Pastor Tom's Community

 20 Remember the agreement you made with us,        because violence fills every dark corner of this land. 21 Do not let your suffering people be disgraced.        Let the poor and helpless praise you. (Psalm 74:20-21, New Century Version) There is this recurring theme in the scripture of justice for the poor.  We are called…

It was 1961. Laws were different then. Some were inherently wicked because their sole intent was to keep people down. That is happening all over the world today. Jim Crow had a franchise on the South. Businesses could decide, based upon genetics, whom they would serve and whom they would exclude. To defy these laws…

"And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."   (2 Corinthians 9:8, New International Version, ©2011) In the KJV, this verse reads that  folks, blessed by God will have "sufficiency in all things" so that they…

Let's start with this: I like birds and I don't want to kill them. So, "killing two birds with one stone" is a metaphor that is unfortunate, but descriptive. I also like to multitask and I plan certain things in life to maximize effort by combining task and building multiple purposes into one activity. Yet,…

 1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you…

Yesterday, I wrote about foolishness … the good kind and the bad kind. I posed the question, "What kind of fool am I?" I feel most foolish when I make pronouncements, applications, and pontifications on faulty premises that time, memory, and mush have mixed into one cognitive soup that has hardened into a slab of…

It is April 1, 2011. That means it has been 15 years to the day since I became officially the pastor of Baptist Temple, now the Fellowship of Joy and 4141 Ministries in Fresno, CA. It was Easter Sunday, but it has never escaped my attention that it was also April Fool's Day. Proverbs 1:7b…

I make plans and I plan things to make. Sometimes I follow through. Sometimes circumstances cooperate. Sometimes it all seems to fall apart. I am reading family history. Some folks had plans go terribly awry. In fact, their lives fell apart … or so it seemed. But if they hadn't, I would not have been…

Do you make notes to yourself? I do and sometimes I read them. Then, sometimes, I respond. Sometimes I dispute, but the act of writing things down has always been helpful to me. It clariies things. Scattered thoughts come together. Extraneous ideas are filtered. It works for me. There are many biblical examples of a…