Sometime back in a Daily Walk devotional, there was an interesting list within a message titled, “How to be Miserable.” Sounds like good reading doesn’t it? Here’s part of the list: “Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use “I” as often as possible. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive […]
Sometime back, a friend was telling me about the summer after his father’s retirement party. His dad had held a prominent position with a big corporation, and that first summer he just went into this deep depression. My friend said it was like his dad woke up one morning and he realized he was no […]
Yesterday, we reflected on Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7. He writes, “Brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short…” Paul and the early church expected Jesus to return at any moment. The truth is: We don’t know how long we have. Whether Jesus comes back today, tomorrow, in 500 or even […]
In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, the Apostle Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short…For the present form of this world is passing away.” (See 1 Corinthians 7:29-31) This letter is rich. In this same letter, we have that great passage that is often read at weddings: Love […]
Some time ago, a friend told me that she has a great aunt who won’t go to church anymore. She went through a terrible divorce and she feels she is no longer worthy to be in worship. Because she is unable to forgive herself, she is unable to believe God forgives her. I felt sad […]
Pastor Bill Bouknight tells the story of a prominent minister who was holding a weekend seminar at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. He kept noticing a man in the front row nodding off, and this aggravated him. He wondered why the man didn’t stay home if he couldn’t stay awake. During the lunch break, a woman […]
Mother Theresa once wrote, “We can do no great things, only small things with great love. It’s not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.” Author Shane Claiborne lives in an intentional Christian community in inner-city Philadelphia, ministering to the urban poor and homeless. They often have people stop […]
There is a pastor named Maxie Dunnam who relates to a story told by the author, Loren Isley. When Isley was 16, one day he leaned out the second-story window of his high school, and he saw an old junk dealer riding in a cart filled with cast-off clothing, discarded furniture, and an assortment of […]
Many years ago now, my mother bought me a book called, “Journeys of Simplicity,” by Philip Harnden. It is a book of collected lists. “Most of these lists came about from journeys people have undertaken: place to place, day to day, birth to death. Each list simply describes what was carried, often in a rucksack, […]
Today, we are about at the halfway point of our journey through the season of Lent. Like all journeys, this journey is headed somewhere. We are heading towards the celebration of Easter, the celebration of new life emerging out of the old, the celebration that what was dead and gone is now giving way to […]
