One morning after a fun lesson on how God is all-powerful, a Sunday school teacher asked her students, “Now children, is there anything God can’t do?” There was silence. Finally, one boy held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson’s point had been missed, asked: “Just what is it that God can’t do?” […]
A member of my church Sharon Hartsell has been involved in a mentoring program for students in our county who are classified as homeless. A few years back, Sharon was telling me that her student invited her to a “Character Counts” banquet. In our county, it is quite an achievement and honor for a student […]
The great author C.S. Lewis once wrote about a teacher who had brutalized him as a boy. Lewis grew up hating this teacher. Later in life, as he began to mature in his faith, he realized that he had to forgive this man or he would not be able to grow deeper in his relationship […]
In the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament, animal sacrifices were a huge part of worship and faith. The priests of that day were responsible for making the sacrifice, then cleaning them and cooking them. As a pastor, I am so thankful we don’t do that anymore! But there is something about this ancient ritual that […]
Christian author and educator, Lawrence O. Richards makes an interesting connection between sponge diving, which is a major business in his area of the country, and the spiritual life. Divers are attached to an oxygen line in a boat, then they dive deep into the water to search for sponges. The only thing that keeps […]
One year my friend Bill Broyles led our Sunday school class in a study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He did a pretty cool exercise with us. He had us look at the first three chapters and list all the things God has done for us in Christ. It is amazing – for three […]
I was listening to a podcast the other day an interview with the Irish poet and peacemaker Padraig O Tuama. Yesterday I spoke about Henri Nouwen who encouraged us to set aside time for prayer and meditation. O Tuama spoke about his own way of centering each day… taking time apart… He phrased it so […]
In his book, Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen writes about the importance of finding time apart for prayer and silence – which he talks about as a “Lonely place”. He puts it this way: “Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger. Somewhere we know that without silence words lose […]
Yesterday, I spoke about community. It’s something we’ve been missing these days, isn’t it? I was talking to an elderly friend this week who said, “Oh, I just miss human touch.” Here we are, maybe just beginning to emerge from this historic time in history, where we are intentionally trying hard to keep our distance […]
I remember one Wednesday night many years ago now, Pastor Bob Smith was teaching a class on the parables at our church. He had us sing “Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God…” as a closing song. I had been through a particularly hard year that year. As we were singing, I looked around the […]
