Sports gambling revenue has increased by 900-percent in just five years! In 2020, gamblers lost a record $1.5-billion on online sports betting. In 2024, that number hit $13.71-billion1. The total amount gambled on sports in 2025 has already broken all records with $150-billion2. And there are still two months left. In a 2024 article from… Read More »
A Life Lived One Byte At A Time (1of2) pornography and gambling
The elders here at North Second Street have asked me to focus my preaching and teaching on the subjects of pornography and gambling during November. These two sins are far from new but they are transmitted at light speed by today’s technology and our young men are struggling to keep their eyes trained away from… Read More »
One Drink Is Too Many, A Thousand Never Enough
The church of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ and the twelve-step program known as Alcoholics Anonymous are not the same. They do share principles from time to time (Much of AA teaching comes from the book of James and the Sermon on the Mount). But there is one area where the Bible is… Read More »
Something Is True vs. Trust To Carry Me Through
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”-Hebrews 11:6 What does it mean to be a believer? What is true faith that has the power to overcome sin? For me, I discovered life-saving faith… Read More »
Release These Chains!
Our annual study of a specific spiritual topic comes to a close today. The title of the series, Chains Of Our Own Choosing, reflects the ease with which we can find ourselves overwhelmed by a highly addictive and still relatively new, technology. In fact “TheFacebook” as it was called at the time began exactly 20-years… Read More »
I Did Not Know How To Have Faith
In June of 1987, I found myself in the Panama City Rescue Mission with one day left before I would be back on the street. The mission only housed you at night. After breakfast, you had to leave until six o’clock in the evening when dinner was served and you could check in for the… Read More »