Today, I am deeply grateful for those of you who have supported the Dial Hope Foundation with a financial donation. Hope reaches others because of you. Thank you! In one of his commentaries on Romans, pastor, and scholar Eugene Peterson writes about the way Paul opens this letter. In verse 8, he begins, “First, I […]
The great writer and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr contended, that perhaps more evil comes into this world from premature judgments about others than from anything else. That’s a strong statement. But if you think about it, there is a lot of truth in it. So often, we think we know who a person is, or what […]
Yesterday we reflected on the story in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus returns to his hometown. Things did not go so well. The town’s people say, “Is this not the carpenter?” And Mark tells us, he could do no deed of power there. True, learning carpentry did not normally prepare someone to be such […]
In Mark chapter 6, we find that Jesus has come back to his hometown of Nazareth. And I kind of wonder what that would be like. Here’s a guy who had grown up there. It was a small town, and people knew him as a child. They probably watched him as he apprenticed in his […]
There is an old story about a homeless man named Tom who has had a rough life. He suffered from addictions and was in and out of many shelters. Finally, one night Tom found himself at a Christian worship service and he came to faith in Christ. After that night, his whole life turned around. […]
There is an old tale that offers two images contrasting the difference between heaven and hell. The image of hell is this: There is a large banquet hall and the meal has been prepared by the world’s best chefs. The only unusual thing about this scene is the eating utensils. They are very long, heavy […]
A father was listening to his child playing in the other room when he heard her repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like a prayer. When he asked her what she was doing, the little girl explained: “I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just […]
Rabbi Hugo Gryn used to tell of his experience in Auschwitz as a child. Food, of course, was scarce, and his fellow prisoners took care to preserve every scrap that came their way. When Hanukkah arrived, Hugo’s father took a lump of margarine, and to the shock of young Hugo, he used it as fuel […]
In Isaiah chapter 6, we read: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty… Then, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” Over the past two days, we’ve reflected on how Isaiah’s calling took place in the midst of a […]
In Isaiah chapter 6, we read: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty… Then, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” Yesterday we reflected on how Isaiah’s calling took place in the wake of a major historical event that […]
