Greetings Narrow Gate, A few weeks ago I sent out a call for volunteers to help with a Thursday evening take out meal with drive through prayer. I received only one message from someone who was interested in getting things going again at Narrow Gate. I am not here to wring my hands and brow beat any of you. If you are not ready, that's OK. The staff, I believe, is ready. However, I am not going to dump this on the staff of Opportunity House. They have been working too hard on

Greetings Narrow Gate, I would like to begin with a praise report. We went down to Cherry Grove, S.C. for the week. The hurricane followed us directly to the spot where we were staying. Monday evening around 11 pm the eye of the hurricane passed right over us (I watched from our balcony). Here's the praise, it was the left side of the eye wall. Wind gusts never rose above 50 mph. We were very fortunate, 3/4 of a mile north, where I believe the hurricane made actual landfall,

Greetings Narrow Gate, Two months ago we were thinking that by now, we'd all be back in church. But the reality of now is this, none of us have any idea of when we'll be back in church. Two months ago I did not know a single person who had the Covid-19 virus. That is not the case now. I'm sure most of us know someone who has experienced this virus by now. In fact, the cases in North Carolina are rising. School is getting ready to start and everyone is edgy. Parents, students

Greetings Narrow Gate, I am writing you today to encourage you. We are being bombarded with bad news from every direction. My message for everyone today is this: Do not let the negative news of the Covid-19 infected world get into your heart. This world was infected by sin before it was infected by this virus. We lived and overcame and prospered in a sin infected world by the grace of God. We will do the same in a Covid-19 infected world. We have, and always will, live by the

Greetings Narrow Gate, I pray you all are well. I really am missing our getting together for worship. I know from many of your comments that you are too. I wish I had an answer for when we will be able to meet again for worship. As for now there is no set date. As we wait together, let me encourage each of you, go back to the basics. Focus on maintaining and enhancing your relationship with God. I know many of you are either planning or even on your vacation right now. Thes

Greetings Narrow Gate, As I begin today I want to be careful. I do not want to sound condescending or presumptuous in any way. However, I want to warn you about an activity that many people participate in that involves the use of social media. Like many of our other sinful activities it begins innocently enough. I want you to be aware that this activity can lead to sinful actions. The activity is virtue signaling. During the isolation from this pandemic many of us are out of

Greetings Narrow Gate, As I was reflecting this week about what to write about, I kept thinking about why everyone seems so mad and upset with each other. I mean really, people are ticked off everywhere! Some want to blame the tenor set by the POTUS and others want to blame the news media. Some blame Marxist anarchists, some corrupt police, some of it may just be lousy local government leadership, lousy parenting and schooling for a generation or two, and the list can go on a

Greetings Narrow Gate, I am going to further dig into a subject that I just barely touched on last week: namely, our inability to communicate effectively with one another due to our refusal to listen to one another because of our unwillingness to hear from people that we know we disagree with (whew!). For some of us, this gets worse, we actually hate the people that we disagree with. Well, how did we end up here? Truth, in today's world, has moved from being a matter of reas

Greetings Narrow Gate, With all of the violence and hyperbole and genuine concerns for justice being bandied about over the last few weeks, I thought it might be a good time to discuss our understanding of evil and how we deal with evil. I found a great blog by Justin Taylor, entitled How Should We Relate To Evil? This blog is on the Gospel Coalition website. It's a great list of which I will, as always, fill in the edges. But before I begin, I want to say something first. Fo

Greetings Narrow Gate, I want to speak today on racism. I found an elegant yet simple article by Max Lucado online. If you haven't read any of his writings you should. I promise you'll enjoy them and learn from them. I will take his premise from OT scripture and fill in around the edges. Again, it is a simple yet powerful message from God's Word. We cite many reasons for racism in the world: ignorance, fear, anger, bigotry, hate and other words with negative connotations. May

Dan Talbert passed away June 2, 2019. Dan was the founder and driving force behind Opportunity House. This ministry is here only because of Dan's vision and his tireless effort. Over the last ten years, Opportunity House has been meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the least, the last, and the lost. The services of Opportunity House go beyond two meals, showers, laundry, clothing closet, and access to a nurse. The real service that Opportunity House provi