Category: Life Issues

Pain for Him; Gain for Them

Muslim extremists murdered Ayub’s grandmother on one of the islands of Indonesia. We stayed in the home of this warmhearted Christian leader a few years ago. He serves as an elder for the church meeting in a home nearby. We loved this brother and his wife...

Moses, Joshua, Jesus, and Rest

I’m sure you know the feeling of restlessness. There is a longing deep in our bones that desires rest. No nap can fix this lack of rest. Augustine, a prominent Christian from the third and fourth centuries, knew of this restlessness. He prayed, “You have made...

The Demon Behind the Idol

The Christians in 1st Century Corinth were in pretty bad shape. In the Bible, Paul’s first letter to them (which was actually the second letter he had written to them) reveals that they were separating into factions, suing each other in public courtrooms, tolerating serious sexual...

How To Spot A Fool

  They’re everywhere. Foolish people dominate the airwaves and are present in our homes, schools, churches, and workplaces. They can even be right inside our own clothes. Everyone has chosen a foolish path at times. And sadly, some have taken up permanent residence in that destructive...

How Much Suffering Can You Take?

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:3-4) You have suffered — some — if you...

The Priority and Potency of Prayer

My wife and I recently realized we’ve become quite the “strategists” with our children. This is unfortunate. When our children share dilemmas for our consideration, we are too quick to offer (oftentimes) dogmatic counsel without asking clarifying questions and, more shamefully, without praying. You would think...

Shelved or Serving in the Latter Years?

Can you do much for God and his kingdom when you get old? God thinks so. He has used many older people to accomplish valuable kingdom work, recorded colorfully in both the Bible and Christian history. Take Moses. He was 40 when he killed an Egyptian...

If Many Die at Once: A Brockton Dialogue

A Brockton Dialogue The older, wiser Mr. Brockton: When scores of people lose their lives at one time, it isn’t alarming, but it is tragic. The younger disciple, James: How is it possible not to be alarmed if 5000 die in an earthquake or 10,000 in...

My Gains Eaten Away

In Earnest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, the superstitious old man on his dilapidated skiff had  no luck catching any big fish for a long time, but this day as he allowed the wind to carry him out much further than before, and after nearly...

The Cat, Witty

I’m lazily reading James Herriot’s tribute to cats called Cat Stories, illustrated by Lesley Holmes (the illustrations are as satisfying as the stories). Herriot has an attractive and thoughtful manner of relating his veterinarian stories, as some of you will know. Herriot’s book allows me to...