Forgetting God: A Titanic Lesson
Remember, "Not even God himself could sink this ship!" We never seem to lose our fascination with the story of the sinking of the Titanic. Since boyhood, I’ve watched all the oldest films made on the disaster, and I’m ready for every new version of it that comes to TV or the movie theater. A while back, I was watching a special about it on PBS, leading up to the 100th anniversary of the tragic event. In it, the narrator explained that
I Believe in Resurrection: Ten reasons to consider…and caterpillars fly!
If you don’t believe in resurrection, here are ten reasons why you should rethink your position: 1) The New Testament Claims It The New Testament claims that Jesus arose from the dead on Easter morning and that one day his followers will too. The New Testament has already been demonstrated to be head and shoulders above all the other Greek and Latin documents ever to come out of the ancient world. It has been subjected to the hottest fires of criticism devised
Seek God’s Presence
In my Bible reading today, it was a blessing to read Psalm 105: Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! (vv. 1–4) Psalm 105 calls us to praise God! We have so many reasons to thank God, and so does David.
God’s Severity Is for Our Good
“Therefore, this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.’” -Jeremiah 35:17 It’s true that the God revealed in the Bible is the quintessence of love, loyalty, generosity, forgiveness, and longsuffering. Yet he can show a severe side that is designed
Merry Christmas Blues?
It’s life back to normal after the adrenaline rush of the holidays. Experts tell us that many now experience post-Christmas blues due to the return to our usual routines. The build-up of Christmas is followed by the let-down of what may or may not have happened. How do you beat the post-Christmas blues? The brief and simple answer is with thankfulness to God for the ultimate Christmas gift we could ever hope for—the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. One
A Series of Fortunate Events
She has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia—always winter, but it never gets to Christmas. – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis Do you ever wonder what the world would be like if you had never been born? What would your family have been like? Your neighborhood and office, your spouse and friends? From 1939 to 1943, Philip Van Doren Stern worked diligently on a short story, The Greatest Gift, loosely based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
This Thanksgiving—Give Thanks!
We want the holidays to be happy and merry, but this isn’t always the case. In fact, the Cleveland Clinic cited some of the below as factors that tend to make the holidays not very glad: • Connecting the holidays with family problems or painful memories • Expecting that you should feel happy • Dealing with the loss of a loved one, or spending the holidays away from friends and family • Developing unrealistic expectations, or thinking about negatives that have occurred during the
Despair: Bleached Bones in the Desert
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? 4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. 5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? 6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my
Pornography in the Church
Pornography isn't just something unpleasant going on in the world; it's right at the heart of our churches. -Martin Saunders _________________ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24 Sexuality is one of the best and most powerful things God ever gifted humans. He created it to glorify his name and to illustrate how human life was to be lived—a beautiful expression of love and intimacy, male and
Bad Religion Leads to Bad Times
Toxic religion (or bad theology) leads to bad times! We need to get our theology back on track. In ministry, besides all the wonderful positive loving persons I've been privileged to call friends, I also have encountered about every form of negative emotions and habits, unhappiness, and utter joyless people present in the church and the world. Since the culture has a way of thoroughly penetrating the life of the church, the two are often too similar to each other even
