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Shepherding Thoughts
by Pastor Ben Francis
Welcome to Shepherding Thoughts: An inside look at a Southern Baptist Pastor's comments on navigating popular topics in Christianity and Religion.
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The Pastor and the Dietitian...
Over the last year or so—as I have been reading and educating myself about food, diet, exercise, and the like— it occurs to me that...
Ben Francis
Jul 5, 20226 min read
I Love American History!
As we celebrate America’s 246th birthday—a good and proper celebration—we have much to be thankful for, and much to reflect upon. America...
Ben Francis
Jul 4, 20222 min read
How Should Christians Perform their Weddings?
Thinking through Weddings from a Biblical perspective.
Ben Francis
Jun 21, 202211 min read
We're Living in Babylon...Not Heaven.
People Preparing for Exile… Christian faithfulness has taken on various shapes throughout the many chapters of history. In one sense,...
Ben Francis
Jun 7, 20227 min read
Does Social Media Deny my Physical Body?
“Are you angry, Dad?” That’s what my 10-year old son asked me early one morning as I forcibly prepared his breakfast. I had not said...
Ben Francis
Jun 6, 20226 min read
Should Christians Care About Physical Health?
The Western world in which I live is torn between two opposing realities: One reality is the overwhelming abundance of food. Food is...
Ben Francis
Dec 31, 20215 min read
A Year of Health
This past fall, I wrote a post outlining my struggles with food. You can read it here in case you missed it. A new year always brings...
Ben Francis
Dec 27, 20213 min read
Psalm 23 - A Shepherd for Our Souls
Psalm 23 is one of the most well-known and beloved of all the Psalms. The reason is not hard to understand. It is short, to the point,...
Ben Francis
Nov 27, 20213 min read
The False Promises of Vacation…
Let’s go camping! It sounded like a great idea. It always sounds like a great idea when we’re several months away from the event. It was...
Ben Francis
Nov 18, 20215 min read
Do My Facebook Posts Matter?
Civility as Gospel Witness “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love...
Ben Francis
Nov 8, 20215 min read
My Struggles with Food…
A personal journey of stewardship. We all have personal struggles that plague us. Often, it's multiple things that plague us. For me, one...
Ben Francis
Nov 2, 20216 min read
Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin?
A follow up word... In a recent sermon from Psalm 5, I cited the cultural statement, “Love the sinner, but hate the sin,” and noted that...
Ben Francis
Oct 25, 20215 min read
Which Bible Translation Should I Use?
In this post, I discuss some of the English Bible translations available to us today, highlighting their differences, and offering some...
Ben Francis
Oct 1, 20214 min read
On Being Broken…
There are two contradictory realities that exist in our lives, and in the lives of most everyone we know. Reality #1: I am a broken and...
Ben Francis
Sep 23, 20215 min read
What If We Took it Seriously?
It's an interesting question. It implies that we might not take “it” seriously. And we could fit a lot of things into the category of...
Ben Francis
Sep 7, 20216 min read
The Coming Challenge to Christianity
What’s the Rubber? Where’s the Road? The Coming Challenge to Christianity You’ve heard the old saying, “Where the rubber meets the road.”...
Ben Francis
Aug 24, 20216 min read
The “Dirt” of Life
Did you know that buckets make dirt? You read that right. Buckets make dirt. In his essay, “The work of Local culture,” Wendall Berry...
Ben Francis
Jul 11, 20214 min read
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