Sterling Griggs

At the end of 2005 I had the chance to travel to Northern Sudan to visit with some friends who were doing a great work in that country.  While there, I was amazed at the beauty of the country and of her people.  Sure it was dusty and brown everywhere, but along the Nile River there were stretches of lush green teeming with life. I took hundreds of digital pictures while in Sudan and many I put on a Power Point presentation while the rest were in a folder on my old computer.  Unfortunately, that old computer bit the dust a couple of years ago and before it bid it's final adieu I transferred as much over to a new computer as I could (and I bought a portable hard drive to prevent further losses).  Shortly after that incident, I was looking through some of my pictures on the computer and I couldn't find my pictures from Sudan.  It appeared that they were a casualty of the computer crash.  Hundreds of memories gone forever. This morning I was looking through...

A leader is one who has the combination of vision and ability that compels others to follow him.  Not just anyone is a candidate to be a good leader, but I do believe that everyone leads one way or another.  If I yell at my kids, cheat on my taxes, spend all my free time on things that I want to do, or am just plain lazy, then I will most certainly be leading my family and others to follow my bad example. If you want an example of what poor leadership looks like, then read 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Bible.  There were many who "did what was right in the sight of the Lord" like David, Solomon, Asa, Uzziah, but there are many more who chose to do "what was evil in the Lord's sight."  This is important because God laid it out to His people in the very beginning: If they would be faithful to Him and serve Him alone, they would be blessed and fruitful under the watchful hand of God all their days (read Exodus, Deuteronomy, ...

I love soccer, so the World Cup has been something I've really looked forward to watching.  I'm cheering for the US of course but I've enjoyed catching every game that I can regardless of who is playing.  For those who perhaps aren't all too familiar with soccer, at the end of each half there are usually a few extra minutes added at the discretion of the referee.  This is called stoppage time and the ref adds it because during the flow of play he has to stop the action for a penalty or an injury, so he therefore adds whatever time he sees as necessary to make up for lost time. Yesterday at the end of the US team's incredible win over Slovenia, the game was scoreless when it was announced that 4 more minutes were going to be added to the game.  Good thing for the US team, because in the 91st minutes we scored the winning goal to advance to the next round.  Without that extra game the US team would have been packing their bags for a long plane ride home.  A...

If you were asked the question of why Jesus came to earth, the initial answer that would come into your mind would probably be to die for our sins, "not to be served but to serve, and to give His life--a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)  Indeed, God put on flesh to rescue a dying world so that we might have life that can only be found in Him. While Jesus came to die for our sins, the proclamation of that mission was centered squarely on the gospel.  When those in Galilee begged for Him to stay there and minister to them, He told them that wasn't possible, for He came to "proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose." (Luke 4:43) Jesus told the people that He came to preach the gospel before He became the reality of the gospel for all mankind.  We are told that we are to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-17).  Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19).  A...

If you put anyone else's name in front of Chuck Norris then there is a good chance you will suffer a painful ending to your life.  That's because Chuck Norris has counted to infinity...twice.  Chuck Norris can also do a wheelie on a unicycle and when the boogieman goes to sleep at night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.  Chuck Norris was once bit by a cobra and after 5 days of excruciating pain the cobra died. If you've seen a Chuck Norris movie, then perhaps you've wondered to yourself why he doesn't just defeat terrorism once and for all right after he fixes the leak in the BP pipeline.  He's a bad man for sure and his fists often do his talking.  Yet Jesus is bigger, badder, and better.  Check this out. Jesus just came out of the desert after 40 days without eating anything and then he kicked the devil squarely in the teeth.  Then He goes back to His hometown of Galilee , enters the synagogue on the Sabbath and holds out His hand for a sc...

"What makes everything clear is light.  Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14) Every once in a while I'll come across something that stops me in my tracks and forces me to consider where I am spiritually.  Ephesians 5:14 did that to me this morning.  In fact, as I've been reading through the book of Ephesians the past couple of weeks it's been doing some pretty regular tail-kickin' on me. It's so easy to read Scripture and want to apply it to other people's lives and not my own.  For instance, Ephesians 5:5 points out that those who are involved in sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, and the like aren't fit for the kingdom of God.  When I read that my mind automatically tries to picture the worst kind of people in the world, those who are as lost as a BB in weeds.  How sad it is for them to be so far from God and what a horrific future awaits them if they don't ...

This morning I am taking some time to prepare for some upcoming messages that I will be preaching in the next couple of weeks.  I don't possess a whole lot of commentaries but I do have a lot of study notes that I've taken over the years.  In particular, I have 11 journals dating from August 1990 to the present in which I have taken notes on sermons I've heard over the years as well as personal thoughts and insights that I have gleaned from the Scriptures. To be honest, it's been humbling to look through these journals as I've searched for relevant information that might help with my study.  There were times in my life where I was really moving in step with God and my entries are filled with praise for Him and in depth study notes.  Then there are those seasons where the pages contain scant information and are filled with large gaps in time, signifying the dry times for spiritually.  It's amazing to see how God has shaped me over the years and I am filled with...

As I sit writing these very words my youngest child Emme is entering the fourth hour of her nap.  She has taken four hour naps before but his one began after she was awake only a couple of hours after a 10+ hour night's sleep.  She's been a little under the weather and when she gets that way she would rather sleep than anything else. My second oldest daughter Reynolds loves sleep too.  When she gets tired she tells you that it's time to go to bed and then that's just what she does.  If she has to stay up later than normal she can, but she would much rather curl up in bed and fall fast asleep.  If there is one drawback with her sleep habits it is that she likes to wake up a little too early for my liking to offset the extra sleep. Sleep is a good thing.  I've heard that you need between 6-8 hours a night to remain healthy, but I also know of people who thrive on only a few hours a night.  I have no idea which theories regarding sleep are true , but ...

This morning as I was catching up on SportsCenter I saw a commercial that made a pretty bold claim.  It was for Direct TV and the commercial was advertising all the channels that one could have if they subscribed to their service.  The voice over at the end of the commercial said these words: "Direct TV.  It will change your life." Direct TV will change my life?  I guess in a way television had changed all of our lives and what we do with our time, but I believe the claim made by Direct TV was more than just one of entertainment or convenience.  I love television, especially sports, but I can honestly say that I have yet to watch a program on cable that has radically altered my life (maybe that's why I need satellite TV).  This got me thinking of all the things that have changed my life way more than a television subscription: Growing up in a home where both parents were present Graduating from high school and college Having open heart surgery in 1996 ...