Last week was Easter. It is the high point on the Christian calendar. On Friday our attention was on the sacrificial death of Christ. The cross and our Savior’s crucifixion represent the payment that was paid in full for our sin debt. Mercy was...

John wrote to the church at Laodicea and gave them the injunction, “…so be zealous and repent.” That word “zealous” is a pretty old-fashioned term. Today we might substitute in the word “fanatical.” But in our culture, being a fanatic isn’t...

There is a cool story about a little boy who wanted to meet God. Apparently, he knew that God lived a long way away, so he packed his suitcase with cookies and some root beer and took off. After three blocks or so, he met an old lady in the park....

Somewhere towards the end of his life, David inserted Psalm 61 into his “song book.”  In addition to the words, he included some notes for the director and gave some direction to the stringed instruments. But the part that caught my eye was...

All around us marriages are dissolving, friendships are falling apart, businesses are closing and ministries are ending. There are all kinds of reasons for such a society-wide moment of dysfunction. But I might suggest that at the core of it all,...

Years ago, I read about a child who was disfigured. He had a huge red mark splattered across his face. But he wasn’t challenged by it at all.  In fact, he wore it as a badge of honor. You see, when he was a young boy, his father started...

When emergency personnel want to quickly evaluate the mental condition of someone struggling, they do a quick assessment called “Oriented Times Three.”  They ask the person a series of easy questions. They want to know if the man or woman in...

Every day when you and I head out the door of our room, apartment or house we take with us whatever we think we will need for the day. We might carry things in a purse, a briefcase, a satchel or maybe just our pockets. But for sure, we “pack for...

I just finished teaching a series on the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6/Luke 11). My last lesson featured the words of the doxology that finishes off that section of scripture: “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever more. Amen”...

Brenda Jones is a 69 year-old great-grandmother from Texas. She spent over a year on the donor wait list hoping for a new liver. And then the wonderful phone call came; they had a viable liver for her. But just down the road a bit, a 23 year-old...

This week I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of millennial moms. I started my talk this way... “Once upon a time, in a land right around the corner lived a whole community filled with very loving and well-intended mothers. These moms...

Recently, I was teaching some students about Corrie Ten Boom (the Dutch woman who survived the concentration camp at Ravensbruck and had an amazing ministry afterwards). While researching some details, I came across a neat story about Corrie and...