Just Keep Walking
Just Keep Walking By Pastor Justin Cooper When I was a kid, I took a pretty good spill off the back of a pickup truck. Skinned my elbow clean to the bone, knocked the wind out of me, and I sat there in the gravel wondering if I was going to die right there in […]
There’s Still Time!!
Today Isn’t Too Late By Pastor Justin Cooper You can picture this without me even describing it. Backing the car out of the gravel driveway. Bag of leftovers your mama insisted you take. Engine running. Headlights bouncing off the pines. And there she is. Standing in the doorway. Waving. She’ll stand there till the taillights […]
When Everyone Else Walked Away
When Everyone Else Walked Away By Pastor Justin Cooper I was at a little league game not long ago. Hot afternoon. Dusty bleachers. The boy at the plate couldn’t have been more than seven years old, and he could barely get that bat off his shoulder. But three rows up, his mama was hollering his […]
Do You Know?
The Standby Christian By Pastor Justin Cooper Brother, you ever flown standby? Most folks haven’t, but you can spot one a mile away in any airport. While everybody else is sipping a four-dollar Coke and scrolling on their phone, the standby folks are pacing. Checking the screen. Walking up to the gate agent every five […]
Don’t Get Used to It
Don’t Get Used to Him By Pastor Justin Cooper I drive four hours to West Virginia to see my family. There’s nothing special about that ranch house. It’s wood and shingles, a recliner in the living room, and a footstool my dad kicks up whenever the family is gathered. That’s the trip. But I make […]
Sick of Hearing About It
Sick of Hearing About It By Pastor Justin Cooper You ever sit across a kitchen table from somebody who keeps telling you about the way it used to be? I have. I’ve sat with older preachers who would close their eyes and tell me about all-night prayer meetings. Preachers calling out lost folks by description […]
The Presence of God
More Than Just Knowing He’s There By Pastor Justin Cooper You know that feeling when someone is physically in the room with you — but they’re not really with you? Maybe they’re scrolling on their phone, lost in their own world, present in body but somewhere else entirely. Being in the same space as someone […]
Never Leave Home Without It
Don’t Leave Home Without It By Pastor Justin Cooper Have you ever been driving down the interstate and out of nowhere a rock cracks against your windshield? You almost wreck. Your heart’s in your throat. And you look up at that trucker who tossed it back like he doesn’t have a care in the world. […]
The Weaned Child
Firestarters | Gospel Light Baptist Church The Weaned Child A Devotional from Psalm 131 There’s something you used to want so badly that you’d lose sleep over it. Maybe it was a job. A relationship. A level of income. A certain kind of respect from people who mattered to you. At one point, not having […]
The Fingerprint You Leave Behind
Firestarters | Gospel Light Baptist Church The Fingerprint You Leave Behind A Devotional from Psalm 131 Think about the last argument you had that went sideways. Not the one from years ago — the recent one. The one where things were said that didn’t need to be said. Where you had the door open to […]