WHAT A DEPRESSING BOOK A while back I read a book recommended by Oprah Winfrey entitled The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a gripping story about a father and son and their quest to keep alive following some kind of world-wide catastrophe (nuclear devastation, pandemic?). The thing that made it so depressing was that there was no hope. No […]
Leave some room around the edges. Margins matter. Imagine reading a book or paper that has the words right up the edge. Ugh! Imagine how you smile when you crack open a big thick book only to find the pages have wide margins. Ahh! Keep money margins. Don’t spend right up to the edge of your income. Leave some margin. […]
LIFELONG LEARNING We often hear about the importance of being a lifelong learner. As young people graduate they are reminded in commencement messages that their learning has not come to an end, but to a new beginning. What about you? What are you learning? Do you have a good book going? Do you have an avocation that keeps you stimulated? […]
You ought to get involved in a book club or two along the way. Book clubs build two kinds of relationships. First, conversation about a book will help you to know other group members better through the intellectual interactions. Second, through that conversation with the other group members you will actually get to know the author and the author’s material […]
THINK ON THIS: HOPE Have you read Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus lately? In the first chapter he encouraged the early followers of Jesus to really have the eyes of their hearts opened to a number of things. One of them was the HOPE of the Christians calling. Think on the hope that you have in Jesus. Christian […]
To state the obvious: you must make sure that you spend time with your family, corporately and individually. Daily, weekly and “vacationally,” you need to be with the family and they need to be with you. You neglect this to the detriment of all: yourself, your family, the congregation, the community. Strong, healthy families serve as the backbone of the […]
HELP YOU BELIEVE? The recent multiple shootings across our land sure help you believe… in evil, in wickedness, in profound brokenness. Death. Sudden. Brutal. Tragic. Senseless. We see it way to often. And we name what is behind it: evil. Such awareness of evil helps you believe that there must be something more to existence than the brief, unpredictable and […]
What passages do you find troubling or difficult? Something in Daniel? Revelation? Here is one of the most troubling and difficult passages for me. “Be quick to listen and slow to speak.” (James 1:19) Are you kidding me? That’s a lot to ask from a pastor! Listening is lots harder than it looks. Surely you know the old line, “There’s […]
DRIFTING? DISTRACTED? How is your walk with Jesus going? Are you as close to him as you were a year ago? Or are you drifting? Are you distracted? Time and time again the Old Testament people drifted. What was supposed to be a close and personal relationship with a living and loving God became less and less important. They drifted. Time and time again the […]
Tithe the gross through your local congregation. You cannot buy better financial advice than this. Money grips us in its hold more than we know. You don’t have to be rich to worship money. Rich people are not the only ones susceptible to the worship of money. Sometimes in fact poor people worship it more than the rich. They are […]