It is often said that to be a “black and white” person is not a good thing, and those of us who are need to learn to be more “nuanced” in our outlook on life. I certainly agree with the intent of most who offer that analysis. Their purpose is to address opinionated “know it alls” like Yours Truly, who are convinced we are always right and, therefore, “don’t confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up.” However, truth doesn’t come in…
The stage is set; the house lights are dimmed; the camera’s are rolling, and a star is born—you! You are the star in the play, “Living by Faith,” and you have learned your lines. There are only three, but you repeat them over and over again in the play—”Search me, Oh Lord…see if there be any wicked way in me;” “Oh Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner;” “I believe, help my unbelief!”—and you are ready! In the surreal world of the stage you…
What does it mean to be a “believer in Jesus Christ? The vast majority of Christians think that it means “I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to earth and died for my sins. He rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into Heaven, and will one day come again.” These basic ideas make up the heart of the Apostle’s Creed—the creed that has served as the definition of what constitutes traditional Christianity since about 140 AD. If…
The following is the actual, real-life prayer of a good friend who meets with Jesus regularly, pen in hand, to record both what he prays and what the Lord says to him. This was a particularly significant time for him, and he read this to me after he got my last newsletter. He felt the letter illustrated what He had just told the Lord. I immediately recognized it was a perfect example of my point in the posting and asked him if I could…
For the past few weeks we have been discussing the controversial topic (in Christian circles) of the role of women in society. The basis for those discussions is several passages in the Bible that have laid the foundation, down through the ages, for the church’s view of what God Himself thinks about the role of women, and what He wants to communicate to us about the subject today. We came to the conclusion that the Bible teaches conclusively that God created women to bear…
A good friend of mine recently got a surprising report from his doctor. He had been battling some physical limitations for some time, nothing seemed particularly serious. He had had a cancerous growth successfully removed from his leg some time ago and was undergoing the customary precautionary follow-up treatment. He had moved on to pursue life again as usual. Then a few days ago his doctor dropped a bombshell out of the blue. His cancer had returned, and had spread throughout his body, including…
One of my roommates in college was an amateur magician who had mastered a handful of coin tricks. Since he would occasionally practice on his old roomie, I learned to do a couple of them myself. One was called the French Drop, which, like all magic tricks, fools the observer as the magician focuses on one hand (or some “shiny trinket,” etc.) while the other hand is hiding the coin. I have often thought that Satan, the master deceiver, has done the same thing…
We have now come to the last four verses of Proverbs 31, and in them we see that there is an earthly reward for the faithful wife who follows in the footsteps of the homemaker portrayed in this chapter. Make no mistake, God’s love, salvation, gifts, talents and abilities do not come to us because we have earned them by our obedience to Him. In like manner, neither do His blessings and rewards. They are all by grace alone, completely free and totally unmerited,…
All of us are naturally good at some things and not so good at others, and that is not an accident. We are each constructed perfectly, but differently, just as God desired, and He made no mistakes when He was personally “fashioning me within my mother’s womb” (Psalm 130:13). Paul’s list of motivational gifts given to us by God in the womb in Romans 12:3-8 reflects the full range of the diversity He has built into our makeup. The gifts in this list can…
One of the characteristics of youth is a feeling of invincibility. The young feel as though they will live forever. The reality of the transitory nature of life has not dawned upon them as yet. “As for man, his days are like grass…for the wind passes over it and it is gone.” (Psalm 103:15, 16). An understanding of the certainty that each of us has but a finite number of days to live is truth that is hard for the young to grasp just…