August 20, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.
It has been a while since Susan, my wife and videographer, caught me playing the piano and the first time she captured a shot of me playing while wearing a fedora!
She just now told me to tell you she managed to “sneak up” on the maestro.
I am thankful to God for a beautiful grand piano just a few feet from my home office and for those who taught me how to play it.
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August 7, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.
I’ve been keeping you updated on the journey of my second volume on the Book of Psalms from my initial thoughts to the printing press. Now, the press and its digital counterparts are on the horizon.
But there’s a bit more to it than this.
Like all believers, I had long had a certain level of interest in the Psalms. The book was, after all, inspired Scripture. Some of its contents, like Psalm 23, are part of the vocabulary of many of us.
But the day when the enormous significance of this book began to dawn on me was when I sat in a class taught by John H. Sailhamer, a professor widely regarded as a world class Old Testament scholar.
I could hardly believe my ears. According to Jesus, the Psalms are rich with messianic significance (Luke 24:44). From beginning to the end, they point ahead to the coming Messiah. In the New Testament, more than 200 references recall the Psalter.
My fingers flew over the keys of my laptop. I was in the midst of an academic journey, but an academic journey turned spiritual, to earn the Master of Theology degree at Western Seminary. This degree would prepare me for acceptance into the Ph.D. program at Regent University.
Another professor at Western saw the copious notes I was taking and asked if I would be willing to share them.
I had already earned the Master of Arts in Exegetical Theology degree from Western. That degree required a thesis, but so did this second degree.
After sitting in two of Dr. Sailhamer’s courses, I knew my second thesis would be influenced by what I had learned from the Book of Psalms.
The title of my 156 page thesis was “An Application of Canonical-Compositional Hermeneutics to Psalms 14 and 53.”
After graduating with the Th.M., I began work on my first verse-by-verse commentary on Psalms. Its 382 pages examined Psalms 1-72 and were published in 2007 under the title The Messiah in the Psalms: Discovering Christ in Unexpected Places.
But I knew I needed to finish the commentary on all 150 psalms. In addition to the academic component of this task, I have been praying that God would help me to “rightly divide the word of truth” and to understand how the Scriptures testify of Him.
This has led to the second volume which consumes about 250 pages in its examination of Psalms 73-106.
Although I can’t promise it at this moment, it seems very possible this volume will be available at the upcoming general conference of the United Pentecostal Church International. If so, I plan to be on hand to sign copies for those who may be interested.
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August 2, 2025 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.
A couple of days ago I contacted the hotel where Susan and I will stay during the upcoming eightieth general conference of the United Pentecostal Church International. The conference will convene in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Our hotel will be nearby.
The UPCI came into existence in 1945. I was born the next year.
As I thought about the location of our hotel and the fact that I was born in a home in St. Lous, I wondered how far my birth place is from our hotel.
I checked it out. Eight minutes. I took my first breath on the first floor of a house within minutes of the site of the eightieth general conference of the UPCI.
To borrow some lyrics from Andrae Crouch, “I’ve been a lot of places, and I’ve seen a lot of faces ….”
I have lived in Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and California. I have declared the gospel of Jesus Christ in each of these states and in Australia, France, and Germany. I have taught the Scriptures for eighteen camp meetings and visited Israel (twice), Jordan, Belgium, Holland, Quebec, Italy, the Vatican (twice), St. Martin, Canada, and Mexico. There may be some other places I’ve fogotten about.
But I keep coming home.
I will be 79 years old in three months, and I have spent about half of my life in or just minutes away from the city of St. Louis.
This is something of a parable for me. It’s not just the city, it’s my spiritual home.
The UPCI is where I want to be. It was in a UPCI church that I was baptized in water in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit. It is where I have developed deep lifelong friendships.
I have been a credentialed minister with the UPCI for sixty years. My ordination occurred on November 29, 1968.
St. Louis is my natural home.
The United Penteostal Church International is my spiritual home.
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