Sometimes I ponder how I would have reacted if I had lived while Jesus walked on this planet in the flesh. Would I have reacted like the Pharisees who perceived Jesus as a lawbreaking hippie type cult leader? Would I have reacted like the Sadduccees who saw Jesus as a threat to their comfortable materialistic …
Do remember the “spinner” in the playgrounds of your youth. You know, that circular metal platform with hand rails on it that your friends would push from the outside while the group sitting at the center were attempting to battle the centrifugal force and hang on for dear life. When your so called “friends” got …
It is a subject that seemed to occupy a large portion of our faithful forebears’ thinking. In fact, we as believers are commanded to think much about it…a command we fail to obey regularly (Col. 3:1-2). It is a subject that has provided many believers with the requisite courage needed to take a radical risk …
I can’t remember now where I read it but it struck me…hard. It was a psychologist musing that the primary emotion he sees in 21st century Americans – who have such abundance, such a variety of choices, such comfortable lives – is disappointment. Life, despite all the bounty we experience in the modern world, doesn’t …
As I have been studying through the book of Hebrews, one verse has really been rattling around in my mind… “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.” Frankly, I don’t know many believers who approach Jesus in this …
Living Matthew 28:18-20 A long time ago in a city far, far away (1989 – in Chicago)…I read a short book on how to go about sharing one’s faith in Christ and helping new believers grow based on Jesus’ interactions with his disciples. It was called, The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman. As …
In the midst of an election year, it seems like negative campaign ads are omnipresent telling us just how awful everything is and how close to total destruction our nation will be if a certain candidate is elected or re-elected. The news media as well seems to thrive on reporting stories that are particularly gut-wrenching …
We all have experienced them…lousy days, unexpected difficulties, a silver cloud with a black lining, times when life just seems to unfairly dump on us. The road ahead may have seemed clear and smooth and then, BAM!, a blowout messes with all our best laid plans and hopeful expectations. At those times, we can almost …
“What you are about to do, do quickly!” ~ Jesus We tend to try and do a lot of things quickly. The demanding pace of life at the beginning of the 21st century often leaves us haggard, panting, and longing for “good ole days” when people had the luxury of sipping iced tea while they …
As humans we tend to be incurably religious…most often in the pharisaical sense of the word. We gravitate toward man made rules and regulations that supposedly represent God’s standard for acceptance or rejection. Some of these tend to make a lot of logical sense. If I never take a drink of alcohol I will certainly …
