It was Julian of Norwich who wrote those inspired words that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' They are words that are particularly poignant because they sum up the…
It's like those inspirational sayings found on motivational posters. Sayings like: "No pain, no gain." And "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" etc. Recently I saw a list of slightly more honest sayings for office walls:
Hang in th…
The Apostle Peter, writing shortly before he was martyred, during a time when
Recently, I heard a touching story which illustrates the power that words have to change a life. A power that lies right in the hands of those [reading this article]. Mary had grown up knowing that she was different from the other kids, and she hated it. She was born with a cleft palate and had to bear the jokes and stares of cruel children who teased her non-stop about her misshaped lip, crooked nose, and garbled speech.
With all the teasing, Mary grew up hating the fact that she was "different". She was convinced that no one, outside her family, could ever love her ... until she entered Mrs. Leonard's class. Mrs. Leonard had a warm smile, a round face, and shiny brown hair. While everyone in her class liked her, Mary came to love Mrs. Leonard.
In the 1950's, it was common for teachers …
Corrie ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn't sleep. Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest. "His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor," Corrie wrote, "to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks." "Up in the church tower," he said, nodding out the wind…
How do you motivate people to produce, to do a better job? The answer, say motivational experts, is by fulfilling these five needs:
The following list must be carefully followed if you wish to be miserable:
In 480 B.C. the outmanned army of Sparta's King Leonidas held off the Persian troops of Xerxes by fighting them one at a time as they came through a narrow mountain pass. Commenting on this strategy, C.H. Sprugeon said, "Suppo…
There was a farmer who had three sons: Jim, John, and Sam. No one in the family ever attended church or had time for God. The pastor and the others in the church tried for years to interest the family in the things of God to no avail. Then one day Sam was bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor was called and he did all he could to help Sam, but the outlook for Sam's recovery was very dim indeed. So the pastor was called and appraised of the sit…
If I were the devil, I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world; I would delude the minds (of the people) into thinking that their power and prosperity had come from man's effort, instead of God's blessings; I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around; I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their main source of revenue; I would convince people that character is not an issue … I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies; I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent machines to make it convenient … I would…
William Safire has noticed a new computer/business lingo he calls "e-speak." For instance, a writer is called a "content provider." The strength and depth of a company's senior management is called "the bandwidth." The amount of time people spend gazing at a website is called "eyeball hang time." The better a "content provider" you are, the "stickier" the website will be, the longer "eyeball…
We sometimes criticize others unfairly. We don't know all their circumstances, nor their motives. Only God, who is aware of all the facts, is able to judge people righteously. John Wesley told of a man he had little respect for because he considered him to be miserly and covetous. One day when this person contributed only a small gift …
How much is enough? Most of us have asked this question many times throughout life. When our kids are having a bad day, we wonder how much we can take before we lose our temper. How much is enough? When we are buying something and bickering as to how much we should pay, we wonder, "How much is enough?" At work, when the thrust is to increase our production, we wonder, "How much is enough?" And so it is quite understandable that this question might also creep into our religious life and into our thoughts of salvation. How often must we attend church in order to be a good member? How many times must I forgive that person in order to qualify for God’s forgiveness of me? How good must we be to make it to heaven? How much is enough?
Whereas industry might consider it enough to get six hours of…
Anxiety's central message is that we cannot afford to share because we can never have enough. Put more strongly, in a culture marked by anxiety and fear, the very things we have traditionally called sins or vices (hoarding, greed, suspicion) become wise and prudent virtues. Fear, rather than love, governs our lives. But such fear is a kind of idolatry because i…
10 Rules for Your Human Life
In the winter of 1995, a fishing boat began to sink in rough, cold waters off Vancouver Island, west of British Columbia, Canada. The two men on board quickly moved to a life raft that was tied to the sinking boat by a nylon rope. Unfortunately the rope was tied so tightly, they could not untie it. As the fishing boat listed more and more the men knew they couldn't reboard. Neither man had a knife to cut the raft free from the sinking ship. They knew t…
Relationship building is a process which takes time; when that time is invested, trust and vulnerability grow. We offer these questions as part of this building process, knowing that when used in love and wisd…
Clayton Longtree was lonely in Moscow. The weather was dreary, the Marine barracks were dirty, old, and cold, and he didn't get much mail. Though guard duty at the U.S. embassy was a trusted position of honor, his work was often dull and exhausting; it was a ceremonial job with little action. In letters home he doodled U.S. planes dropping bombs on Red Square; he tried writing to an old girlfriend, only to learn she had married someone else.
It was when Clayton met Violetta in the fall of 1985 that life in Moscow began to brighten. Tall, fair-skinned, and beautiful, she was a translator at the embassy. Though Clayton had been warned about fraternizing with Soviets, he had seen enough friends and superiors date Russian women to feel comfortable doing the same. He and Violetta took long wal…
Ivy Lee (1877–1934) was an American publicity expert and worked as a consultant for a number of businesses. One of those was for Charles Schwab, who was then president of Bethlehem Steel. Schwab was obsessed with efficiency and wanted Bethlehem Steel to become more productive. Ivy Lee was brought in.
Schwab asked: “Show me a way to get more things done.”
Lee: “Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives”
Schwab: “How much will it cost me?”
Lee: “Nothing. Unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you.”
Schwab agreed and during those 15 minutes with each executive, Lee laid out the following five step method:
In a home of which I know, a little boy, the only son, was ill with an incurable disease. Month after month the mother had tenderly nursed him, read to him, and played with him, hoping to keep him from the dreadful finality of the doctor's diagnosis—the little boy was sure to die. But as the weeks went on, he gradually began to understand that he would never be like the other boys he saw playing outside his window. Small as he was, he began to understand the meaning of the term death, and he too knew he was to die.
One day his mother had been reading to him the stirring tale of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, of Lancelot and Elaine the lily maid of Astelot, and about that last glorious battle where so many fair knights met their death.
She closed the book as her little so…
We do ourselves no favors in justifying our deeds or glossing over our sins. Max Lucado tells how, when his daughter Andrea was five or six, she got a splinter in her finger. He took her to the restroom and set out some tweezers, ointment, and a Ban…
We live in an age where incredible scientific advancements take place everyday. Take GRIN, the acronym for (G) genetic engineering, (R) robotics, (I) information technology and (N) nanotechnology. The human genome has been mapped. Nanotechnology is constructing miniscule machines that can deliver inter-cellular messages or make molecular level repairs. Astrophysicists have mapped the curvature of the universe, delved into black holes, listened to the echoes of the Big Bang. Scientific inquiry and experiment have revealed the "hows" and "whys" and "whats" never before known.
We think we're so smart. We think we have a handle on how the universe works.
So why did the builders of the new Yankee Stadium spend five hours and $50,000 digging through two feet of concrete? They did this to extra…
You can even be thankful during the most difficult of circumstances in life. It's true! We see an especially inspiring example of a brave and thankful heart in the story behind one of the church's most popular hymns, "Now Thank We All Our God." This particularly hymn was written during the Thirty Years War in Germany, in the early 1600s. Its author was Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony.
Now, Eilenburg was a walled city, so it became a haven for refugees seeking safety from the fighting. But s…
In the summer of 1941, Sergeant James Allen Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross for climbing out onto the wing of his Wellington bomber at 13,000 feet above ground to extinguish a fire in the starboard engine. Secured only by a rope around his waist, he managed to smother the fire and return along the wing to the aircraft's cabin. Winston Churchill, an admirer as well as a perform…
The first man was a hard worker. Always ready to help and with a record of good service to thousands. Wherever he was, he pitched in and gave of himself.
Some said, "What a fool! Everyone takes advantage of him."
The second man was a friendly, cheerful optimist. Laughter and smiles were always his daily gift. Misfortune came and went and he laughed them off. His friendship was for everyone. He even complimented his enemies, unaware of their scorn.…
In the days of Jesus tax collectors deserved the scorn of the people because often they abused their position. Here is how William Barclay describes the business of the tax collector in the Roman world:
'The problem of the Roman government was to devise a system whereby the taxes could be collected as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. They had done so by auctioning the right to collect taxes in a certain area. A man bought the right to collect the taxes within a certain district; he was responsible to the Roman government for an agreed sum; anything he could raise over and above that he was allowed to keep as commission. Obviously this system lent itself to grave abuses. People did not r…
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, 'Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?' I said to him, 'Sir, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' " (vv. 13-14)
Violet Asquith was once sitting next to Winston C…
A little girl had somehow received a bad cut in the soft flesh of her eyelid. The doctor knew that some stitches were needed, but he also knew that because of the location of the cut, he should not use an anesthetic. He talked with the little girl and he told her what he must do… and asked her if she thought she could stand the touch of the needle without jump…
The main message of these 72 workers is the simple declaration "The kingdom of God is near." Dallas Willard once said that when he was a young boy, rural electrification was taking place throughout the United States. For the first time ever, tall poles popped up across the landscape of the countryside with huge electric wires strung from pole to pole to pole. But initially at least, not everyone trusted electricity and so not many rural families opted (for a time) to not hook up. They heard the messages of…
We too often forget about poor Joseph. Every year, we tend to focus on the story of Mary. But this year, it's Joseph.
Now, if the angel can appear to Mary, and then also appear to Joseph, there's a lesson in that. That means that the angel can appear to you and me, too. In the Bible, the annunciation does not occur only once, but twice-not just to a woman, but also to a man.
The Bible, then, carries…
February 15, 1921. New York City. The operating room of the Kane Summit Hospital. A doctor is performing an appendectomy. In many ways the events leading to the surgery are uneventful. The patient has complained of severe abdominal pain. The diagnosis is clear: an inflamed appendix. Dr. Evan O'Neill Kane is performing the surgery. In his distinguished thirty-seven-year medical career, he has performed nearly four thousand appendectomies, so this surgery will be uneventful in all ways except two.
The first novelty of this operation? The use of local anesthesia in major surgery. Dr. Kane is a crusader against the hazards of general anesthesia. He contends that a local application is far safer. Many of his colleagues agree with him in principle, but in order for them to agree in practice, th…
The following incident is vouched for by a Church of England clergyman who knew all the circumstances:
A young woman, who had been brought up in a Christian home and who had often had very serious convictions in regard to the importance of coming to Christ, chose instead to take the way of the world. Much against the wishes of her godly mother, she insisted on keeping company with a wild, hilarious crowd, who lived only for the passing moment and tried to forget the things of eternity. Again and again she was pleaded with to turn to Christ, but she persistently refused to heed the admonitions addressed to her.
Finally, she was taken with a very serious illness. All that medical science could…
The following survey took place in 2018 and the results for clergy are not that great. There are 7 people Christians trust more than their pastors. Fewer tha…
In the summer of 1990 Binney & Smith, the makers of Crayola crayons, retired eight colors from their 64 crayon box and replaced them with eight brighter, bolder colors. The colors inducted in the Crayola Hall of Fame include raw umber, maize, lemon yellow, blue gray, violet blue, green blue, orange red and orange yellow. The new shades introduced include such postmodern colors as Cerulean, Vivid Tangerine, Royal Purple, Teal Blue, Fuchsia, Jungle Green, Dandelion, and Wild Strawberry.
The reaction on the part of adults to the change was swift, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, always objecting. The "Save Raw Umber Societ…
In the year 1873, Horatio Spafford, a Christian lawyer from Chicago, placed his wife and four children on the luxury liner Ville de Havre sailing from New York to France. Spafford expected to join them in about three or four weeks after finishing up some business, but with the exception of his wife he never saw them again. The trip started out beautifully. But on the evening of November 21, 1873, as the Ville de Havre proceeded peacefully across the Atlantic, the ship was suddenly struck by another vessel, the Lochearn, and sank a mere thirty minutes later, with the loss of nearly all on board.
On being told that the ship was sinking Mrs. Spafford knelt with her children and prayed that they might be saved or be made willing to die, if such was God's will. A few minutes later, in the conf…
On the television show M*A*S*H, Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III made it clear what separated him from everybody else. "I'm a Winchester," he was heard to say more than once. For him, it was his family name that made him superior to everyone else. Other people carry other burdens. One woman received her education at Harvard and found a way to work Harvard into every conversation. Congregations fall victim to the same problem. Churches become satisfied with their pasts to the point that they do not make the changes necessary to live in the present with the same degree of faithfulness shown in prior years…
John C. Purdy, a staff member of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., has written a challenging book entitled Returning God's Call: The Challenge of Christian Living. In it, Purdy suggests that we need a new metaphor for the Christian life. He points out the inadequacy of the old metaphors such as "a soldier in God's army," "a scholar in the school of Christ," "a traveler a long the Christian way," "a citizen of the commonwealth; "and a member of Ch…
At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter for a mere five bucks. Sold! Of course, it was nasty dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze.
Those four new fish looked great in their new home…
Love is the key.
Joy is love singing.
Peace is love resting.
Long-suffering is love en…
"The two biggest sellers in any bookstore are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it." So observed Sixty Minutes commentator Andy Rooney (quoted by Fred Lyon in "The Savior Life Diet," Lectionary Homiletics, August, 1997, p. 21). I made a trip to the discount bookstore this past week to see if Andy Rooney was right. I discovered he was at least partly right. There were lots and lots of cookbooks there. I stopped counting at 250 different titles – because at 250 I was only half-way through the cookbook section! And, that didn't count the bargain bins!
There was an astonishing array of topics and titles. I found cookbooks for Christmas. And, it's only August! I found Visible Vegetables, The Terrif…
Every evening I walk three miles as part of my losing campaign against high blood pressure and my imperialistic waist line. I generally don’t wear an iPod, because I prefer to take my exercise without anesthesia. (I enjoy the sounds of nature, and I want to be able to hear the cars honk before they run me over.) Sometimes I devote the time to prayer, and I have found that the Lord’s Prayer makes a good outline. Here’s how I do it:
I address God as my Father by adoption through the grace of Jesus Christ and give thanks for Hi…
"I'm selling garden hose," said the little boy. "It's ten cents a foot."
"Wonderful," said the neighbor, "I'll take thirty feet."
"Alright," said the little boy, who began to measure the amount of hose with his own feet.
"Just a minute, son," said the neighbor. "You need a ruler or a tape measure."
"No," said the boy, "I use my own feet to measure with. I make more money that way."
There are many men in business wh…
There was fire in his eyes as Dr. Yacob spoke. Dr. Yacob is from the northernmost part of ancient Ethiopia. This northern area of Ethiopia has recently become a nation of its own, the nation of Eritrea. Dr. Yacob was born and raised in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Early on in his life he had a fire in his eyes for the gospel message of Jesus Christ. In his school days he was already an evangelist telling other students about Jesus. He fought with school authorities in order to get a place on the school grounds where the students might meet for Bible study and prayer.
After high school Dr. Yacob attended the Lutheran seminary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was a dilligent student. He eventually received a scholarship to study abroad and received his Ph.D. in Old Testament studies. In 1978…
Peter was a little boy who was much pampered by his mother and usually got his way by crying.
Herbert was in the same class in school, but his strict mother insisted that he obey at once and that he do chores around the home. He always washed and dried the dishes.
I had them both in my swimming classes. When Peter left home his mother cautioned, "Please don't drown, Peter, you are the only thing I have," while Herb's mother said, "You do exactly what you are told to do."
Peter, in fear, would never let go o…
2 Kings 23:11 - "... by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the chamberlain, which was in the precincts;"
Esther 1:10 - "... the seven eunuchs who served King Ahasuerus as chamberlains,"
A chamberlain was an officer appointed to look after the personal affairs of a sovereign, in much the same way as a valet or bulter might do, although his duties were somewhat more extensive than those of the modern butler. These duties seem to have been to superintend the palace and attend to royal etiquette, rather in the way of …
What I want to deal with is leadership. People are saying in Boston, Mass, Palm Beach, Florida, and towns throughout our country that there must be something wrong with the church. Why has the religious leadership failed?
Now let us travel 3000 miles to Israel. In towns very familiar to us because they are biblical towns there is a war going on in the streets. The two sides are deeply r…
What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed a four-word epitaph? Well, you might respond, it would depend on who would write this epitaph an enemy or a loved one. It might also depend, you might say, on how well this person knew and understood you. If a newspaper critic wrote of a concert pianist the four words: "He was a failure," you could always say: That was his opinion. But if one of the world's great musicians wrote, "He was a genius," then you are apt to take the remark more seriously.
There was a character in the Gospel who Jesus once described with four immortal words: Great is your faith. She was a Canaanite woman who came from the country to the north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. She was presumably married, she…
Now if I had to nominate one animal to represent the word mediocre, a sheep would easily be in the top five. Sheep are not independent. They cannot defend themselves like cattle. They are not strong, creative, brave nor will they initiate. They cannot even work up a good stampede. Normally, they just sort of meander. Also, sheep will not be driven, like cattle. They will scatter in a thousand different directions. This type of behavior did not earn the animal any respect on the open range so the ranchers assumed that the animal was dumb. However, a sheep is actually smarter than a cow.
So why does Jesus choose to use a sheep to represent his disciples? Even in ancient society, sheep and sheph…
Be not troubled with thoughts of the morrow,
Of duties you surely must do.
On the Lord cast your burden of sorrow;
It matters to Him about you!…
The man huddled on the cabin floor was slowly freezing to death. It was high in the Rockies in southwestern Alberta, and outside a blizzard raged. John Elliott had logged miles that day through the deep snows of the mountain passes. As he checked for avalanches and as dusk and exhaustion overcame him he had decided to "hole-up." He made it wearily to his cabin but somewhat dazed with fatigue, he did not light a fire or remove his wet clothing. As the blizzard blasted through the cracks in the old cabin walls, the sleeping forest ranger sank into obli…
