In her novel Come and Go, Molly Snow, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall gives an account of Carrie attempting to come to grips with the loss of her eight-year-old daughter, Molly Snow. Carrie is a fiddler, but in the wake of this tragic loss she says, "The music doesn't rise up in me right now." In the months that followed, Carrie listens to homespun wisdom and begins the first steps of coming to grips with the absence of Molly Snow and the presence of a deep, dull ache which had taken her place. At one point Carrie remarks,…

Death was very near. Perhaps the greatest figure ever to grace Jewish history was speaking some last words to God’s chosen. As he had done on numerous occasions, Moses once again encouraged the Israelites to love the Lord their God, walk in his ways, and keep his commandments. He said that they would receive the promised land if they did this. Near the conclusion of his message Moses said, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you ..."

If I were to ask you what was the opposite of death, most of you would answer, "Life." If I were to ask the question of Mose…

Numbers 25:5 - "And Moses said to the judges of Israel, ‘Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.’ "

1 Chronicles 17:10 - "from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies."

If you will check any good anthropology text, you will find that even in very primitive societies, certain persons serve as judges. In the earliest times, the head of the house was considered judge over his household, even with life and death. With the enlargement of the human family, this power quite naturally passed to the heads of tribes and clans.

Moses, we find, followed Jethro’s advice and appointed judges for every "small matter" while Moses decided the important things. Upon Moses’ death, judges handled all the disputes. During th…

Delegation is more difficult than it sounds. Delegation is especially difficult for talented and extraordinary leaders, and even more difficult for leaders who seem to have a special calling from God. That was the case with Moses some 13 centuries before Christ. After successfully leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt toward freedom in the Promised Land, Moses had problems with a somewhat rebellious and cantankerous group.

So he complained to God, "I am not abl…

Detours, when we get off the main road, can be frustrating and time consuming. Yet in the spiritual life, God seems to allow us to be detoured. One of the longest detours of all time happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. What should have taken them eleven days to enter the Promised Land turned into a forty-year detour in the desert. That detour was due to their deplorable lack of faith in God's conquering power.

On the other hand, there were those who may h…

Sam Duncan lay in the semi-darkness of his nursing home room performing the only two activities of which he still considered himself capable: watching and waiting. Although his eyesight was dim, he could still make out the steady brightening of the light of dawn through the window next to his bed. And although his hearing was too far gone to catch the rumble of the medicine cart, as it worked its way up the hall toward his room, he could sense that the time for his morning pills was near. He waited for the nurse to push open the door and greet him and his roommate Arthur, who was still snoring loudly in the bed next to his.

Most of the accepted measures of quality of human existence no longer affected Sam. While time, in terms of years, seemed to slip away unnoticed, the hours of the day …

I suppose it would have been a far easier, more convenient thing for God to have created robots instead of offspring capable of making choices. If Adam and Eve had not been cognizant, thinking individuals with the ability of choosing, the Garden of Eden would probably still be in full flower. If Absolom had been a puppet, history would surely remember him as something other than a long-haired renegade son. If Jonah had not had a choice, there would be no story of Jonah and the "great fish." If Christ had not had a choice, the Cross would be reduced to a foreordained act of brutal cosmic drama. If we had no choice, there would be no such thing as sin, for we could not responsibly do either good or bad. However, God loved humanity enough, trusted it enough, to bless it with choice. The bless…

Eric Clapton, arguably the greatest living rock guitarist, wrote a heart wrenching song about the death of his four year old son (March 20, 1991). He fell from a 53rd-story window. Clapton took nine months off and when he returned his music had changed. The hardship had made his music softer, more powerful, and more reflective. You have perhaps heard the song he wrote about his son's death. It is a song of hope:

Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on,
'Cause I know I don't b…

When the people of Israel were on their journey out of Egyptian slavery into the Promised Land, it was a long and difficult journey. The people were grumbling and complaining the whole time. Moses was the leader and he’d just about had it. No matter how God helped them and what God provided for them these ungrateful people were always craving more. In Numbers 11, God provided manna for them to eat in the desert. But they didn’t w…

Ide Ward was going on 120 years of age when he died early in 1982; a doctor said he died "just of old age," but George Will of the Washington Post called his long life a "triumph of the spirit."  Will says, "Aging, like a lot of other common things (life, love, memory, the existence of the universe, the infield fly rule), remains a mystery. But many gerontologists believe that, absent disease or imprudent living, an individual ages according to his or her genetically controlled ‘clock.' A scientist says that, ideally, we should live fairly healthily and then go ‘poof' rather than go…

Back in 1917 during the Russian Revolution, a Russian Orthodox priest and eleven of his parishioners were placed in a prison by the Bolsheviks. They were left there to rot. From time to time, as the weeks went by, the guard of the prisoners would tell his superior: "There is someone else in that cell besides those twelve men. There is someone getting to them who helps them and provides them with what they need. I don’t know how this is possible. All I know there has to be someone with them." Finally, the superior of the prison impatiently went to the cell with the guard. They opened the cell door and herded the twelve prisoners out into the corridor. The superior counted them off one by one. He said to the guard: "Now, you see, there are only twelve." But the old priest spoke up: "But you …

Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus' death and what it must been like for Jesus' disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seldom discussed. We like the outcome of their discipleship but we don't want to hear the cost of discipleship. So for the record here is the cost: History tells us...

1. John died of extreme old age exiled to the island of Patmos.
2. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, hanged himself.
3. P…

The pastor proclaims eternal truths to people who would rather hear the latest baseball score. He teaches, though he must solicit his own classes. He heals, though without pills or knife. He prays for people and hopes they pray for him. He leads worship and tries to make God real to those present. He sows God's Word and cultivates God's vineyard so that we may have deep roots in Christ and bear abundant fruits of the Spirit. He is a manager, administrator, correspondent, keeper of official records. He is sometimes a lawyer, often a social worker, frequently a one-man emergency squad. He is the favorite target of…

The British writer C. C. Montague once told a remarkable short story about a man in his early fifties who awoke one morning with a curious numb feeling in his right side, which affected him from head to foot. The man had lived an active life, achieved a reasonable degree of success, but was now alone in the world, his wife being dead and his children grown and married. He saw the numbness as the beginning of old age. As he pondered his situation, he came at length to a decision. This moment was an opportunity for him, while his strength and vigor remained, to carry out an experiment in which he had long been interested. He was a lover of the mountains and a first-rate climber. He would go to the Alps, and throw away all caution in climbing and climb higher than he had ever climbed before. …

John's account of the miraculous feeding is curious, when compared to the synoptic gospels, for a number of reasons. John links the feeding to the story of Jesus' walking on water, and to Peter's confession of faith. Probably, John means thereby to make a strong point regarding the identity of Jesus as the exalted Christ.

Moreover, we should take note that this feeding is set by John in the context of Passover. In John's gospel, Jesus cleanses the temple at Passover and uses the occasion to speak of his impending death (John 2). Later, in John 13, Jesus will speak again of his death in the con…

The Jews had a tradition that stated that angels gave the law to Moses. Moses, in turn, passed it onto Joshua; Joshua passed it onto the elders; the elders passed it onto the prophets; and the prophets passed it onto those who led the synagogue, i.e., the Pharisees and the scribes. So, because the law originated with Moses, the position of being a te…

Mother Teresa heard of a family whose nine members were starving to death. She hurriedly obtained some rice and went to the famil…

The Hebrew people knew that Moses was on Mount Sinai, but it seemed to them that he had been gone much longer than necessary. All manner of mummerings arose within the ranks. Had he deserted them? Had something happened to him? Finally, it was decided that they would raise up Aaron as their new leader. Moreover, an idol fashioned in the form of a golden bull was set in their midst as the new object of worship. Unexpectedly, Moses returned. The scene which followed included at least three emphases:

1. Pronouncement. God utters a blistering assessment of the Hebrew people: "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people" (32:9). Then follows an expression of his intention; "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them" (32:10).…

Harry Truman once commented on the importance of polls to leadership, with the following insight: “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt? Wh…

Fred Craddock tells a wonderful story about a young minister, newly graduated from seminary, serving his very first church. He gets a call telling him that a church member, elderly woman who has given her life in service to the church, is in the hospital. She's so weak she can't even get up out of bed, and the doctors don't hold much hope for her recovery. Would he go up and visit? Well, of course he will and he does.

All the way to the hospital he's thinking about what he will say to this Christian lady, what words of comfort he can give her to prepare her for her eminent death. He arrives at the h…

He had just finished feeding the 5,000 men plus women and children when he asked them the question (Luke 9:10-17). In this context of feeding people (cf. Luke 24:28-35) Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" (Luke 9:18). We stand here at a turning point in Luke's story of Jesus. In earlier stories of Jesus' baptism, genealogy, temptation and a sabbath in his hometown synagogue Luke has given us all kinds of clues as to the identity of Jesus. After that there comes action. Jesus healed people. He forgave sinners. He called disciples. He challenged sabbath laws and so on. It's time now to return to the question of identity. Do even the disciples understand who this man is? Does anyone really understand?

The disciples answered Jesus question by stating the opinions of …

G. K. Chesterton, the noted British poet and theologian, was a brilliant man who could think deep thoughts and express them well. However, he was also extremely absent-minded and over the years he became rather notorious for getting lost. He would just absolutely forget where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to be doing. On one such occasion, he sent a telegram to his wife which carried these words: "Honey, seems I'm lost again. Presently, I am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?" As only a spouse could say it, she telegraphed back a one-word reply "HOME!"

This is precisely what this classic passage in the first chapter of Matthew does for us... it brings us home...

Home to the real meaning of Christmas

Home to the most magnificent truth in the entire Bible

Home to…

It is small wonder that the image of the shepherd was frequently upon the lips of the savior. It was a part of his heritage and culture. Abraham, the father of the nation, was the keeper of great flocks. Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, when God called him into a special service. David was a shepherd boy called in from the fields to be the King of Israel.

The imagery of the shepherd was also imprinted upon the literature of the day. The 23rd Psalm is frequently referred to as the shepherd psalm. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters."…

In 1979 a Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa, was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Most of her adult life was spent ministering to the poor and diseased in Calcutta, India. She accepted the prize with the comment, "I am unworthy." The humble person receives at Christmas the greatest prize of Christ and responds likewise, "I am unworthy." Our humble God comes to humble people like the shepherds who know they are outcasts because of their sins. It is a paradox that the best people consider themselves the worst sinners. The grea…

A few years ago, a radio station ran a contest. Disc jockeys invited their listeners to tune in their clock radios. "Just for fun," they said, "when you wake up to the sound of FM-106, call and tell us the first words you spoke when you rolled out of bed. If you're the third caller, you'll win $106."

It didn't take long for the contest to grow in enthusiasm. The first morning, a buoyant disc jockey said, "Caller number three, what did you say when you rolled out of bed this morning?" A groggy voice said, "Do I smell coffee burning?" Another day, a sleepy clerical worker said, "Oh no, I'm late for work." Somebody else said her first words were, "Honey, did …

The year was 1275 BC, before Christ.  The land was Egypt. The ruler was Pharaoh. The leader of the Jews was Moses. The Jews had been in slavery for four hundred years to the Egyptians, building their cities and pyramids. But God had sent the plagues, and now the Jewish nation was beginning their exodus from slavery.  And at this particular moment, they were stopped by a body of water, the Red Sea, and the Egyptian chariots and horses were rapidly c…

An Indiana cemetery has a tombstone over a hundred years old that bears this epitaph:

Pause, Stranger, when you pass me by,
As you are now, so once was …

Sometime this week you will make a trip to the grocery store to get a loaf of bread. It will be readily available on the shelf. There will be quite a variety to choose from. You will pay little attention to the price, not realizing that the packaging that the bread is wrapped in actually costs more than the wheat that is in the bread. All in all, you will think it a very uneventful trip, but you will be wrong.

It is quite difficult for me, as an American, to understand the importance of bread unless I turn on my TV and watch what is going on in so many parts of the world today. When there is no staff of life there is suffering and famine. A simple loaf of bread: Something, which we do not give a second thought, but in certain parts of the world it means life itself.

It is only as we comp…

We come together this evening to recall in our hearts and minds the events that occurred on Thursday of what the church calls Holy Week, the last week in the life of our Lord. One-third of all the events that we have about Jesus’ life occurred during this week: Reminding us of the great significance of these last days. The disciples have gathered in a home, whose we are not sure, but we do know that it had a furnished second floor.

As they gather they participate in what is called a Seder meal, one of the highlights of the Passover week. The Passover festival, of course, had been done for centuries before Jesus came on the scene. It commemorated that time when the Jews were in bondage in Egypt. Moses warned Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh hardened his heart. So God sent a death …

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any [man]. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Those words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr., the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, still haunt us. To this day, they g…

Song of Solomon 6:4 - "You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners."

In spite of all the problems that many people seem to attach to the national flag, there is still a moment for most of us when the sight of many flags flying in the sunlight brings a distinct catch of the breath, and an uplifting of the heart. There’s just no denying it - flags do have symbolic significance, whether, as many claim, that significance is outmoded, or whether it remains alive in our hearts. Still it is there.

The area in which I live is populated in large part by officers stationed at a nearby air base, and the flag flies proudly from many homes. Many a bereaved mother or widow or child cherishes the flag that was draped over the coffin of a dead patriot.

Mo…

I have visited some places I really wish I could have stayed. If it were my choice I would still be there right now. As much as Ilike it here, I would rather be there.

There is a tent, set on a hill at the top of a 1,500-foot cliff overlooking the Jordan Valley in southern Israel. When the sun comes up in the morning it breaks over the mountains a few miles to the east and literally shatters the darkness around you. The winds sail up the face of the cliff from the valley below and almost make you believe you could lean out into them…

An Indiana cemetery has a tombstone (more than a hundred years old) which bears the following epitaph:

Pause Stranger, when …

I have always been fascinated by the amount of ink the Bible gives to wildernesses and deserts.  Have you noticed that?  Hagar, Moses and Elijah go to the wilderness and find God.  Moses was walking in the wilderness when he c…

Gene Simmons of the group KISS visited the Pentagon to promote military service on May 16, 2019 where he talked about his mother, who recently died at the age of 93. She was 14 when she was put in a Nazi concentration camp. As he spoke he had to stop on numerous occasions to gain his composure. This is what he said:

"I was born in Israel. I am a proud son of a concentration camp survivor, Nazi Germany. My mother was 14 when she was in the camps. My mother just passed at 93, but if Americans could see and hear my mother talk about America they would understand. I'll just cut to the chase. When we first came to America my mother let me stay up and watch TV w…

The story is told of a Franciscan monk in Australia was assigned to be the guide and "gofer" to Mother Teresa when she visited New South Wales. Thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this great woman, he dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, the friar never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.

Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the Franciscan friar spoke to Mother Teresa: If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you? Mother Teresa looked at him. You have enough money to pay airf…

I once stood in that old frame church in Richmond, Virginia, with its old-fashioned, boxed-in pews. I shut my eyes and heard a man say again, "Give me liberty or give me death," and I thought how fitting it was that he said it i…

You're are familiar with the childhood prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep, " but I was little surprised to learn that it is a shortened version of an Old English prayer, which goes like this:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
bless the bed that I lie on.
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I give my soul to Christ to keep.

Four corners to my bed,
four angels there aspread,
two to foot, and two to head,
and two to carry m…

Let us review some of the exploits of Samson:

• In the vineyards of Timnah, he "tore a lion assunder and he had nothing in his hand" (Judges 14:5-6).
• He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men because they had learned the answer to a riddle from his wife (14:10-19).
• He caught three hundred foxes, knotted lighted firebrands in their tails, and set them loose in the grain fields of the Philistines (15:1-5).
• He was bound by the Philistines with two new ropes, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and released him. He then found "a fresh jawbone of an ass" and slew a thousand men (15:9-17).
• He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for a period of twenty years (15:20).
• At midnight, he carried the doors of the Gaza City gates, two door posts, bars and all, to "the top of the …

We live in a time of social decay, expansion of evil in the world, and worsening trends. Have we therefore reached a point where we should call it quits on having a family? No, absolutely not!

Reme…

A little girl was blind from birth. Her mother would sit with her at the window and describe what she saw. In the spring she spoke of the tulips pushing out of the ground, the budding trees, the greening grass. In the summer she described the fullness of the vegetation, the squirrels playing in the trees. The fall, the changing colors of the leaves, the wispy clouds. The winter, the drifting snows, the frost on the window pane.

The little girl had an operation on her eyes, and she could see. When her mother came into the room, she said, "Mother, why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful?" Her m…

George Matheson was a great preacher and hymn writer who lost his sight at an early age. He thought of that infirmity as his thorn in the flesh, as his personal cross. For several years, he prayed that his blindness would be removed. Like most of us, I suppose, he believed that personal happiness would come to him only after the handicap was gone. But then, one day God sent him a new insight: The creative use of his handicap could actually become his personal means of achieving happiness!

So, Matheson went on to write: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of the cross itself as a present glory. Teach me the gl…

During the war a man died, and his two friends desperately wanted to give him a decent burial. They found a cemetery in a nearby village. It happened to be a Roman Catholic cemetery and the dead man had been a Protestant. When the two friends found the priest in charge of the burial grounds, they requested permissi…

In Toledo, Spain, there is an old cathedral. Visitors to the cathedral are told about a cardinal who is buried there. Tourists are directed to a side altar where the cardinal is buried in the floor. Just over the grave, a cardinal's hat is fastened to the ceiling. Since his burial a legend has developed about the cardinal and his hat. The legend states that…

John 20:15 - "Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ "

On any given spring or summer weekend, we can drive through the streets of our cities, and through the country as well, and see people in practically every plot of ground mowing, weeding, planting, watering, all the things that are necessary to have a beautiful, well-cared for garden. Most of us do all these things ourselves, and, furthermore, we enjoy doing them. Oh, we might complain a bit when the wife says, "Well, it’s time to plant the garden again!" But, we really are rather proud of the things we grow. We’re not at all opposed to showing off our prize flow…

The following is a letter Plutarch wrote to his wife on receiving news of the death of their daughter Timoxena, who died at the age of two:

The messenger you sent to tell me of the death of my little daughter missed his way. But I heard of it through another.

I pray you let all things be done without ceremony or timorous superstition. And let us bear our affliction with patience. I do know very well what a loss we have had; but, if you should grieve overmuch, it would trouble me still more. She was particularly dear to you; and when you call to mind how bright and innocent she was, how amiable and mild, then your grief must be particularly bitter. For not only was she kind and generous to other children, but even to her very playthings.

But should the sweet remembrance of those things w…

A businessman was permitted to have one wish come true. After some thought he wished for a newspaper dated two years in the future. Miraculously the paper was put in his hand. Turning to the stock reports, he made careful notes on stocks that had shown unusual growth…

Claude Brown, who wrote Manchild in the Promised Land, in an article said that people under forty in our society have never lived in an America where movie language was not liberally laced with obscenities. He said that profanity is rapidly replacing English as the language of the American people. Then he said, "Most people don't know it, but profanity is the language of violence."

People say, words can't hurt you. They can hurt you. Words can dehumanize. That's why in war the enemy is always described in language that i…