Who Are These Guys?

You may be wondering why I quote men who lived a century of more before us.  It’s certainly not to bore you stiff!  There are numerous reasons I could give you about why it’s worth the effort to read authors who use a different language style and unfamiliar words.  I could say it’s because I […]

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Psalms 3–5: Distress & Deliverance

Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ Week 2: Wednesday Mid-week on Wednesday, I turned back to the Psalms.  Today’s reading is Psalm 3–5: David asks for deliverance from foes, relief from distress, and he cries for help because of his foes. Within these Psalms he affirms who God is: Psalm 3: “a shield around me, […]

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A New Year’s Love

The Prodigal Son is probably the best known, and the best loved, of all of the parables told by Jesus.  I think that’s because it tells the story of the kind of father we would all like to have.  Some of us may have been blessed with a father similar to the one in the […]

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A New Year’s New Mind

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of […]

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A New Year’s Anchor of Hope

I wrote this post for New Year’s Day 2011. I’ve revisited it and revised it yet again for clarity because it continues to be read as people search for hope. I’ve left this one up so that if it turns up in a search, the link won’t lead to a page that says error, but […]

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The Context of Two Gifts

You may have wondered why, if Joy to the World is my favorite Christmas carol, I didn’t wait and post it on Christmas Day. I have several reasons. Joy is a major theme of Philippians, and I want to keep this theme in mind—because the topic of  Philippians 1:29 is one that is difficult for us […]

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Gratitude

Giving thanks frequently receives short shrift when we talk about it, because we tend to discuss it either superficially when we are at ease in our circumstances, or else in denial of the pain of difficulties.  We give moralizing lectures about it or sometimes present the idea of giving thanks to God as a sort […]

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Dreams & Ashes

Several years ago when my daughter came home from college, her local voice teacher wanted her to sing with other students at a recital.  A voice lesson was squeezed in at the last minute, and because most of her music was still packed up, she grabbed the score of Les Misérables as we ran out […]

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Sustaining Faith

There are many reasons why I respect and, yes, love the Apostle Paul. His words near the close of his final letter in the New Testament, 2 Timothy, reveal the stalwart character of the man who loved his fellow believers, and the man who loved the Lord Jesus.

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