The heart of plan B? In Prayer II, Believing is Seeing, I wrote: ‘Those of us who are intensely analytical, like me, need to practice patience and persistence in prayer and avoid going to plan B before God has given us an answer. We need to wait for God’s answer. We need to make sure beliefs, thoughts, and actions align. …
Without God, Worship Much Easier
Without God, maybe I can improve some things at church. About halfway through Sinclair Lewis’ 1927 classic, Elmer Gantry, Elmer boasts to another minister about all his church programs, how fast his church is growing, and how many new members have joined, etc. After this braggadocio, the other minister asks, ‘Elmer why don’t you believe in God?’ Until recently I …
Fake Easter Eggs Contain a Lesson
Fake Easter eggs? Ask any child about fake Easter eggs? They’ll reply that it is a plastic shell filled with candy. These eggs are lots of fun because they contain candy, and sometimes money. Well there’s a new fake egg in town, and this counterfeit egg is no fun. These fake Easter eggs have no candy. According to the Borneo …
Why Blog?
Why blog? Why blog? The main reason and core reason to blog is the same as keeping a journal. It is a way of sharpening my understanding and expression of life experience. By keeping it in a public way, it forces me to try and write coherently because there is the possibility that someone might stumble upon it and read …
View of Others? Changing It Requires Raising the Dead
In thinking about how to change my view of others or forgiving, I find it appropriate and divinely serendipitous that today’s writing in Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest coincides with my reading of Mark 9 and occurs the week before Easter. During Easter I think more about miracles. This relates greatly to what I think and believe about people. …
We Might Be Pharisees If…
The Jews knew the Pharisees as the strictly religious people of Jesus’s day. Consequently, readers of the Bible interchange Pharisee with self-righteous. To think as a Pharisee generally requires a social group to reinforce self-righteous beliefs. As a recovering legalist, I know how easy it is to slide into self-righteous attitudes. Without an on-going relationship with God, I slide into a self-righteous …
A Clue to What You Need to Do
I need a clue. What is my mission for the day? What clue do I need to direct me to my cross today? What’s the first thing I thought of this morning? What’s the thing I dread? The thought eating at me? Did someone hurt me yesterday, or last week? Am I still thinking about it? Take it to God …
Celebration of Obscurity
A celebration of obscurity counters the message of my culture. My culture labels me irrelevant and obscure, and one ignored by greatness. In contrast, the love of God, my wife, my children bless me in abundance. Any disturbance caused by Ecclesiastes in that ‘even those who are yet to come, will not be remembered by those who follow,’ will pass on …