Do school students still spend the first week back to school in August writing essays about how they spent their summer vacations? I remember that some years, I had lots of exciting things to write about. We had family vacations and adventures. We spent time with the grandparents and played games and went to the [...]
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Beware the sound of one hand clapping”? The idea is that if you only hear one side of something, you haven’t heard anything at all. Proverbs 18:17 agrees: “The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.” We should also beware of “one-verse [...]
When we are criticized, most of us react immediately by getting defensive. We deflect the criticism or conjure up a reason why the critic doesn’t have the right or authority to speak about us. We figure out something that they’re doing that’s wrong so that we don’t have to listen to them. For most of [...]
In our Wednesday night study of the Bible in a Year, we’ve been spending a lot of time in the Psalms. I thought these hymn suggestions might make you smile. The Dentist’s Hymn: Crown Him with Many Crowns The Weatherman’s Hymn: There Shall Be Showers of Blessings The Contractor’s Hymn: The Church’s One Foundation The [...]
I cannot imagine the bravery of “a few good men” like Alan Shepard and the others who pioneered spaceflight for America. So much was unknown! So many things could go wrong! He was going boldly, where no man had gone before. A reporter asked Shepard what he was thinking when he was strapped into his [...]
The news is always full of debates. Should gay marriage be legalized? How should our tax system works? What civil liberties are rights? Which ones are preferences? When Noah Webster compiled the first Webster’s dictionary in the 1780s, he did something very American. Rather than attempting to create rules of usage, pronunciation, and spelling in [...]
Humility is such an elusive virtue. Once you think you’ve found it, pride tends to sneak in the backdoor. Our adversary knows that one of the ways he can render us ineffective is by seducing us towards pride. We can be so proud of what God has done in our lives that we forget the [...]
James Hinkle likes to say that if you ever find a perfect church, don’t join up—because you’ll ruin it! Here are some suggestions for making the most out of being a part of this church family. Investigate and invest in your relationship with God. No one can do for you what you must do for [...]
Mohandas Ghandi gave his grandson a sheet of paper with the “seven blunders of the world.” These are seven areas that he thought modern cultures were getting wrong. I tend to think he is right! Wealth without work. We all know someone who came into money and wasn’t prepared for what would happen next. Our [...]
This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that protected the legality of infanticide and trampled upon the rights of the unborn. In the Reagan administration, the third Sunday of January was named as the “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.” You’ll never hear it reported that way, though. It’s always Roe [...]