Across the Preacher’s Desk: Be Generous With Butter!

June 26, 2025 - If you come to our home and look in the refrigerator for the margarine, you won’t find any. You will, however, find real, sweet cream butter in both salted and unsalted varieties. We use butter at our house, lots of butter and I have the waistline to prove it! This morning, as I applied a generous amount of butter to my biscuits, I watched it turn into a beautiful golden liquid as it soaked into that dry biscuit. That beautiful golden liquid made me think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12, you know, the passage we call the “golden rule.”

Across the Preacher’s Desk: “I Know...”

June 19, 2025 - Paul’s second letter to Timothy is the last of his letters that has been preserved for us. In chapter 1 and verse 12 he writes, “I know whom I have believed”. Dr. Moffatt’s translation reads: “I know whom I have trusted”.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: Doing The Will of God

June 13, 2025 - I well remember some years ago, a well meaning lady telling me, “Tim, you are so tied up with rules and commandments, you just miss the whole point of loving the Lord.” Her statement reflects a popular idea in our culture.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: Can Others See Jesus in Me?

June 5, 2025 - There was a time when riding the train was the dominant form of travel in our nation. I remember as a boy, going with my father to the depot in Marshall to pick up “Aunt Mary” when she would ride the train from Little Rock for a visit. Well, I read a story from that era not long ago. It seems there was a little crippled boy who was carrying a basket of candy and fruit to sell, hurrying to the passenger gate of the depot as fast as his crutches would permit. As the passengers rushed through the gate, a fast moving young business executive accidentally hit the boy

Across the Preacher’s Desk: How Many Loaves Have Ye?

May 29, 2025 - Unexpected dinner guests. Have you ever had that happen? That is what happens to Jesus and the disciples in Mark chapter 6. John the Baptist had just been killed and Jesus and the disciples were trying to get to a secluded place. They were tired from the teaching and healing being done.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: Living On Higher Ground!

May 22, 2025 - I remember once reading a story of a man who owned and operated a small, independent grocery store. He was telling a friend in the store one day that the preacher had delivered a really good sermon the previous Sunday.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: What’s On My Desk

May 15, 2025 - It’s Tuesday night, and I really wish you could see what all is “across the preacher’s desk”. There are 3 coffee cups (one with coffee in it) 4 Bibles (one is a chronological bible) various other books and several beginnings of sermons along with assorted scraps of paper with notes on them.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: Around The Corner...

May 8, 2025 - I received word Wednesday morning that a very dear friend was hospitalized in serious condition. With that thought in mind, I would like to share this old poem by Charles Hanson Towne. I present it without comment so that we might apply it to our lives.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: We Were Saved To Serve!

May 1, 2025 - Oftentimes we wonder why the church is weak, and why that in a recent nationwide poll, almost 70% of those who claim membership in church never attend services.

We could blame it on our secular-progressive society and we often do. We could blame it on the godless politics of our nation, organizations like the ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation, and they too are often our “whipping boy”. We could even blame it on churches, hypocritical members and uncaring preachers and there are numerous Christians who are doing that also.

Across the Preacher’s Desk: Jesus Didn’t Quit!

April 24, 2025 - Jesus didn’t quit assembling with the disciples because Judas was a hypocrite, or because Peter was always “buttin’ in.” Nor did he quit because James and John “flew off the handle” occasionally.

Shelby County Today

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Submitted by Tim Perkins