The Power of an Honest Question

It never ceases to amaze how that when we humble ourselves to ask an honest question, admitting therein that we don’t have all the answers and are therefore not omniscient, the answer often immediately leaps to mind before anyone else even has the time to answer it for us. We might find out what we … Continue reading →

A Devilish 1-2-3 Punch

A lot of us have heard and experienced the devil’s 1-2 punch of temptation and then a two-faced form of accusation, if we yield to that temptation. (The devil’s nature is to pick a fight and then run, leaving you to fight it. Or the devil’s nature is to volunteer and then not show up … Continue reading →

The Ballad of The Disappointing Poet

I read of a young poet who, no matter the impact of his best instuctors and to their utter dismay, had no greater ambition than to become a “fat, white, fluffy cumulus cloud (not without its dark side) passing unnoticed over one town on its way to the next” with little to no effect, except … Continue reading →

Learning How To Depart

Jesus departed from this earth in such a way that he was more present AFTER his departure than he ever was before he left. We too can depart in such a way, whether by a move away from a locality, or by a death or by catching away, that what is best about us in … Continue reading →

Pursued by Mercy

There I was driving along and singing that chorus, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives!” Remembering that the word “follow” also meant pursue with such speed as to overtake, it was reassuring to know and feel that goodness and mercy were closing in, until that still small voice … Continue reading →

Urgent and Emergent

Listening to someone define an emergency recently caught my close attention. An emergency is some threatening situation or danger that is EMERGING, getting bigger, getting worse instead of better. I had never thought about why that verb “emerge” is right at the heart of the word “emergency”. It makes perfect sense. My wife remembered her … Continue reading →

Love/Hate Relationship

It’s not nearly as important as knowing how deeply God loves us, but it is important to know also how much we are hated by our spiritual adversary. The more one ascends in the reality of resurrection life the more vicious is that opposing hatred, requiring that much deeper of a revelation of the depth … Continue reading →

Ain’t No “Coincidence”

It is no coincidence that the yardstick for love according to the Apostle John falls in the same chapter and verse in 2 of his books. The popular “God so loved the world that He GAVE (my capitals) His only begotten son…..” is found in the 3rd chapter of John the 16th verse. Then in … Continue reading →

His Sheltered Ones

I often hear the following argument against taking children out of public schools, colleges or universities. “But that would be to shelter them, wouldn’t it?” And my response is, “So, who doesn’t need shelter when it’s raining bullets and bombs?” The very word “shelter” implies the need for it, a storm for example or raw … Continue reading →

A Study in Contrasts

When 17th century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes characterized urban life in the Roman Empire as nasty, poor, solitary, brutish, and short, he was inadvertently setting up an instructive contrast with life in the Kingdom of God newly established right in the midst of that empire. If by nasty he meant dirty, the apostle John wrote … Continue reading →