View the list of articles written by Dr. Futral from the years past.

For over twenty years, I have come to a moment in the week when I had to finish pulling my thoughts and words into phrases and sentences and paragraphs and prepare an article that would appear in The Baptist Record. The article that would be known as Directions would appear in The Baptist Record week [...]

In the latter weeks of 2019 and as we charge into the 2020 year, as I have been anticipating my retirement on Feb. 29 I have been going through the processes of rearranging things I want to keep, eliminating things I don’t need, and thinking and rethinking about the stuff I’ve accumulated over 56 years [...]

I suppose for most of us, just reading the words “transition” or “transitions” calls to mind a word that may be a synonym of it: “change.” It is interesting that when you search the Scripture, the word transition never appears in the Bible but transition events and movements are seen everywhere in the Bible. It [...]

One of our fine young pastors experienced what nearly all pastors experience from one time to another — they go longer than people think they should. The time factor becomes significant. And comments and sometimes criticism is expressed by folks: “We need to get out on time.” All of us are time conscious, but oftentimes [...]

Recently at a church where I was preaching on Sunday morning, a lady was telling me a story about her daughter when the daughter was in grade school. She was telling me about the daughter because as I got up to preach that Sunday, I encouraged the people to use the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering [...]

I just wanted to write a personal note of thanksgiving and blessings to so many of you who have expressed an interest in getting one of the Directions books. Through the years, I have put together a number of small books that have been used and fairly well-received by the churches where I have been [...]

Furtherance is not a word that you hear very often. In fact, it may be that you’ve never heard anybody use the word furtherance. I suppose it used to be more popular than it is now and we have no doubt in the English language found some ways of coming up with a better, cuter [...]

The Scripture says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me” (Psalm 103:1).  I know that most of us certainly want God to bless us, but the psalmist calls for us to bless God to pour out our praise and adoration and blessings toward Him.  In just a few days all [...]

Fall is a beautiful time of the year. While every season has its grand features — spring with all the blooming flowers, summer with its magnificent green leaves and grass, winter with its stunning grayness, and winter’s occasional covering of white — it is fairly easy to make the argument that fall is the most [...]