This year I have been to more funerals than any year I can remember. I have seen an uncle die, as well as a long-time co-laborer here at the church, a teenager, a father of a friend, and several others. I officiated some of these services as the pastor, but at others I just sat […]
“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed […]
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Have you had a season of life where every day seems like a bad day? I sold small accident policies in rural Virginia for […]
Much of the Bible’s New Testament is made up of letters. These were letters from church leaders like Peter and Paul to churches and even some individuals. A letter in biblical times had a pretty standard formula that was different from the way we write letters today. (Or at least the way we used to […]
It was a big deal when Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times just as Jesus was unjustly on trial, just before Jesus would suffer and die on the cross, and just after Jesus had warned Peter that the very temptation would be coming. Peter went down hard. He failed the Lord three times […]
Some Christians live their Christian lives like they are playing the lottery. They grab on to the next Christian fad hoping that it will result in a jackpot of Christian maturity. The things your Christian friends get excited about often indicate the objects of their spiritual attention. Christian fads cycle in and cycle out. They […]
On March 27, 2018, George and Shirley Brickenden, who were in their nineties and were married almost 73 years chose to end their lives together in Toronto, Canada, using joint physician assisted suicide. Even some of the reporters and doctors involved in their story seem to have been troubled by it. They ought to be. […]
When a relationship isn’t right, underlying stress can flow like lava below the surface. Even though the estranged person isn’t even with you, the tension from the past wounds can still be active. Are there other cracks in your life where the lava can start to seep in? Are those around you now in danger […]
There isn’t the need for hope in your life when everything is going great. But in this dark world everything isn’t going great very often. The darker your situation the more critical hope becomes. During the time of Jesus, people’s hope ran high. Messiah fever throbbed in Israel, as they endured the crushing reign of […]
When there is more expenses at the end of the month than money at hand terrible feelings swirl. All kinds of thoughts and motivations manufacture terrible mixtures of miserable emotions. You worry about the growing credit card debt and its massive interest rate, the collecting agencies calling, how the family will be fed, if the […]
