (Ps. 1:2). But there was also the ill-advised census motivated by David’s pride, not to mention a series of lessons in how not to manage your household well. For being a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), David managed to...

A small church in a Phoenix suburb appeared likely Monday to win its Supreme Court dispute over a local ordinance that puts limits on roadside signs that direct people to Sunday services. Liberal and conservative justices alike expressed misgivings with the Gilbert, Arizona, sign ordinance because it places more restrictions on the churches' temporary signs than those erected by political candidates, real estate agents and others. The Good News Community Church and Pastor Clyde Reed sued over limits that Gilbert places on so-called directional signs, like the ones the church places around town to point people to its services in...

If you want to get people mad at you (I mean really mad) just criticize Beth Moore’s teaching. Trust me on this. Many a young pastor has found himself being roasted over the rhetorical bonfire of women’s ministry meetings for daring to raise concerns about Beth Moore’s rather exotic approach to biblical interpretation.  But those who don’t much care about popularity or physical safety have in recent years been willing to challenge some of the outrageous claims and troubling teachings coming from Beth Moore. It would be one thing if Beth’s claims of direct revelation, sloppy exegesis, and squishy ecumenism...

January 14, 2015Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Heb 2:14-18 Since the children share in blood and Flesh,Jesus likewise shared in them,that through death he might destroy the onewho has the power of death, that is, the Devil,and free those who through fear of deathhad been subject to slavery all their life.Surely he did not help angelsbut rather the descendants of Abraham;therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before Godto expiate the sins of the people.Because he himself...

Dear friends, praying (petitioning) for our nation (1 Timothy 2:1-4), having Tea Parties, calling our representatives and elected officials, being up to date on the issues, living out our Judeo/ Christian ideals, etc... is all fine and dandy, but DO NOT deceive yourselves into thinking that all of this effort and wishful thinking will re-establish a “Christian” conservative America or a “Christian” conservative utopia today here on earth, with the gullible imagination that we will all live happily ever after. Again my friend, we have passed the point of no return in this regard. The steak has been left out...