Category: CHURCH & MINISTRY
Sincerity Doesn’t Count
Suppose we have an altercation about the straightness of a wall. “It’s not straight,” I say. “It is straight,” you say. Our argument goes through stages: firmness, pleading, tears—but no resolve comes out of our attempts to convince. What should we do? There is only one...
Seek and You Will Find: The Investigative Spirit that Leads to Salvation
Once, when a large crowd was present, Jesus told a parable about a sower sowing seed (Luke 8:4-8). He explained that some of the seeds fell on hard ground and were immediately snatched up by birds. Other seeds fell on shallow rocky soil. They sprouted, but...
Piles of Junk
Where I live in western Missouri, spring and summer are intensely green. The Missouri River valley is wet and steamy—almost tropical. The forests and fields, threadbare and vacant during the winter months, by mid-spring appear as solid walls of trees and vines. junk Just outside of...
Not Fit For Noah’s Ark
Some people may have a soft spot in their heart for warthogs, but I think they are the ugliest animals on the planet. Baby warthogs are not quite as ugly as the adults, but even the babies won’t win any beauty contests. And by the time...
My Darkest Night; Hopefully Not Yours
At 3:30 a.m., I awoke to a black room, so dark that my eyes could not see even one inch away, much less to the other side. The simple room in a Romanian home in Brasov had one of those metal external shades that are lowered...
Man Killed by Armed Bird at Cockfight. . . and other illustrations of the nearness of your death
You’ve done it a time or two yourself—that is, you’ve planned, or at least speculated about, the details of your own death. If you like fast cars, perhaps you’ll die in a fiery crash. Or, because you’re a bit overweight, you can easily imagine dying of...
Keeping Your Final Appointment
I once read this arresting 300 year old epitaph while sauntering through the cemetery at the Old Tennant Meeting House in Manalapan, New Jersey: Behold and see as you pass by As you are now so once was I As I am now so you will...
It Happened by the Water
It took place by the stream just outside the gate of Philippi in Macedonia or today’s northern Greece. The apostle Paul knew that there was no Jewish Synagogue in this Roman military colony, since that required ten Jewish men. But perhaps there was at least a...
How To Die Safely
Seven men were working near a pipe carrying highly-pressurized water in a coal-burning power plant when, without warning, the pipe ruptured. The super-heated water inside the pipe turned to scalding steam, killing one man instantly and burning several others severely. One of the burn victims died...
Friendship in Hell
John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim’s Progress, said that is “better to be born a toad than to die unconverted.” Why? Because toads don’t go to hell and humans do. The subject of hell is so solemn that our natural instinct is to either ignore it...
