The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell…..
Years ago bank tellers were trained to recognize counterfeit money by the exclusive handling of real currency. By only knowing the feel of cash that is truly minted by the government, the counterfeit would be readily recognized because of the foreign feel of it – subtle differentiations in fabric, ink, and texture. In the same way, Christians need to know the real currency of the Word of God in order to recognize religious counterfeits and falsehood.
The writers of the…..
Job Meets God
We are coming up on four years of our own Job experience in which we have experienced one after another personal catastrophic events, primarily medical. However, we have not lost all possessions and family, as Job did, and the winter of 2020 for us, considered a very bad year by most, gave us a short cessation of medical issues until COVID hit each of us that summer. And since then the Job experience has continued.
The main…..
In Psalm 139:23-24, David opens his heart to God’s view in a way that reveals the deepest intent of his heart: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Does God need our permission to search our hearts and reveal what needs to be cleansed?
God sees all and already knows what hinders our fellowship with Him without this…..
Dan and I frequently share a laugh with pertinent one-liners from movies and TV series. Perhaps you will recognize the movie sources of some of them:
Grandpa, they’re kissing again. He’s dead, Jim. Ricky Ricardo was Cuban. Try not. Do or do not.
These quips are, I am sure, recognizable to my generation and our kids. While we have a lot of fun with movie one-liners, I wonder if we as Christians are as good at recognizing “one-liners” from the…..
What do the women of the Bible named Rahab and Ruth have in common? They are Gentile women listed in the otherwise Jewish genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1). In biblical terms, there are only two people groups: Jews and Gentiles (meaning everyone who is not a Jew).
Rahab was the woman who hid the two Hebrew spies when they came to Jericho. Typically understood to be a prostitute, her presence in the line of Christ is even more surprising than…..
End Times Technology
In light of recent events in the Middle East, biblical end-time prophetic information becomes more and more possible. Not everything that is prophesied in Scripture is in place yet. But when I was a child learning about prophecy for the first time, most of the events talked about seemed implausible primarily because of the undeveloped status of technology at the time.
During the 1950s and 1960s, an early computer with a small fraction of the storage of…..
One of my favorite contemporary praise songs is called “Who You Say I Am”. It begins with the question “Who am I that the Highest King would welcome me?”
New Testament Christians are not the only ones to be humbled and awed by this question. While preparing to build the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon asks, “But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I, then, that I…..
While leafing through an old hymnbook, I came across a favorite hymn that I had not sung for years. “Moment by Moment” (Words by May Whittle Moody 1870-1963, tune by Daniel W. Whittle 1840-1901) effectively expresses our Biblical hope in God’s Son. Here are the words:
While the lilting tune is lovely and delightful to sing, the words capture the yearning of every…..
As Dan’s caregiver fifteen years ago, I found dealing with insurance companies among the most difficult activities related to cancer that I had to do. I spent a great deal of time, sometimes more than an hour, on the phone waiting for agents to answer so I could ask my questions. I usually ended up on hold, as well, waiting for the supervisor to be asked the question. Some of my calls were eventually transferred to the supervisor after a…..